Category Archives: Space Station

A SpaceX mission to resupply the International Space Station is scheduled to launch Saturday from NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida in a historic sendoff from the LC-39A launch pad.

Apollo 11 launched from that pad on its journey to land humans on the moon and it is where the first and final space shuttle missions launched in the 3-decade shuttle program.

Live coverage of the launch will begin at 8:30 a.m. on NASA TVwith a scheduled launch time of no earlier than 10:01 a.m.

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A Falcon 9 rocket will carry the unmanned Dragon spacecraft into space. It will be laden with food, supplies and experiments for astronauts living on the ISS.

NASA says about 10 minutes after launch, Dragon will reach its preliminary orbit and begin maneuvering toward the space station. It will take two days for the Dragon to reach the space station.

This cargo mission by SpaceX also will set a milestone as the first launch from Launch Complex 39A since the space shuttle fleet retired in 2011, NASA says on its website. It will mark a turning point for Kennedys transition to a multi-user spaceport geared to support public and private missions, as well as those conducted in partnership with NASA.

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Also from NASA: Some of humanitys greatest adventures in orbit began at Launch Complex 39A. Astronauts lifted off from this pad six times between 1969 and 1972 to walk upon lunar soil. Flying inside Apollo spacecraft atop massive Saturn V rockets, the astronauts left Florida and the Earth behind for two weeks, while they ventured to the moon.

Live coverage of the meet-up will begin at 7:30 a.m. Monday, again on NASA T.V. Installation will begin at 11:30 a.m.

If you havent yet, join Kim on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft nears the International Space Station during the CRS-8 mission in April 2016 to deliver experiments and supplies to the International Space Station. Credits: NASA

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Don't miss historic SpaceX launch Saturday to resupply space station - MyPalmBeachPost (blog)

The crop was chosen after evaluating several leafy vegetables on a number of criteria, such as how well they grow and their nutritional value. (Reuters)

The International Space Station crew will soon get to eat some Chinese cabbage, thanks to the efforts of astronaut Peggy Whitson who has harvested the space stations first crop of Tokyo Bekana Chinese cabbage after tending to it for nearly a month.

This is the fifth crop grown aboard the station, and the first Chinese cabbage. While the space station crew will get to eat some of the Chinese cabbage, the rest is being saved for scientific study back at Kennedy Space Center, NASA said in a statement on Friday.

I love gardening on Earth, and it is just as fun in space Whitson tweeted in early February.

I just need more room to plant more! Whitson said.

The crop was chosen after evaluating several leafy vegetables on a number of criteria, such as how well they grow and their nutritional value.

The top four candidates were sent to Johnson Space Centers Space Food Systems team, where they brought in volunteer tasters to sample the choices. The Tokyo Bekana turned out to be the most highly rated in all the taste categories.

Later this spring, a second Veggie system will be sent up to be seated next to the current one, NASA said.

It will provide side-by-side comparisons for future plant experiments and will hopefully make astronauts like Whitson happy to have a bigger space garden.

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First crop of Chinese cabbage harvested on space station - Financial Express

(KUTV) A Utah viral YouTube star and his staff aren't leaving their office this Friday ... instead they will be locked in until they hit 1 million YouTube subscribers.

He had 951,800 subscribers on YouTube, as of early Friday evening. Watch the live video below to see what Shonduras and the Spacestation crew are up to and chat with them live to cheer them on.

Why would anyone voluntarily do this to themselves? Well, because Shaun McBride of Syracuse, who was recently named Forbes Magazine 30 under 30, isn't used to conventional ideas like going home on the weekend. Instead he had an idea. He thought about keeping himself and his crew locked inside the "spacestation," the name they use to refer to their office space, until they hit a goal. The Weber State University Communication graduate realized this could result in a number of outcomes -- but what Forbes 30 under 30 business owner hasn't taken a chance?

Less than an hour into the lock in a few of the crew members were already wondering what they had done to themselves.

"I think we put ourself in an awkward situation where we hold ourselves hostage," one spacestation crew member said during the live stream event.

McBride told KUTV that the rate of getting new subscribers varies, but on average it takes about two weeks to get 10,000 new ones. One of the staff members piped up during the live stream that his brother did some quick analytics math and estimated at their current rate they would hit 1 million subscribers in ... 81 hours.

McBride started his social media venture on Snapchat, where he has amassed more than 600,000 followers. and it evolved over time into what it is today.

