Category Archives: Space Station

HAZARD, Ky. (WYMT) - Smiling for the International Space Station...

"I wanted to do something a little bit more than just wave at the camera," Bobby Quimpo who is a scientist said.

Quimpo, who is also a science teacher, contacted the Challenger Learning Center and drove six hours from Lafayette, Indiana to Hazard.

He made the drive in an attempt to get a set of mirrors to reflect back into the camera of the International Space Station.

"It's actually my fourth time, but maybe that's fourth times the charm," said Quimpo.

His first attempt was outside the school he teaches at in July 2016.

Quimpo said, "That was when it had sunny days, perfect, not a cloud in the sky and that was the time they turned off the camera for three hours and I missed the picture."

Another time he missed it because of cloudy skies.

"A lot of trial and error and don't mind trying again, I learn something each time," Quimpo said.

Which is important, as getting the calculations just right is crucial.

"It tells you where the Space Station's going to be, you look up where the sun's going to be and where those angles are you aim the mirror halfway between, you bisect the angle and then put the mirrors on the ground and hope it reflects in," said Quimpo.

Quimpo used ten mirrors to make the smiley face design.

"The largest mirror is two by five feet, most of the mirrors are something like eight inches to a side," Quimpo said.

At exactly 3:25 p.m. and seven seconds on Saturday, he conducted the experiment, but he will not know if it worked for a few days to a few weeks.

"I'll check the image number and see if it actually shows up," said Quimpo.

But he said the experiment is worth the wait.

Quimpo said he used the EarthCam website to conduct his experiment, which allows teachers and students to take pictures from the International Space Station.

Read the original post:
Scientist visits Hazard to "smile" at the International Space Station - WYMT News (press release)

COLUMBUS (WCMH)Astronauts traveling in the International Space Station in late March captured a spectacular view of the Northern Lights (auroras) dancing across the polar sky. Auroras are caused when electrically charged solar particles sailing through space collide with oxygen and nitrogen gases in our atmosphere above the polar region.

The dazzling light show is normally confined to high latitudes, but occasionally is seen in the northern United States, and rarely in Ohio.

The view of these glowing auroras was captured by a crew member, who said it was hard to look away from the windows.

Perkins Observatory director Tom Burns, at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, said, We have an atmosphere to protect us. Occasionally, there is a coronal mass ejection of such magnitude that it makes it down as far as Ohio.

NBC4i.com provides commenting to allow for constructive discussion on the stories we cover. In order to comment here, you acknowledge you have read and agreed to our Terms of Service. Commenters who violate these terms, including use of vulgar language or racial slurs, will be banned. Please be respectful of the opinions of others and keep the conversation on topic and civil. If you see an inappropriate comment, please flag it for our moderators to review.

Read more:
VIDEO: Astronauts on Space Station capture beautiful view of ... - NBC4i.com

The exterior of the International Space Station seeing during a spacewalk in September 2016. Credit: NASA

Top officials from NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, could decide soon to commit to keeping the International Space Station staffed and flying through at least 2028, four years after the research labs current retirement date.

The head of Roscosmos told reporters Tuesday that the Russian space agency is ready to discuss plans to keep operating the huge research complex another four years until 2028.

We think that we should continue working in low Earth orbit, said Roscosmos chief Igor Komarov in a press conference Tuesday at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.

Komarovs comments came after NASAs senior human spaceflight manger, Bill Gerstenmaier, said March 29 that a decision by Congress and the Trump administration whether to commit to continuing space station operations through 2028, one way or another, will create certainty for scientists, engineers and businesses working on the program.

Getting another decision about what we do beyond 2024 with station is really important, Gerstenmaier said in a presentation to the NASA Advisory Councils human exploration and operations committee .

With an eye toward construction of a deep space habitat around the moon in the mid-to-late 2020s, NASA intends to test out new life support systems on the space station that are not as prone to failure and do not require as much maintenance as the technologies currently on the outpost.

NASAs goal is to iron out the kinks of the next-generation life support system, and learn more about how humans respond to long-duration spaceflight, before abandoning the space station and turning attention to deep space exploration.

The life support system on the station today is not of the reliability or the low maintenance that is needed for a Mars-class mission, Gerstenmaier said March 30. We need to really step that up. A great place to test that, in fact the only place to really test that kind of stuff, is on-board the space station.

The Obama administration announced in early 2014 its intention to extend the U.S. commitment to the space station through 2024, a decision that Gerstenmaier lauded as allowing NASA to cement plans to deploy new technology and develop new experiments for the space station.

