Category Archives: Space Station

As above, so below?Change of Command

While international conflict rages on the Earth below them, the Russians and Americans working together aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have signaled that in space, at least, theres still peace.

This morning, Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov formally handed command of the orbital lab over to NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn in what CBS space news reporter William Harwood described as a sign of ongoing cooperation in space amid strained relations on Earth.

During the change-of-command ceremony, Shkaplerov did mention the Earthbound tensions caused by his countrys invasion of Ukraine, according to Ars Technicas Eric Berger, but only briefly.

The interactions seemed 100 percent genuine and friendly, Berger wrote. Shkaplerov only briefly referenced Earth-bound tensions, but said on orbit they were space brothers and space sisters. It gives me some hope for the future.

As significant as it seems in this geopolitical moment, this poignant moment of international solidarity is far from unprecedented.

In 1975, back when Russia was still part of the Soviet Union and the ISS was still a glimmer of hope in the eyes of our respective governments, a historic handshake between cosmonaut Aleksay Leonov and astronaut Tom Stafford during a joint American-USSR docking mission heralded the beginning of cooperation between the two countries,which were then locked into the heat of the Cold War.

The odds-defying partnership has been tested in recent weeks, but has so far remained intact. Amid concerns that the Russian invasion of Ukraine may finally be what ends this cooperation thats gone on for more than four decades, theres hope yet that maybe the international team aboard the ISS may continue to be beacons of hope for the rest of us on Earth.

More on this unlikely partnership:How Cold War Politics Shaped the International Space Station [Smithsonian Magazine]

More on the Ukraine invasions impact on the ISS:The ISS: Possibly the Last Formal Diplomatic Link Of US and Russia

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Russian Cosmonaut Hands Over Command of Space Station to NASA Astronaut - Futurism

There is no shortage of sci-fi robot companions Luke Skywalkers robot buddies C3PO and R2D2 and Jimmy Neutrons robot-dog Goddard come to mind.

Astronauts aboard theInternational Space Stationhave some real-life robotic friends.

Astrobee and Project CIMON are two initiatives to develop robots to help space crews operate in zero gravity.

Astrobee, designed byNASA, is a group of three cubed-shaped robots that can fly around the ISS, grip pipes to stabilize themselves and have cameras for seeing their surroundings.

The set of three robots are aptly named Queen, Honey and Bumble as theyre busy bees aboard the ISS, carrying out simple tasks like taking inventories to reduce the burden on the astronauts.

Astrobees robots can be manually operated by teams on Earth or be programmed to work autonomously.

Queen, Honey and Bumble replaced an existing group of floating bots and serve as an upgrade on the ISS.

SPHERES, the first group of flying bots aboard the ISS, were deployed in 2006 and have been put to use forover 500 hoursalongside astronauts.

One of the aspirations for Astrobee is to design software advanced enough that the robots canmanage spacecraft upkeepon Gateway, the unmanned space outpost set to launch in 2024.

Its a lofty goal as the ISS hasnever been vacantin its 22-year history and is reliant on humans.

Meanwhile, the German-funded Project CIMON (Crew Interactive Mobile companiON) has developed a similar robot thats slightly more humanoid.

Cimon responds to verbal commands from astronauts and has an LCD screen for displaying the bots face.

Like the Astrobee bots, Cimon can propel itself about the station and complete basic assignments in service of the astronauts.

Both the first and second generations of Cimon were brought to the ISS byElon Musks space travel companySpaceX.

Part of Cimons initiative is to help astronauts deal with the isolation that comes with being in space after all, everyone the astronauts know are living miles below them on Earth.

Astronauts can talk to Cimon the way that Earth-bound humans talk to an Alexa or Siri whether thats conversing or accessing the computers database of information.

Floating robots are carving out a special niche aboard the ISS, working to serve as an astronauts right-hand robot.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced here with permission.

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NASA shares image of smiley floating robots that live on the International Space Station - New York Post

March 28 (Reuters) - SpaceX has ended production of new Crew Dragon astronaut capsules, a company executive told Reuters, as Elon Musk's space transportation company heaps resources on its next-generation spaceship program.

Capping the fleet at four Crew Dragons adds more urgency to the development of the astronaut capsule's eventual successor, Starship, SpaceX's moon and Mars rocket. Starship's debut launch has been delayed for months by engine development hurdles and regulatory reviews.

It also poses new challenges as the company learns how to maintain a fleet and quickly fix unexpected problems without holding up a busy schedule of astronaut missions.