Shonduras has teamed up with big names like Samsung and Google and a number of other brands to help them develop social strategy and create branded content, according to Forbes.

If you are looking for all the ways to follow Shonduras and their vlogs check out the options below:

Snapchat

Instagram

YouTube

Twitter

Facebook

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LOCKED IN: Shonduras and Spacestation crew livestream until they hit 1 million subscribers - KUTV 2News

The two contractors thatNASA has hired to build new spacecrafts to fly astronauts to the International Space Station could face further delays that push certification of their vehicles to 2019, two years behind schedule, according to a report issued Thursday by government investigators.

If that happens, NASA might be stranded, with no way to get its astronauts to the International Space Station, the Government Accountability Office said.

In 2014, NASA awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to develop vehicles that could restore the agency'sability to put humans in space afterthe space shuttle was retired in 2011. Under the Commercial Crew program, Boeing was awarded $4.2 billion; SpaceX $2.6 billion.

Since the shuttle was mothballed, NASA has had to rely on Russia to fly its astronauts to the station, an orbiting laboratory some 240 miles above Earth.

NASA has bought seats with Russia through 2018, the report said. But there could be a problem if Boeing and SpaceX face further delays, because it typically takes three years to procure seats from Russia, the report said.

In order to avoid a potential crew transportation gap in 2019, the contracting process would have needed to start in early 2016, the GAO said.

It added that if NASA does not develop a viable contingency plan for ensuring access to the ISS in the event of further Commercial Crew delays, it risks not being able to maximize the return on its multibillion dollar investment in the space station.

Relying on Russia has come at considerable cost for NASA and for a country that won the Apollo-era space race to the moon.

Last year, a report issued by NASAs inspector general found the cost Russia charges jumped from $21.3 million in 2006 to $81.9 million in 2015.

In its report, the GAO said that in 2015, SpaceX identified cracks in the turbines of its engine. NASA informed SpaceX that the cracks amount to an unacceptable risk for human spaceflight, the GAO said. SpaceX officials told us that they are working closely with NASA to eliminate these cracks in order to meet NASAs stringent targets for human rating.

The GAO said that SpaceXs biggest risks stem from it constantly upgrading its rocket to make it more efficient and robust. The GAO said there may not be enough time for SpaceX to implement these changes and get them approved prior to the first uncrewed flight test in November 2017.

The company has already had two catastrophic failures of its Falcon 9, the rocket that it would use to fly astronauts to the station. In 2015, a Falcon 9 exploded while it was carrying cargo but no crew to the station. Then last September, another one blew up while it was being fueled on a Cape Canaveral launchpad ahead of an engine test fire.

The company has since returned to flight and plans to launch another cargo mission to the station Saturday.

Unlike other rockets, which are fueled before astronauts board, SpaceX plans to fuel the rocket while they are in the vehicle. And that, the GAO said, is another potential safety risk.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The risks with Boeings offering a Starliner capsule that would launch aboard an Atlas V rocket are related to the rockets Russian-made engine. While the rocket is viewed as highly reliable and has been certified by the Pentagon to launch national security satellites, it hasnt yet been certified by NASA to fly humans.

But getting the data needed to make that certification has been difficult because it is highly restricted by agreements between the U.S. and Russian governments.

Boeing said that the United Launch Alliance, which makes the Atlas V, will provide NASA with complete insight into the RD-180 engines.

It also said that providing astronauts with safe crew transportation to and from the International Space Station is our first and most important priority.

Both companies have made significant progress on their launch sites. Boeing recently showed off the Cape Canaveral launchpad it renovated for the program. And on Saturday, SpaceX plans to launch from pad 39A, the historic site that hosted many of the Apollo and shuttle launches.

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Government watchdog says SpaceX, Boeing delays could imperil NASA's presence on the space station - Washington Post

As a boy growing up in Nigeria, Abba Zubair dreamed of becoming an astronaut.

But as he prepared to apply to college, an advisor told him to find a different path.

He said it may be a long time before Nigeria sends rockets and astronauts into space, so I should consider something more practical, Zubair saud.

He decided to become a physician, and is currently the medical and scientific director of the Cell Therapy Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. And while hell almost certainly never get to make a journey outside the Earths atmosphere himself, if the weather stays good Saturday hell be sending a payload into space.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch at 10:01 a.m. Saturday from the Kennedy Space Center on a cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station. Among the cargo it will be carrying are several samples of donated adult stem cells from Zubairs research lab.