The decision also helped close the business case for commercial companies working on crew and cargo capsules flying to the space station, giving the service providers a steady stream of business until a potential commercial space station is built in Earth orbit.

If the White House and Congress wait too long extend the space station program, it really limits what the commercial companies are willing to experiment with on space station, Gerstenmaier said. It limits what we need to do with cargo resupply and crew resupply. It changes plans for what we test on station.

The sooner we know that, the better off we are, and waiting until just four years before end of station, I personally think is not as helpful as if we can decide a lot earlier, like soon, Gerstenmaier said.

He added that there is little margin in NASAs schedule to complete the biological and technological experiments needed for deep space missions by 2024.

It took three years for all of the space stations partners to endorse the last extension, with the European Space Agency last year becoming the final participant to lengthen its commitment from 2020 to 2024.

Russia announced in 2015 that it would keep up its support of the space station through 2024, and Komarov said Tuesday that the Russian government will maintain a complex in low Earth orbit throughout the 2020s, whether its the International Space Station or a Russian-led vehicle.

But he implied that Russias preference is to keep the International Space Station going.

As long as we have this instrument, the ISS, its logical to continue this work, Komarov said.

He said the Russian government, like the other space station partners, wants more experiments, more results and more efficiency from the space station.

Roscosmos has a contingency plan that could involve detaching some of its newer modules from the International Space Station, including a research lab set for launch next year, to form a standalone outpost.

It doesnt mean that we dont want to continue our cooperation, Komarov said. We just want to be on the safe side, and in any case, and in any decision, to continue our research in low Earth orbit.

Komarov echoed Gerstenmaiers concerns about using the International Space Station to evaluate astronaut and cosmonaut health and radiation shielding before launching a crewed mission to Mars.

NASA has spent about $67 billion on the space station to date, according to Gerstenmaier. With the contributions of international partners, the orbiting research labs total cost likely reaches above $100 billion.

We ought to be planning, from an policy standpoint, an approach that allows us to maximize the utility of our $67 billion investment in low Earth orbit, and not pick an arbitrary (retirement) date for some other concerns, Gerstenmaier said.

NASA spends more than $3 billion to operate the space station each year, and most of that cost goes toward crew and cargo transportation to and from the complex. The outposts sustaining operating budget is closer to $1 billion per year, Gerstenmaier said.

Engineers have concluded the space station is structurally sound to keep flying through 2028. Some repairs, such as replacement of the research labs oldest power-generating solar arrays, may be required if the program is extended longer than 2028, Gerstenmaier said.

Once officials opt to retire and decommission the station, a series of Russian Progress supply ships will dock with the outpost to gradually lower its orbit, eventually driving the complex to a destructive re-entry over the South Pacific Ocean.

Besides the scientific justification, Gerstenmaier floated two other considerations for U.S. government decision-makers.

Around 15 percent of the global orbital launch attempts in 2015 and 2016 targeted the space station.

Lets say we pick the end, and were now going to pull (15 percent) out of the global launch market. Do you think Im going to be allowed to do that? Probably not.

The other wild card is in 2023 potentially the Chinese will have their space station, Gerstenmaier said. What is the dynamic with the U.S. with a space station thats going away in 2024, with the Chinese having a government-operated space station in 2023? Is that the right time to cede and hand over national and global human spaceflight to another country? You should ponder some of these things.

Email the author.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

See the original post:
[ April 8, 2017 ] NASA, Roscosmos open to extending station operations to 2028 News - Spaceflight Now

Last week, NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson set a new record for spacewalks by a female astronaut when she and International Space Station commander Shane Kimbrough floated outside the ISS. During the spacewalk, a thermal shield meant to be installed on the station got loose and floated away. Dutch astronomer Marco Langbroek managed to catch an impressive video of the shield cruising ahead of the ISS through space.

Langbroek posted the video on Wednesday. You can see the shield as a small streak of light cutting at an angle across the camera's view. The International Space Station follows its trajectory just under two minutes later and appears as a much larger ball of light.

The shield was one of four intended to protect the station's Tranquility module, which, among other things, houses control systems. The shields offer thermal protection and guard the module from micrometeoroids and debris in orbit. NASA notes the "loss posed no immediate danger to the astronauts."

The European Space Agency highlighted Langbroek's space-debris photography and says the shield should drop from orbit and burn up in Earth's atmosphere within a few months.