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"We are finishing our final (capsule), but we still are manufacturing components, because we'll be refurbishing," SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told Reuters, confirming the plan to end Crew Dragon manufacturing.

She added that SpaceX would retain the capability to build more capsules if a need arises in the future, but contended that "fleet management is key."

Musk's business model is underpinned by reusable spacecraft, so it was inevitable the company would cease production at some point. But the timing was not known, nor was his strategy of using the existing fleet for its full backlog of missions.

Crew Dragon has flown five crews of government and private astronauts to space since 2020, when it flew its first pair of NASA astronauts and became the U.S. space agency's primary ride for getting humans to and from the International Space Station.

After each flight, the capsules undergo refurbishment at SpaceX facilities in Florida, which the company calls "Dragonland."

"There's lifetime cycle issues, where once you start using it the third, fourth, fifth time, you start finding different things," said retired NASA astronaut and former SpaceX executive Garrett Reisman, who now consults for the company on human spaceflight matters.

"SpaceX is really good about identifying these issues quickly and then acting quickly to fix them," Reisman added, pointing to an investigation in 2021 in which SpaceX discovered and fixed within months a toilet leak aboard a Crew Dragon capsule that had flown humans twice.

NASA has given SpaceX some $3.5 billion to help develop and subsequently use Crew Dragon for six flights to the space station. It added three more missions to fill in for delays with Boeing Co's (BA.N) Starliner capsule. read more

SpaceX has flown four crews of astronauts to the space station under its NASA contract at roughly $255 million per flight. The company carried out a fully private mission last year with four passengers, including a billionaire entrepreneur who funded the flight, for a three-day trip in Earth orbit.

At least four more private astronaut missions on Crew Dragon are planned with Houston-based space station builder and spaceflight manager Axiom Space, with the first so-called Ax-1 mission scheduled for April carrying four entrepreneurs to the space station to conduct scientific research.

Musk, SpaceX's founder and chief executive, has focused intensely in recent years on the company's hasty development of a re-usable Starship, the centerpiece of Musk's aim to eventually colonize Mars.

Like Crew Dragon, SpaceX's workhorse reusable rocket, the Falcon 9, and its more powerful variant Falcon Heavy are also refurbished after each flight, and not every component is able to fly to space more than once.

"The goal is to get more and more like aircraft operations, where you can take the vehicle after it lands, fill it back up with gas and oxygen, and go again very rapidly," Reisman said.

"Starship, if it achieves its design objectives, would be able to affordably replace everything that Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon can do."

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Reporting by Joey Roulette in WashingtonEditing by Eric M. Johnson and Leslie Adler

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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EXCLUSIVE SpaceX ending production of flagship crew capsule - Reuters

Watkins first spaceflight made her the first black woman to fly an extended mission in space by accident. But it also shows how NASA approaches human spaceflight as the agency works on a manned return to the Moon through its Artemis program. Watkins, a geologist with a Ph.D., is part of the NASA Artemis team of astronauts for a future moon landing. Agency staff stressed that science would be at the forefront of the Artemis program.

NASA scientists know very well that they are a kind of spearhead, as we try to do this research and understand our Earth, our Moon, the planets and the solar system. [e] The universe we live in, he said NASAs chief global explorer, Jacob Bleacher, will be broadcast live at this years Planetary and Lunar Science Conference on Thursday, March 10.. These comments came just a week before NASAs unmanned Artemis 1 mission heads to the launch pad on March 17. That mission, which NASA aims to launch no later than May, It will send the agencys megarazzo space launch system (SLS) and an Orion (unmanned) capsule on a flight over the moon and back.

If the Artemis 1 mission goes according to plan, NASA hopes to launch Artemis 2 in 2024 for a flight around the moon, followed by Artemis 3 which will land on the moon no later than 2025 (given recent problems identified by NASAs inspector general). When astronauts reach the moon on the moon, Bleacher noted, they will have a very different focus than the agencys astronauts who last landed on the moon in 1972.

This is not just going back to the moon. It is about exploring a new field that we have not visited before, and it will require new and innovative approaches. For example, astronauts will land near the south pole of the moon and will likely eventually be tasked with trying to create a livable environment and using local resources such as ice to support human operations and life.

Crew training for Artemis astronauts focused so much on the scientific research that was undoubtedly at the center of these missions. From the beginning. Bleacher stressed that this training also consists of enabling the astronauts to carefully choose the materials to be examined and returned to Earth.