Zubair believes adult stem cells, extracted from bone marrow, are the future of regenerative medicine. Currently at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville they are being used in clinical trials to treat knee injuries and transplanted lungs.

But a big problem with using stem cells to treat illnesses is that it may require up to 200 million cells to treat a human being and the cells take a long time to reproduce. Based on studies using simulators on Earth, Zubair believes that the stem cells will more quickly mass produce in microgravity.

Thats the hypothesis hell be testing as the stem cells from his lab spend a month aboard the space station. Astronauts will conduct experiments measuring changes in the cells. They will then be returned on an unmanned rocket and Zubair will continue to study them in his lab.

We want to undersrand the process by which stem cells divide so we can grow them at a faster rate and also so we can suppress them when treating cancer, he said.

Zubair became interested in the idea of sending stem cells into space four years ago, when he learned of a request for proposals that involved medicine and outer space. Hes been trying to arrange to send stem cells into space for three years.

In May 2015, he sent stem cells to the edge of space as a hot-air balloon carried a capsule filled with cells from his lab to about 100,000 feet then dropped the capsule. The idea was to test how the cells handled re-entry into the Earths atmosphere.

It turned out well, he said. The cells were alive and functioning.

Zubair was supported in that effort as he is being supported in sending cells to the space station by the Center for Applied Science Technology. Its chief executive is Lee Harvey, a retired Navy pilot and former astronaut candidate who lives in Orange Park.

While stem cells have myriad potential medical applications, one that particularly interests Zubair is the use of them in treating stroke patients. Its a personal cause to Zubair, whose mother died of a stroke in 1997.

Weve shown that an infusion of stem cells at the site of stroke improves the inflammation and also secretes factors for the regeneration of neurons and blood vessels, he said.

Zubair hasnt entirely given up on his old dream of being an astronaut. Hes applied for the civilian astronaut program. But he doesnt expect that to happen.

Im not sure I made a cut, he said. I just wanted to apply.

And he realizes what a long, strange trip hes made.

I have come so far from Africa to here, he said, and now Im sending stem cells into space.

Charlie Patton: (904) 359-4413

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Mayo researcher Abba Zubair is sending stem cells for study on the International Space Station - Florida Times-Union

February 16, 2017 Backdropped by the blackness of space and the thin line of Earth's atmosphere, the International Space Station is seen from Space Shuttle Discovery as the two spacecraft begin their relative separation. Earlier the STS-119 and Expedition 18 crews concluded 9 days, 20 hours and 10 minutes of cooperative work onboard the shuttle and station. Undocking of the two spacecraft occurred at 2:53 p.m. (CDT) on March 25, 2009. Credit: NASA/ESA

Today, ground control in Belgium switched off a package that had been continuously watching the Sun from the International Space Station for nine years.

'Solar' has been measuring most of the radiation emitted by our closest star across the electromagnetic spectrum. Built to run for only 18 months, it was still working until today exceeding all expectations.

Solar's observations are improving our understanding of the Sun and allowing scientists to create accurate computer models and predict its behaviour.

To predict how the Sun behaves, scientists create complex computer models to build a virtual star. With more observations, scientists can fine-tune their models. Modelling and predicting the Sun's activity with precision is an important step towards understanding humankind's effect on Earth's climate.

Between 2012 and 2016, the Space Station turned itself five times to position Solar so that it could track the Sun without interruption for a complete solar day around a month of Earth days.

It was the first time the Station changed attitude for scientific reasons alone and a huge achievement it's not every day that you move a 450 tonne orbital outpost.

Today, Solar was moved to a parked position where it was secured with a pin. Even during its last days, Solar was delivering important data.

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The teams at the control centre in Brussels, Belgium, used the final moments to stress the hardware to its limits and gain a better understanding of how the observations have been affected by age and the intense changes in temperature it endures outside the Station. Using this extra information, researchers are developing software that will improve calibration of parts of the data.

ESA's project leader, Astrid Orr, comments, "After all these years of gaining valuable information about our Sun it is an emotional moment for the team, but Solar has far exceeded everyone's expectations."

"This kind of research does not deliver pretty pictures, but numbers. I tip my hat to the researchers who patiently sort through the wealth of data this field of science may seem tedious and unexciting to the outside world, but climate studies heavily rely on these data to understand the world we live in and how we are shaping it."