"The item poses very little risk to navigation, and an accidental release like this is not unexpected given the complexity and challenges of working outside during a spacewalk," said Holger Krag from the ESA's Space Debris Office.

Does the Mac still matter? Apple execs tell why the MacBook Pro was over four years in the making, and why we should care.

Solving for XX: The industry seeks to overcome outdated ideas about "women in tech."

10

Space cheese and 9 other weird items we've sent into orbit (pictures)

See the original post:
See a lost thermal shield zip ahead of the space station - CNET

Lockheeds Cislunar space station proposal

Lockheed Martin is studying the capabilities needed to support human pioneering in deep space. Habitats, known formally as exploration augmentation modules, are essential for the exploration of the outer bounds of space.

The habitat will support missions in the proving of deep space exploration, said Bill Pratt, Lockheed Martins program manager for the habitat study. Basically, the habitat would be located just far enough away that astronauts couldnt easily turn around and come home when problems arise. That really forces us to operate in a different mindset thats more akin to a long trip to Mars.

Moving outside of low Earth orbit where the International Space Station (ISS) resides, the habitat would be placed in a lunar orbit to be specified by NASA. Its crew would be more autonomous and less dependent on ground control a more realistic scenario for Mars and other deep space destinations.

Visit link:
Next Big Future: Lockheed's Cislunar space station proposal - Next Big Future

THE WOODLANDS, Texas In 2028, a space station could be circling Mars, if a new concept comes to fruition. As a prelude to human expeditions to the planet's surface, researchers aboard the proposed orbiting lab would aim to answer key questions about the complex world.

The six-person Mars Base Camp is led by researchers at aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, who unveiled the concept last year and fleshed out more details of the project here at the 48th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC), held March 21-25. The Mars Base Camp is designed to vastly amplify the collection of imagery and scientific data from multiple sites on the planet overa full year of crewed occupation.

This work could help identify the best spots for humans to explore on the Martian surface, Lockheed Martin representatives have said. The station's inhabitants could also use virtual reality, immersive technology and artificial intelligence to drive advanced rovers and other craft on the Red Planet in real time. [Mars Base Camp: Lockheed Martin Concept Video]

In addition, samples of rock and soil that robots such as NASA's upcoming 2020 Mars rover collect on the Martian surface could be launched to Mars Base Camp, where crewmembers could examine them for signs of Red Planet life, project team members have said.

Artist's concept of Mars Base Camp, a proposed space station that could be circling the Red Planet by 2028.

Since Lockheed Martin researchers unveiled the project, they have been brainstorming with scientists and engineers from a variety of institutions to refine the idea. Discussions at LPSC continued that work.

"The discussion we're having here at the meeting is, how best can scientific discovery be enabled by having scientists in close proximity to mobile hardware on the surface of Mars or in the Martian atmosphere," Steve Jolly, chief engineer for civil space at Lockheed Martin in Denver, told Space.com.

For example, a human field geologist on Mars would make quick decisions about which spots to explore, the best rock formations to study and where to dig for soil samples, Jolly said. "We want rovers under scientific control to behave in the same way."

Details of Mars Base Camp, a concept led by researchers at Lockheed Martin.

That's not possible when Mars rovers and their handlers are on different planets. one to two days the duties that asaid Ben Clark, chief scientist on the Lockheed Martin team studying the Mars Base Camp.

Moreover, if the rover experiences a problem, there's a wait to find out what went wrong, followed by another wait as the issue is addressed, Clark told Space.com.

Mars Base Camp would minimize such delays, he said.

"We could be operating rovers on the surface in joystick mode from the Mars Base Camp, as opposed to the way we control rovers today," Clark said. [Amazing Mars Photos by NASA's Curiosity Rover (Latest Images)]

Mars Base Camp residents could explore the Red Planet virtually through avatars and other immersive technology, the concept's architects say.

Mars Base Camp astronauts could also interact virtually with Mars surface robots, using technology like that developed at Lockheed Martin's Collaborative Human Immersive Laboratory, Jolly said.

Other high-tech tools could aid surface exploration as well, Jolly added. For example, tiny robots carrying small sensors could crawl down into lava tubes, rappel off cliffs or perform other specific tasks, he said.

In addition, Mars Base Camp would fly in a highly elliptical orbit that would allow it to "hover" over particular spots on the Red Planet for long stretches. During that time period, shifts of astronaut-scientists could execute tasks with surface robots and even aerial drones, Jolly said.