Analog or simulation training activities, for example, are underway at various locations across the United States and in icy places like Iceland, so astronauts learn how to collect samples in icy terrain. One of the reasons were going to Antarctica with Artemis is because we think theres volatiles we can get into, Bleacher explained. Water is an example of a volatile substance.

While these missions are very different, NASA notes that the lessons of the Apollo moon missions are still useful in shaping the Artemis program, as they can be based on the experience of the thousands of individuals who made moon landings possible in the 1960s. and 1970, as well as diagrams and technical information for those years.

Other programs will also support Artemis planning, added Sarah Noble, a program scientist in the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters. This includes the Constellation program under George W. Bush, which was later canceled, which was intended to send humans to both the Moon and Mars. We are not starting from scratch, Noble said at the same conference. Noble added that the lunar scientific community has also changed over the years, taking advantage of the wealth of new information provided by lunar orbit (for example through NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter).

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Science will soon take center stage on the International Space Station thanks to astronaut Jessica Watkins - Wire Service Canada

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In a press conference this evening, NASA officials said Axiom Space's private Ax-1 space mission is ready to launch to the International Space Station as early as April 3 at 1:13 p.m. EDT (1713 GMT), but only if NASA completes a critical fueling test of its new Space Launch System megarocket.

The Ax-1 mission, which will launch four private spaceflyers to the station on a 10-day trip, eight of them on the ISS, on a SpaceX rocket. SpaceX uses Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA's Artemis 1 Space Launch System megarocket is standing atop the nearby Pad39B for a vital "wet dress rehearsal" which is scheduled for April 1 to April 3.

It is possible that NASA will complete the Artemis 1 fueling test early enough on April 3 for Ax-1 to fly. If not, the private mission's launch window extends through at least April 7, NASA said.

NASA, SpaceX and Axiom Space have completed a day-long flight readiness review meeting today, March 25, for the planned Axiom Mission (Ax-1) to the International Space Station set to launch no earlier than April 3, 2022.

The mission, which will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft, will carry four private astronauts to the space station for the first time. It is the first all-private mission to the station in its over 20-year history.

Ax-1 will launch former NASA astronaut Michael Lpez-Alegra and paying passengers Larry Connor, Mark Pathy and Eytan Stibbe. Lpez-Alegra will command the flight. The space travelers will spend 10 days in space and plan to perform a series of science experiments and studies on the space station while also enjoying the commercial spaceflight experience.

"During the 10-day mission, the crew will spend eight days on the International Space Station conducting scientific research, outreach, and commercial activities," NASA officials said in a statement.

NASA will hold a press teleconference tonight at 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT) to discuss plans for the Ax-1 mission. You can listen in on the mission live here.

Speaking during tonight's press conference will be:

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Ax-1 private mission to space station: Live updates - Space.com

Illustration of an Artemis astronaut on the Moon. Credit: NASA

Upgrade work continues outside the space station

An updated strategy for landing Artemis astronauts on the Moon

And unsealing pieces of the past a few of the stories to tell you about This Week at NASA!

On March 23, the crew onboard the International Space Station conducted the second spacewalk this month to continue upgrades to the orbiting laboratory. During the outing, NASA astronaut Raja Chari and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer worked to install new thermal system and electronics components on the stations U.S. segment. They also worked to install a power and data cable on the Columbus modules Bartolomeo science platform, replace an external camera on the stations truss, and conduct other upgrades to station hardware.

Updated Strategy for Landing Artemis Astronauts on the Moon

Also on March 23, we announced plans to create additional opportunities for commercial companies to develop an astronaut Moon lander that can transport humans between our lunar orbiting space station known as Gateway and the lunar surface, for missions beyond Artemis III, which will be the first mission to land astronauts on the Moon in more than 50 years. The announcement is part of a strategy by the agency to pursue two parallel paths for continuing lunar lander development and demonstration, one that calls for additional work under an existing contract with commercial partner, SpaceX, and another open to all other U.S. companies. This effort is meant to maximize NASAs support for competition and provides redundancy in services to help ensure NASAs ability to transport astronauts to the lunar surface.

One of the last unopened Apollo-era lunar samples collected 50 years ago during Apollo 17 has been opened at our Johnson Space Center in Houston. Sample 73001 had been kept vacuum sealed and in pristine condition in anticipation of the day that scientists equipped with advanced technology could examine it. The Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis Program is studying the sample and others like it, as we prepare to send astronauts back to the Moon for more samples on upcoming Artemis missions.