Explore further: International Space Station salutes the Sun

The distribution of normal matter precisely determines gravitational acceleration in all common types of galaxies, a team led by Case Western Reserve University researchers reports.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft recently detected organic-rich areas on Ceres. Scientists evaluated the geology of the regions to conclude that the organics are most likely native to the dwarf planet. Data from the spacecraft suggest ...

War correspondent, statesman, astronomer. Stargazing may not be what Winston Churchill is best remembered for, but a treatise he wrote on extraterrestrial life has revealed his scientific acumen six decades later.

(Phys.org)Astronomers have detected four faint, polarized flares at 154 MHz from the nearby variable star UV Ceti. The newly observed flares are much fainter than most flares found at these frequencies. The findings were ...

NASA is inviting the public to help search for possible undiscovered worlds in the outer reaches of our solar system and in neighboring interstellar space. A new website, called Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, lets everyone participate ...

Researchers from Trinity College Dublin have discovered a patch of land in an ancient valley on Mars that appears to have been flooded by water in the not-too-distant past. In doing so, they have pinpointed a prime target ...

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Setting sun on space station solar research - Phys.org - Phys.Org

BOULDER, Colo., Feb. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Two Ball Aerospace-built payloads will soon blast off toward the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. Scheduled for a February 18 launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the two Ball instruments will play critical roles in the International Space Station's scientific and environmental observations and technical operations.

"Ball has a deep legacy in creating instruments and spacecraft for NASA, from helping to measure ozone levels to exploring the farthest reaches of our solar system and beyond," said Jim Oschmann, Ball Aerospace's vice president and general manager, civil space business unit. "We are proud to support the ongoing operations of the International Space Station and to further scientific understanding of how the ozone layer affects life on Earth."

Ball built the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III on the International Space Station, also known as SAGE III on ISS, and designed and built the Vision Navigation Sensor (VNS) for Raven, a technology demonstration that will test autonomous rendezvous capability for future uses with unmanned vehicles in space and on Earth.

SAGE III on ISS, which was designed at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, is a key part of NASA's mission to provide crucial, long-term measurements that will help determine the health of the ozone layer. The heart of the SAGE III on ISS instrument is the Ball-built spectrometer, which allows scientists to measure the quantity of atmospheric gases such as ozone, nitrogen dioxide, water vapor and aerosols in the Earth's atmosphere. Ball built three SAGE III instruments dating back to the selection as prime contractor in November 1989 by NASA Langley. Once docked with the ISS, the SAGE III payload will collect measurements through each sunrise and sunset from its orbit approximately 450 kilometers above the Earth's surface.

Ball's deep heritage with ozone mapping and monitoring extends more than 40 years. Beginning in the 1970s, Ball built a number of stratospheric aerosol instruments for NASA demonstrating the ability to measure ozone from space, and went on to build nine SBUV/2 instruments that helped discover the ozone hole above Antarctica in 1987 and which have operated since 1984. More recently, Ball designed and built the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) currently flying on NOAA's Suomi-NPP operational environmental satellite, and will deliver four additional OMPS units for the JPSS series of satellites beginning Fall 2017 and continuing through the early 2030s.

Raven is a technology demonstration mission led by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to advance the state-of-the-art in rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking. Raven includes visible cameras, an infrared camera and a flash LIDAR, called the Vision Navigation Sensor (VNS). In building and designing the VNS, Ball has provided Raven with its "eyes," which will watch vehicles approach and depart the ISS.

Ball Aerospace pioneers discoveries that enable our customers to perform beyond expectation and protect what matters most. We create innovative space solutions, enable more accurate weather forecasts, drive insightful observations of our planet, deliver actionable data and intelligence, and ensure those who defend our freedom go forward bravely and return home safely. For more information, visit http://www.ball.com/aerospace or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter.

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Ball Corporation supplies innovative, sustainable packaging solutions for beverage, food and household products customers, as well as aerospace and other technologies and services primarily for the U.S. government. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ 18,450 people worldwide and 2016 net sales were $9.1 billion. For more information, visit http://www.ball.com, or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter.