Mars Base Camp astronauts could visit the Martian surface on two-week missions, thanks to a reusable sortie system that employs supersonic retropropulsion.

On the Mars orbiting complex, crewmembers would be immersed in a continuous data flood from the rovers, and they'd have the feeling of being front and center on Mars, Clark said.

"They'll have such good imagery, they'll be able to make decisions as they go," while probing a zone of interest, he said. Mars Base Camp astronauts could cover large distances and even reconstruct, via images, areas in great detail, he said.

Clark foresees the use of avatars electronic "Mars walkers" that are manipulated by a computer user in a virtual space. Those avatars could make up different field-exploration parties that tromp about virtually on the planet, he said.

"Wearing goggles on the Mars Base Camp, researchers can decide where they want to be point to another spot give the right gesture, and you sort of teleport yourself to another place you want to be," Clark said. "Your body didn't move, but the terrain moved to where you want to stand."

Artist's illustration of Mars Base Camp and reusable sortie rockets flying high over the Red Planet.

Jolly stressed that the Mars Base Camp is not a substitute for getting actual boots on the Red Planet.

"It's a precursor," Jolly said, pointing to other aspects of the Mars Base Camp scenario.

For example, Lockheed Martin has looked into developing a reusable sortie system to get astronauts from Mars Base Camp down to the surface and back to orbit again. A single-stage lander and ascent vehicle would enable two-week missions to Mars, with the ability to abort at any time.

Similarly, human excursions to Mars' two moons, Phobos and Deimos, are being assessed.

Indeed, the Mars Base Camp architecture could support a diversity of missions to low-gravity bodies, Earth's moon, Mars and beyond, Jolly said. The Lockheed Martin plan invites international partners to contribute ideas to this human-rated interplanetary exploration system.

"Now is the time to shape the future," Jolly said.

Leonard David is author of "Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet," published by National Geographic. The book is a companion to the National Geographic Channel series "Mars." A longtime writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

Read more here:
'Mars Base Camp': Lockheed Fleshes Out Red Planet Space Station Plan - Space.com

Now is the time when one needs to make a decision about the ISS, says Andrei Ionin, chief analyst of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics.

For the time being, we are discussing different options, although one should have done it a lot earlier, adds Ionin, the space station of the future must also be an international project. Such projects need to be discussed long in advance.

The key question here is not about the size of the station or its location in space whether it is going to orbit the Earth or the Moon, concludes Ionian, the key question is about international cooperation. We need to understand who our partners are. All other questions are secondary. Clearly, Russia and China can build such stations, but this is not a question of technologies or finance. Russia solves secondary questions related to modules and their functions. I believe that Russia and China can be very good partners at this point.

A new East-West Space Race is an alarming thought but likely to be a stimulus to the technology industry,

See the original post here:
Russia And China May Build A Space Station - Electronics Weekly (blog)

5573285

A space station could be circling the Red Planet by 2028 to serve as a Mars Base Camp for wayward explorers, according to plans published by a major NASA contractor.

Lockheed Martin plans to construct a 132-ton space station around Mars capable of hosting six astronauts for a year, according to plans released by the company Monday. For comparison, the International Space Station(ISS)weighs about 440 tons.

The six astronauts at the Lockheed station would remotely operate rovers, analyze samples of dirt and rock and even make short trips to Marss two moons. Having humans in an orbiting station would simplify rover operations and eliminate the delay of up to 24 minutes of sending a signal between Earth and Mars.

One scientist, however, is skeptical the stations benefits will be enough to justify building the station.

It might make sense to do a Mars orbital mission, or even a Mars flyby mission, before a Mars landing, to mature the flight technology, in the same sense that Apollo 8 was a useful prelude to the Moon landing, Dr. Robert Zubrin, who helped design plans for NASAs manned mission to Mars and wrote the The Case For Mars, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

But it does not make sense to devise a human Mars exploration program around basing humans in Mars orbit to operate rovers on the surface, Zubrin said. Human explorers are needed on the surface of Mars, not in orbit.

WATCH:

Lockheed Martin claims a space station around Mars would be affordable, but the company did not include any cost estimates for the program. The station could be reused and serve as a staging point to collect imagery and scientific data from multiple sites.

Zubrin told TheDCNF astronauts will be going to Mars in either a search for knowledge or as a prelude to eventual human settlement. Determining if Mars has or has had life would require a human astronaut on the surface, he said.