On March 21, the number of confirmed exoplanets, or planets outside of our solar system, ticked past the 5,000 mark. The milestone was reached when the latest batch of 65 exoplanets was added to the NASA Exoplanet Archive. This stream of exoplanet discoveries that began 30 years ago, includes contributions from NASAs TESS, Kepler, and Spitzer space telescopes, with more discoveries possible in the future from our James Webb and Nancy Grace Roman space telescopes.

On March 22, the newest U.S.-European sea level satellite, named Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, became the official reference satellite for global sea level measurements. This means that sea surface height data collected by other satellites will be compared to the information produced by Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich to ensure accuracy. The satellite, which is named after NASAs former Earth Science Division Director, the late Dr. Michael Freilich, was launched in November 2020.

Thats whats up this week @NASA

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This Week @NASA: Landing Artemis Astronauts on the Moon, Space Station Upgrade Work - SciTechDaily

There will always be somebody ready to do whatever it takes to feed their fellow citizens, says Spanish chef Jos Andrs. Thats been his mission since 2010, when he launched his nonprofit organization World Central Kitchen (WCK) to cook hot meals for victims of the Haitian earthquake. He later brought the organization to storm-ravaged Houston and Puerto Rico. Over the past couple of years, WCK also served more than 40 million meals to people whose lives and livelihoods were affected by the pandemic.

[Photo: courtesy ThinkFoodGroup]One day after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, WCK mobilized to address the war, setting up in eight locations along the Polish border with Ukraine. Within weeks, the nonprofit had established partnerships with restaurants and food trucks to distribute meals to people at border crossings, shelters, train stations, and other locations across the region, including Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Moldova, and Romania. Its also focused on getting bulk produce and supplies to partner restaurants inside Ukraine to alleviate strained supply chains. The organization is now serving some 180,000 daily meals to people displaced by the war. It has also mobilized restaurants and chefs outside the region to support its efforts in Ukraine by hosting #ChefsForUkraine fundraising dinners.

At the same time, Andrs has been working to bring his food into space. In early April, two dishes designed by his company, ThinkFoodGroup, will launch with a multinational crew headed to the International Space Station, on a mission put together by commercial space company Axiom Space. Andrs, who got involved through his friendship with veteran astronaut Michael Lpez-Alegra, commander for the upcoming mission, says that he has long dreamed of making meals for astronautsand even going to space himself.

Fast Company talked with him about working in a war zone, designing meals for astronauts, and the power of paella.

Fast Company: How is your work in Ukraine different from what youve done in other crisis zones?

Jos Andrs: Were a young NGO. Weve never been in an active war zone. Weve been in situations of instability, like Venezuela or Haiti, but this is a true war scenario. We began working in the countries surrounding Ukraine, except for Russia. We began in Poland, but very quickly we sent teams to Hungary and Romania. I think were doing 180,000 meals a day, mainly because more and more refugees keep leaving Ukraine. We see that the need inside [Ukraine also] keeps increasing.

Everybody talks about the three million refugees, but nobody talks about the other two to three million, if not more, that are displaced inside Ukraine. So there are at least six million people whose lives have been destroyed. Plus the other millions who are in cities where theres bombing and shelling. So we are talking about probably 10-, 12-, 13 million people whose lives are not the same anymore. This is a major event.

FC: Whats the security situation for an NGO like World Central Kitchen?

JA: Obviously, there is a lot of security advice. Sometimes it sounds more [like something] from a James Bond movie than real life, but you take them seriously. Some foreign Russian assets try to distort facts to create mayhem, but you still have to take all security advice seriously. Because of the security risk, we have to send food to different cities using different protocols and systems. Were figuring out how to navigate checkpoints: Its quicker to get through when security recognizes that you are feeding people.

FC: How are you actually getting food to people?

JA: Ive found that there will always be somebody ready to do whatever it takes to feed their fellow citizens. Weve been supporting people [in local food businesses] with money, with assets, with equipment, and with food. We are supporting bakeries and distributors. We have been serving venison that people have huntedand lots of soups because its so cold and people need warmth.

[Photo: courtesy ThinkFoodGroup]FC: Youre also trying to feed people in space. How did your collaboration with Axiom Space come about?

JA: Ive been talking to NASA now for a long time. I had NASA people come to my main office meet with me and my team a few times in the last 10 or 12 years. At Axiom, we ended up working with a lot of people from the NASA team we used to talk to. I am friends with [astronaut] Michael Lpez-Alegrahe is also Spanishwho is leading the group to the [International Space Station] with Axiom. When I created WCK, I always said, We send doctors and nurses to help the sick, so why dont we send cooks to feed people who need it? I always wanted to push those boundaries. The truth is that we will be on Mars or Jupiter or whatever one day. We have all this technology to go to another planet but we dont have the will on earth to make our planet better.

