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MOBSTAR MOVIES Youtube (2014) Videoshoot
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A private spaceflight company will launch its third robotic resupply mission to the International Space Station next week.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's unmanned Dragon vehicle loaded down with supplies is expected to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on April 14. This will be SpaceX's third official flight to the station under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to fly 12 missions to the orbiting outpost using the Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket. You can watch the SpaceX launch live on Space.com via NASA TV starting at 3:45 p.m. EDT (1945 GMT) on April 14. Launch is scheduled for 4:58 EDT (2058 GMT).

Dragon will fly to the station loaded down with 5,000 lbs. of cargo and scientific experiments, according to NASA. The supplies include legs for Robonaut 2, a humanoid robot designed to eventually assist astronauts on the station with their day-to-day tasks. SpaceX initially aimed to launch the Dragon delivery mission in March, but damage to a ground-based U.S. Air Force radar station used to support Florida launches delayed the flight. [See photos of SpaceX's third resupply trip to the station]

"These new legs, funded by NASA's Human Exploration and Operations and Space Technology mission directorates, will provide R2 [Robonaut 2] the mobility it needs to help with regular and repetitive tasks inside and outside the space station," NASA officials said in a statement on March 12. "The goal is to free up the crew for more critical work, including scientific research."

Quiz: How Well Do You Know SpaceX's Dragon Spaceship?

The spaceflight company SpaceX is one of several firms building private space taxis and cargo ships to launch astronauts and supplies into space. But there's more to SpaceX than meets the eye. Test your SpaceX know-how here.

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Quiz: How Well Do You Know SpaceX's Dragon Spaceship?

The spaceflight company SpaceX is one of several firms building private space taxis and cargo ships to launch astronauts and supplies into space. But there's more to SpaceX than meets the eye. Test your SpaceX know-how here.

SpaceX's Dragon will stay attached to the station's Harmony module until mid-May when it will detach and splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California, NASA officials said. When it splashes down, Dragon is expected to be carrying about 3,000 lbs. of experiments and equipment that can be recovered on Earth.

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SpaceX to Launch Robotic Capsule to Space Station Next Week

NASA's order to employees to suspend most contact with Russian government representatives is the latest U.S-Russia political development in the ongoing crisis over Ukraine, but the new policy may not have many on-the-ground effects for people working at the American space agency, according to one space historian.

A NASA statement released Wednesday (April 2) directed U.S. space agency officials to suspend contact with Russian government representatives, but ongoing operations on the International Space Station are exempt from the new policy. The statement was released hours after a leaked NASA memo stating the same policy. Other U.S. government agencies are also curtailing contact with Russian government officials, NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries told Space.com.

Asif Siddiqi, a space historian, shared his personal views on the NASA policy and its context with Space.com.

"The NASA statement clearly states that 'NASA is suspending the majority of its ongoing engagements with the Russian Federation' except ISS [International Space Station]," said Siddiqi, a Russian space program analyst at Fordham University. "So, from my perspective, the fact that cooperation on ISS hasn't been affected suggests that things will proceed largely as before."

Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, and NASA do engage in some other scientific collaboration, but most partnerships between the two organizations take place within the space station program.

"To my knowledge, NASA and Roscosmos don't have that many cooperative programs besides ISS," Siddiqi said. "I believe they have some instrumentation on a couple of NASA planetary vehicles and things like that. But ISS is really it. So as long as ISS isn't affected, I wonder if this is largely symbolic."

Even if symbolic, the contact ban could still affect morale on the ground and even in space, Siddiqi said. The policy shift may affect Russian and American crewmembers on the space station, he added.

He also called the contact ban unique in the post-Cold War era.

"At the height of the Cold War there was hardly any significant cooperation in space between the two superpowers," Siddiqi said. "So I would say it's still not as bad as that time." But in the post-Cold War climate, "I would say that this is pretty serious. I can't remember a time in the past 20 years when either side made such a bold statement about not cooperating with the other side. It may only have symbolic effects (given its exemption of ISS), but the statement itself is unprecedented."

NASA and Russia are planning to launch a joint yearlong mission to the space station in 2015. Siddiqi says that he thinks that mission will go on as planned despite the leaked memo, but that he also thinks the ban could affect later collaboration. "There is too much institutional momentum built up to not pursue that [yearlong mission]," Siddiqi said. "But it certainly might affect any follow-on projects of that nature."