Forward-Looking StatementsThis release contains "forward-looking" statements concerning future events and financial performance. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "believes," "targets," "likely" and similar expressions typically identify forward-looking statements, which are generally any statements other than statements of historical fact. Such statements are based on current expectations or views of the future and are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied. You should therefore not place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements and any of such statements should be read in conjunction with, and, qualified in their entirety by, the cautionary statements referenced below. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Key factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to be different are summarized in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Exhibit 99 in our Form 10-K, which are available on our website and at http://www.sec.gov. Additional factors that might affect: a) our packaging segments include product demand fluctuations; availability/cost of raw materials; competitive packaging, pricing and substitution; changes in climate and weather; competitive activity; failure to achieve synergies, productivity improvements or cost reductions; mandatory deposit or other restrictive packaging laws; customer and supplier consolidation, power and supply chain influence; changes in major customer or supplier contracts or a loss of a major customer or supplier; political instability and sanctions; currency controls; and changes in foreign exchange or tax rates; b) our aerospace segment include funding, authorization, availability and returns of government and commercial contracts; and delays, extensions and technical uncertainties affecting segment contracts; c) the company as a whole include those listed plus: changes in senior management; regulatory action or issues including tax, environmental, health and workplace safety, including U.S. FDA and other actions or public concerns affecting products filled in our containers, or chemicals or substances used in raw materials or in the manufacturing process; technological developments and innovations; litigation; strikes; labor cost changes; rates of return on assets of the company's defined benefit retirement plans; pension changes; uncertainties surrounding geopolitical events and governmental policies both in the U.S. and in other countries, including the U.S. government elections, budget, sequestration and debt limit; reduced cash flow; ability to achieve cost-out initiatives and synergies; interest rates affecting our debt; and successful or unsuccessful acquisitions and divestitures, including with respect to the Rexam PLC acquisition and its integration, or the associated divestiture; the effect of the acquisition or the divestiture on our business relationships, operating results and business generally.

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Two Ball Aerospace-Built Instruments Headed for Space Station - Yahoo Finance

Have you ever wanted to take a trip to the International Space Station without going through all the invasive medical tests, rigorous astronaut training, and excessive consumption of tang? Well, now you can. All you need is a computer and internet connection.

The Beacon has created an interact guide giving you a glimpse of life on board the International Space Station. The guide includes the space stations many modules as well as a timeline for when the modules were added to the Station. The guide also shows the many activities one might enjoy on the Station (when you arent busy doing the mannequin challenge, of course).

Have you ever wondered where an astronaut sleeps? Check out the crew quarters. How they exercise? The Cevis and The Colbert are two state-of-the-art exercise machines designed to keep the ISS inhabitant health and strong. Maybe youre wondering how an astronaut uses the restroom. Well thats a bit weird, but hey, that information is there too. Heres a hint, it involves a suction system. You know, the same type of suction system we use here on Earth.

Launched into orbit in 1998, the International Space Station is the largest artificial body in orbit around the Earth. According to NASA.gov, the ISS measures 357 feet end-to-end which is as large as a standard football field. An international partnership of space agencies maintains and operates the ISS. The United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada have all participate in the upkeep of the station.

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Interactive guide gives you taste of life on the International Space Station - The Corner News (blog)

When it comes to basic sci-fi setups, nobody would ever accuse fighting for your life on a space station thats been taken over by aliens of being particularly fresh. Whether youre talking about movies, books, or games, its the kind of premise that serves as sturdy scaffolding a framework on which to hang what are (hopefully) much more interesting ideas and interactions. So when I sat down to preview the first hour of Prey, Arkane Studios upcoming reboot of the mid-aughts shooter, I didnt quite know what to expect. What I found was a first-person action game, with some solid role-playing elements, set off by some creative narrative twists. Well, enough twists for the first hour, at least.

To start off, Prey has nothing to do whatsoever with the original game, or its canceled sequel. When asked by journalists why the game has the title it does given the utter lack of connective tissue, lead designer Ricardo Bare was honest: "Because Prey is a really good name for a game." This version takes place in the year 2032, in an alternate reality timeline where the player takes on the role of Morgan Yu. (Players can select either a male or female version of the character; I went with the latter.)

When the game begins, Morgan is preparing to undergo some strange psychological and behavioral tests at the behest of her brother, Alex. Everything seems to be going fairly smoothly until an alien creature attacks one of the doctors. Soon, Morgan finds herself on the space station Talos I, which has been completely overrun by a shape-shifting alien species called the Typhon. It turns out that Morgans been the subject of these mysterious experiments far longer than she realizes, and has suffered massive holes in her memory as a result. She begins chasing down the clues and videos that shes left for herself in order to understand whats going on and, one assumes, to eventually stop the Typhon.