FC: How did you decide what dishes to serve on the ISS?

I mean: Spanish chef, Spanish astronaut. For me, we had to do one of the most iconic Spanish dishes, paella. Its a rice dishwe made one with chicken and mushrooms and there are rice dishes around the world. In India you have biryani, in Brazil and China you have rice dishes, too. So, it felt kind of international. We also made secreto de cerdo con pisto, an ibrico pork dish with tomatoes, onions, eggplant, and peppers, because I wanted to showcase another Spanish dish. But I now realize that one of the astronauts cant eat pork! The most important one to me is the paella.

[Photo: courtesy ThinkFoodGroup]FC: What were the R&D challenges of designing a dish that can travel into space?

JA: Well, first of all, we did this all in the middle of a pandemic. A lot of it was less science and more trial and error. I had my team members helping me with this one, and they tested over 100 iterations of the paella. We had to create a meal where all of the ingredients could be put in an opaque bag, and put on a metal shelf to get warmed up for half an hour before being consumed. We had to figure out how liquid would reduce in the bag to make sure the paella wasnt too soft or too hard and the moisture level was perfect. We had to figure out the quantities of each raw ingredient, how and how they would cook under pressure. We tested it in Houston and then in our offices and in our homes trying to recreate the conditions.

FC: Theres now a rift between the ISSs two main partners, the United States and Russia. Russias space chief even raised the idea of Russia leading the ISS into an uncontrolled deorbit in a series of tweets criticizing U.S. sanctions against Russia. Has this affected your work?

JA: This meal will be shared by all Axiom Mission 1 astronauts. Paella is a communal dish, and everybody in the Ax-1 crew will share it. I dont know that this is the beginning of the peace process, but its good for people to eat together and see each other across a table.

FC: Do you plan on making more dishes to be consumed in space down the line?

JA: I hope so. Critics will say that with so much hunger on this planet, why spend money to go to space? I say we can do both. More and more people are going to be going to space. Its important to have good people working on these things.

FC: Do you plan on going to space?

JA: Youre going to laugh at me, but Ive been getting into shape over the last two or three years. Somebody told me everybody has a 1% chance of going up there. I mean, Ive been down in a submarine into the deep sea. Im a cook who barely graduated [from high school]. Anything is possible. I started cooking rice dishes with my father when I was a kid, and now I am making the same dish for a crew going to the International Space Station.

Link:
From Ukrainians to astronauts on the ISS, Jos Andrs is feeding anyone in needand well - Fast Company

(NASA/Roscosmos via AP) In this photo provided by NASA/Roscosmos, the International Space Station continues its orbit around the Earth as seen from a Soyuz spacecraft departing with NASA astronauts Andrew Feustel and Ricky Arnold and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, who had spent 197 days in space. The University of Utah Health received funding to study how space travel affects the health of astronauts.

| March 26, 2022, 1:00 p.m.

This story is part of The Salt Lake Tribunes ongoing commitment to identify solutions to Utahs biggest challenges through the work of the Innovation Lab.

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Editors note This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.

Dr. Hans Schwertz always dreamt of the stars. As a kid back home in Germany, he found himself gazing at the sky after reading a book about space. One of his prized possessions growing up was a print of the picture Earthrise snapped by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders.

I always told my kids I would love to stand on the moon and see the earth rise, Schwertz, an adjunct professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of Utah Health who practices medicine in Montana said. That would be so cool.

Schwertz realized hed probably never fly to the moon, so he searched for a different way to get a taste of space. As an occupational doctor, he started researching the impacts space travel has on astronauts.

Schwertz and Dr. Matthew Rondina, a professor of internal medicine and pathology at the U., pitched a grant proposal to NASA that would examine how astronauts physically adapt and acclimate to space by looking at bone marrow cells and blood platelets during space travel. Such cells help protect against infectious disease and inflammation and can weaken outside of Earths environment.

(Hans Schwertz) Dr. Hans Schwertz, adjunct professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of Utah Health, working on a research project examining how astronauts' cells react and adapt to space travel. The research is one of ten biology projects funded by NASA in 2021.

NASA passed on their proposal twice, but their third attempt ended in success. Schwertz and Rondina were awarded one of ten biology grants offered by NASA in 2021, U. Health announced Wednesday.