A human explorer on the surface of Mars can do a thousand times as much as a robotic rover, regardless of from where the rover is being controlled, Zubrin said. In short, if you want to go to Mars, you need to go to Mars. Hanging out in orbit doesnt cut it.

NASA plans to send astronauts on several missions to orbit the moon in the 2020s to help train astronauts for a manned mission to Mars. Zubrin previously told TheDCNF that if given proper direction by President Trump, NASA could probably send astronauts to Mars by the end of his second term, as opposed to 16 years in the future.

Trump vowed to unlock the mysteries of space in his inaugural address and has met with billionaire Elon Musk, who founded the private space company SpaceX.

Vice President Mike Pence met with Apollo 11 astronaut and Mars mission advocate Buzz Aldrin in March to talk about the future of U.S. space programs.

Trumps Mars and moon missions will likely utilize the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. President Barack Obama tried for years to eliminate the SLS, but Congress kept money flowing to the project.

Obama took money from space exploration programs to fund earth science and global warming programs. Trump could free up money for his space plans by slashing the more than $2 billion NASA spends on these programs.

The U.S. is better prepared to visit Mars than it was to visit the moon in the 1960s, according to a study by NASAs Johnson Space Center. Current plans to send astronauts to Mars are projected to cost about $35 billion by 2025 to arrive at the Red Planet in 2030.

Follow Andrew on Twitter

Send tips to andrew@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [emailprotected].

Read the original here:
NASA Wants A Space Station Around Mars By 2028, But Major Scientists Aren't So Sure [VIDEO] - Daily Caller

Space expert says America's enemies could join forces and dominate the heavens

RUSSIA could be planning to abandon the International Space Station and build its own with the help of China.

The countrys Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, is also weighing up whether its necessary to have people in orbit and decide whether they could be replaced by robots.

Cover Images

Andrei Ionin, chief analyst of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics, told Russian press that the Russian segment of the ISS may separate from the station after 2024.

He suggested Russia could join forceswith China to form a build a rival space station.

The space chief also revealedthat officials were in talks over whether to continue to send its cosmonauts to the low orbit satellite when Nasahands it over to the private sector in 2024.

Now is the time when one needs to make a decision about the ISSFor the time being, we are discussing different options, although one should have done it a lot earlier.

The space station of the future must also be an international project. Such projects need to be discussed long in advance.

getty

NASA/Bill Stafford

The key question here is not about the size of the station or its location in space whether it is going to orbit the Earth or the Moon. The key question is about international cooperation. We need to understand who our partners are.

All other questions are secondary.

Clearly, Russia and China can build such stations, but this is not a question of technologies or finance. Russia solves secondary questions related to modules and their functions. I believe that Russia and China can be very good partners at this point.

The move would be a a blow to diplomatic efforts in space.

The International System, in recent years, has been seen as a symbol of unity as well as a tool for science.

Its current crew members are made up of four Russians and two Americans.

Brit Major Tim Peake lived on the station between December 2015 and 2016, and is expected to return again.

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368

View original post here:
Russia hints at plans to abandon the International Space Station and build rival base with China - The Sun

During his more than two decades in the Air Force, Col. Jack Fischer has gone from the classrooms of the Air Force Academy to the skies above Iraq and Afghanistan in an F-15 and to the cockpit of an F-22 as a test pilot.

But Fischer's next move will take him farther than he's ever been before: Outer space.

Fischer will become America's newest astronaut on April 20, when he blasts off in a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, bound for the International Space Station. Fischer will spend at least four and a half months maybe as long as 6 months helping conduct some 300 experiments on everything from new technologies for exploration to creating lighter and stronger alloys to new medicines.

In interviews with reporters on Tuesday, Fischer speaking from Russia's Star City near Moscow, where he was undergoing his final training said he's "unbelievably excited" and that this journey will allow him to achieve the dream he's had since he was young.

"The first time I went for a jet ride or the first time I flew in the Raptor, you knew it was going to be awesome, but you didn't know it was going to be that awesome," he said. "I think [the blastoff] here in a couple of weeks is going to be an amazing experience that I can't even comprehend at this point. I can't wait to, once the final [rocket] stages kick off and we're actually floating in orbit, to look out the window and see the Earth in its entirety without borders, without boundaries."

Fischer said his grandfather used to work at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and he got to visit the facility when he was six years old. He said he was awestruck at the massive Saturn V rocket laying on its side there.