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NASA Policy to Suspend Contact with Russia 'Unprecedented,' But Maybe Symbolic, Expert Says

April 8, 2014

Image Caption: A Progress resupply craft approaches the International Space Station February 11, 2013. Credit: NASA

NASA

A Russian space freighter filled with trash departed the International Space Station on time Monday at 9:58 a.m. EDT. The ISS Progress 54 will orbit Earth 11 days for engineering tests before finally deorbiting over the Pacific Ocean for a fiery disposal.

A new space delivery awaits its launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan inside the ISS Progress 55 spacecraft. Liftoff is scheduled for 11:26 a.m. Wednesday with a docking to the stations Pirs docking compartment just six- hours, or four orbits, later. The Russian resupply ship is delivering nearly 3 tons of food, fuel and supplies.

As a standard precaution, cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Tyurin were practicing techniques to manually dock the 55P in the unlikely event the cargo craft loses its automated rendezvous capability. The duo were inside the Zvezda service module practicing on the telerobotically operated rendezvous system, or TORU.

Commander Koichi Wakata and Flight Engineer Steve Swanson partnered up before lunch time to prepare for another resupply ship due to launch April 14. The pair of astronauts reviewed rendezvous and berthing procedures they will use when the SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo craft arrives for its capture by the stations robotic arm, Canadarm2.

Wakata and Swanson also participated in the Ocular Health study which observes the effects of long-term microgravity on eyesight.

Wakata also worked in the morning with NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio and in the afternoon with Swanson on the Sprint experiment. The study evaluates the use of high intensity, low volume exercise training to minimize loss of muscle, bone, and improve cardiovascular function. The Japanese commander used ultrasound gear to monitor his body during the experiment.

Mastracchio worked throughout the morning collecting and storing blood and urine samples inside a science freezer. With assistance from Wakata he also measured his blood pressure.

More:
Progress Departs Space Station, New Cargo Ships Awaiting Launch

When NASA sends an identical twin to the International Space Station next year, a Colorado State University researcher will be among just a few hand-picked scientists studying him and his brother to measure impacts of space travel on the human body.

Susan Bailey, an associate professor in CSUs Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, is heading one of only 10 projects selected last month to receive funding from NASA for a three-year study of astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly.

Baileys research focuses on chromosomal features, called telomeres, which help protect the body from aging and the cancer-causing effects of radiation. Radiation exposure is a particular concern during space flight and therefore of special interest to NASA because astronauts are bombarded by subatomic particles from the sun and other sources.

Starting in March 2015, Scott Kelly will spend 12 months on the space station, while Mark remains on Earth as an experimental control. Scientists will conduct tests on the genetically identical twins to isolate the effects detected in Scotts body that can be attributed to life in space.

In the CSU project, the first study of its kind, Bailey will use blood tests taken before, during and after the flight to focus on the twins chromosomes. Each chromosome has a protective end-cap called a telomere, which Bailey compares to the plastic tip on a shoelace that keeps the lace from unraveling. As cells divide and replicate during the course of human life, the chromosomes divide as well, and the telomeres gradually erode, eventually leading to the natural death of cells.

Bailey says the erosion rate of these end-caps reveals a lot about a persons aging process and health. For instance, studies have shown that nonsmokers who get regular exercise often have longer telomeres than those who have unhealthy lifestyles. In her NASA research project, Bailey plans to gather baseline data on the twins telomeres, then examine how the various demands of life in space like exposure to radiation, limited diet, and physical and psychological stress affect those caps on Scotts chromosomes.

Taking care of your telomeres is an important thing to do, and having a healthy lifestyle is a big part of that, she says, adding that previous studies have shown radiation can deteriorate the end caps in as little as five days. Can you imagine a more stressful thing than strapping yourself in a rocket or living in space for a year?

Bailey will also study the 50-year-old twins levels of telomerase, an enzyme that restores telomeres and extends the life of cells. The substance is not typically active in the body after birth, with a few exceptions like in cancer cells, which have a competitive advantage over regular cells because telomerase gives them immortal status.

Bailey says that while some researchers have studied the concept that activating telomerase in healthy cells could actually improve health and possibly extend life, its a double-edged sword because stimulating telomerase could also feed cancer cells. Clinical trials are being conducted with drugs that reduce telomerase levels as a cancer-fighting strategy.

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CSU Researcher to Examine Health Impacts of Space Travel in NASA-Funded Twin Study