This isnt a horror title; its an action game

Despite the look of some of the early footage, Prey isnt a horror title; its an action game, though it does utilize handy jump scares from time to time as random objects suddenly morph into the scurrying, multi-legged Typhon for an attack. It has a semi-open-world feel, allowing players to explore the space station largely at will. Most obstacles in the game offer multiple solutions. A locked door can be accessed by finding a keycard, for example, or by exploring an alternate route to circumvent the issue altogether.

The role-playing side of things comes into play with what Prey calls neuromods. In the game, humans are able to give themselves enhanced skills by collecting what are essentially cybernetic implants. They cover a trio of skills sets hacking, engineering, and combat with branching skill trees for each discipline letting users shape their character as they see fit. Its another way in which Prey lets players solve problems in multiple ways. I unlocked a pesky door by upgrading my hacking abilities. A hard-to-reach second floor in an atrium could have been reached by upgrading ones engineering skills to repair the lift, or by creating a makeshift platform using a weapon that shoots rapidly hardening foam. (According to Bare, theres an elaborate crafting system in the game as well, though it never came up during my hour of gameplay.)

While the notion of an overrun space station isnt particularly novel, Prey does stand out by creating a world with some beautiful aesthetics that look both believably near-future, and lived in. According to the games backstory, the Talos I started as a government space station in the 60s before being taken over by a private company in 2030, and the design melds the design language of 1960s science fiction large, magnetic tape storage systems and retro hardware litter the place with the kind of wood panelling and gold trim youd expect from a gaudy hotel.

The first hour is filled with its share of plot twists and turns

In terms of sheer gameplay, nothing about Prey was particularly mind-blowing in the time I spent with the game. Its using concepts weve seen before, put together in combinations weve seen before. But theres a polish to the whole thing that makes it undeniably fun on the most basic level; the kind of game that you can just pick up and dive into with total and complete familiarity right at the top. But much like the premise itself, that easygoing gameplay feels like its there to set up some larger aspirations: the ideas behind the narrative itself.

Ive been trying to stay away from too many plot specifics, because the first hour of Prey turns out to be filled with more than its fair share of twists and turns and one of the early reveals was one of my favorite moments of the game. Its safe to say that there is an overarching mystery, and its not really about the alien creatures at all. Its about Morgan Yu herself, with the player thrown into the role of a character who cant trust her own memory or perception of reality. She ends up relying on clues she has left for herself, a kind of unreliable narrator that adds a Memento-esque twist to the fighting, exploring, and side missioning.

Arkane has also made a point of noting that players can choose either male or female versions of the lead character. Morgan was picked as the characters name precisely because it was gender neutral, and in terms of representation, the move is to be applauded. However, despite that choice, Bare says that swapping gender roles doesnt actually change the story in any appreciable way. Different pronouns are used when characters address Morgan, and family photos that appear in the game reflect the players choice. But other than that, theres nothing about the ways in which characters interact with Morgan that shifts. For a game that is purportedly about identity, it seems like it could end up being a missed opportunity particularly given that Bare says the story can be impacted by the ways in which the player interacts with various survivors they come into contact with.

Of course, depending on how the mysteries of Prey play out, that issue may not be as problematic as it seems at first. And thats assuming the narrative actually continues to fire throughout the entirety of the game in the first place. Bare says the average time to finish has been running between 14 to 16 hours, though some players have needed 20 hours or more, and that could end up being a lot of mystery to string out depending on how engaging the pure gameplay is unto itself. No matter what happens on that front, however, one things for certain: its certainly going to look glorious.

Prey is scheduled for release on May 5th for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

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Prey puts the fun back into fighting for your life on a space station ... - The Verge

This photo released by NASA, shows the SpaceXDragon undocked from the International Space Station as it is maneuvered for its release, Wednesday, May 11, 2016. (Associated Press)

Two payloads built at the University of Colorado, one of them designed to understand and potentially combat infections such as MRSA, will be aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that's slated to launch to the International Space Station on Saturday.

The biomedical payloads are supported by CU's BioServe Space Technologies NASA-funded center in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, which has built and flown more than 100 payloads on board more than 50 spaceflight missions, according to a news release.

The second of the two payloads will support research on the possible increase in the proliferation of stem cells in space, something that could aid biomedical therapy on Earth, the release stated.

This marks the ninth Dragon mission to the ISS on which SpaceX has carried CU-built payloads since 2012.

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More CU-Boulder payloads headed to space station via SpaceX - Boulder Daily Camera