"I just walked up to it and thought it was the coolest thing that I had ever seen," Fischer said.

Then-Maj. Jack Fischer poses in front of an F-22A Raptor at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Fischer, a 1996 Air Force Academy graduate, was one of nine new astronauts selected for NASA's 2009 astronaut candidate class. Photo Credit: Air Force Fischer, of Louisville, Colorado, graduated from the academy in 1996 with a degree in astronautical engineering and got a master's degree in aeronautics and astronautics at MIT two years later. He learned to fly F-15E Strike Eagles at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina, flew two combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, and attended Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California. He tested weapons at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida before returning to Edwards in 2006 to test the F-22 Raptor.

Fischer was selected for NASA's 20th astronaut class in 2009 and finished two years later.

There is a chance Fischer will be able to make a spacewalk to work on the space station's exterior, which has him "super-excited."

"The only thing between you and space is a little suit," Fischer said when describing his enthusiasm for the possible spacewalk.

Fischer said that freed from gravity, the space station crew will be able to conduct experiments with the potential to help many people. For example, the station will work on a substance that can act as synthetic bone, which could potentially help trauma victims and the military.

"Without the constraints of gravity and convection and sedimentation, we're able to do some pretty cool things with alloys as well as crystals and proteins," Fischer said. "They can form perfectly, which allows us to look at new ways to study the human body, to look at immune system effects, to look for new drugs."

He described one device that he trained on in Japan that melted pellets of various substances with lasers and then rapidly cooled them to make new materials as "one of the coolest experiments that we have on the station."

Fischer said his test pilot training taught him to pay attention to even the smallest details, which will help him observe tiny, unexpected developments as the experiments progress.

Training for his first space mission includes lessons as varied as how to put on a space suit to how to fix a wall in space, Fischer said. And it can be tricky especially since everything has to be done in Russian.

"If you're not good with languages, it's a bugger," Fischer said. "Russian is a tough language, so I've had my hands full. But the people here, the culture, the community, our office and our support system is second to none. Obviously the instructors are top notch. We work together well as a community, so it hasn't been that bad."

Expedition 51 crew members Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency, left, and U.S. Air Force Col. Jack Fischer of NASA, right, pose for pictures in front of a Soyuz spacecraft mockup March 31 during final qualification exams at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. The men will launch April 20 on the Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a four and a half month mission on the International Space Station. Photo Credit: Rob Navias/NASA Fischer has been working side-by-side with cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, who will fly with him in the Soyuz, for much of the last three years. The two now know each other so well, Fischer jokingly compared them to an "old married couple."

"I can look over and understand, from a grunt or a motion that he makes with his shoulders, what he's thinking and what he wants me to do," Fischer said. "I think we've gotten to be a pretty darn good team."

Fischer and Yurchikhin are scheduled to fly down to Baikonur on Wednesday morning, where they will be quarantined for about two weeks before the launch and conduct final pre-launch training. That two-week stretch will be "pretty laid back" compared to the intense training he's undergone so far, he said.

Having deployed for the Air Force several times in the past, Fischer is used to saying goodbye to his family for months on end. But due to the quarantine this time, saying goodbye behind glass will be unusual, he said and a little more dramatic with the rocket launch.

"It's a little tougher for the family," Fischer said. "You make sure that you don't have anything left unsaid."

Looking to the future, Fischer said he'd like to see America build the technologies and infrastructure necessary to get humans to Mars. But, he said, if the administration decides "a pit stop to the Moon" is needed to perfect the technology, that could be a good step on the path towards Mars. And, in a few years, he would love to return to space in NASA's new Orion spacecraft.

When asked if he thought humans would ever make contact with extraterrestrials, Fischer said, "I sure hope they do! That's why we explore, is to find them. Someday, I sure hope we meet them."

Perhaps not surprisingly for an Air Force test pilot-turned-astronaut, Fischer's favorite space movie is "The Right Stuff," which tells the story of the beginnings of the space program and the original Mercury 7 astronauts.

Fischer said astronauts and cosmonauts on the space station relax by watching movies and having long conversations about their families or other subjects over dinner.

But perhaps their favorite pastime is taking advantage of the amazing view and taking as many photographs as they can, he said.

"It is such a unique perspective, that we do our very best to capture that perspective and share it with the world," Fischer said. "You have realize that spaceflight is a gift, and you have to make the most of it."

See the original post here:
Meet America's next astronaut: From F-15 combat to the International Space Station - AirForceTimes.com