I was in actual tears, as cheesy as that sounds, Schwartz said when he found out NASA accepted their proposal. I guess the third time was the lucky charm.

Its been nearly 60 years since America began space exploration. Research indicates astronauts experience a stressful environment in space and are exposed to cosmic radiation, confinement, lower gravitational pulls, different kinds of bacteria, lowered immunity and a loss of muscle and bone mass. These conditions have been linked to an increased risk of hemorrhages, blood clots and slower recovery times.

Schwertz says as NASA plans to explore Mars or establish a space station on the moon, the U. Healths research could prove invaluable, especially since the long-term effects of space travel on astronauts remain largely unknown.

We are talking about long time spans [in space] and about areas that are not protected by the Earths magnetic field, he noted. So cosmic radiation and stuff like that will be much more pronounced and that needs to be explored, and there needs to be research on what risks we put on those astronauts.

Through a voluntary process, blood samples of astronauts will be drawn before they go to space, during space travel, and examined in real-time, then researchers will compare the two culture samples. Once the astronauts return to Earth, another blood sample will be taken. The team of five will also simulate cosmic radiation in a lab to see how the cells react to exposure.

(Hans Schwertz) Dr. Hans Schwertz, adjunct professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of Utah Health, working on a research project examining how astronauts' cells react and adapt to space travel. The research is one of ten biology projects funded by NASA in 2021. This photo was taken prior to the COVID-19 pandemic when masks inside U. Health facilities were not mandated.

Additionally, Rondina highlights this research could advance medicine on Earth by broadening the understanding of how bone marrow cells and platelets contribute to inflammation, immunity and wound healing.

This knowledge could potentially lead to new treatments for a host of autoimmune diseases and other disorders, Rondina said in the U. Health statement.

If everything goes as planned, Schwertz and Rondinas research could board the International Space Station and blast off into space within the next year.

I cannot tell you how much I will enjoy that moment when I stand at the Kennedy Space Center with my family, kids in hand and watch the experiment really fly, Schwertz said proudly. Its going to be so rewarding to show them this is possible.

Excerpt from:
NASA funds University of Utah Health project on biological impacts of space travel - Salt Lake Tribune

China is looking to spark interest in space tourism by opening its soon-to-be-completed space station to everyday citizens.

Yang Liwei, who made history in 2003 by becoming China's first astronaut in space, told Chinese media earlier this month that people without formal astronaut training could soon visit the Tiangong space station.

"It is not a matter of technology but of demand," Yang said when asked if the general public would be able to tour Tiangong. "And it can be realized within a decade as long as there is such demand."

Yang was speaking as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which forms part of China's ongoing annual political sessions in Beijing. Adding further weight to the comments was Zhou Jianping, known as the chief designer of China's human spaceflight program, who later said the country's Shenzhou crew spacecraft could be used for space tourism. Taken together, the comments suggest that China is looking to establish a market for space tourism.

Related: The latest news about China's space program

But first, China needs to complete the three-module, T-shaped space station and make it fully operational. China plans to launch six missions this year to complete Tiangong. These will be launches of two new modules, a pair of cargo supply missions and two crewed missions, Shenzhou 14 and Shenzhou 15. The two three-person missions are also expected to carry out the first crew handover, which will temporarily see six astronauts aboard the space station.

But Shenzhou spacecraft, which launch from Jiuquan in the Gobi Desert on an established Long March 2F rocket, won't be the only option for getting tourists into space. China is working on a reusable rocket for human spaceflight, which would be capable of launching a new, larger and partially reusable crew spacecraft to the space station, Space.com previously reported. The new approach would mean more people could fly to space at once.

Whereas Shenzhou spacecraft can transport only three astronauts, the new generation of crewed space transportation vehicles will be capable of carrying six to seven astronauts, Huang Kewu, a human spaceflight official with the country's main space contractor, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said last year.

Commercial options are also being developed. CAS Space, a commercial spinoff of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), is aiming to offer rides to space for tourists as soon as 2025, apparently drawing inspiration from Blue Origin. Meanwhile, space plane company Space Transportation is developing a "rocket with wings" for space tourism and point-to-point travel, targeting a first suborbital flight in 2025. Orbital flights are planned for around 2030.

Wu Ji, a researcher with the CAS' National Space Science Center, told the Beijing Review last year that he hoped Chinese companies could compete in the international space tourism market. "Commercial programs can help lower costs and improve the efficiency of space activities, which will also benefit the traditional players in this area," Wu said.

China's first space-tourism flights may not take off for a few years, but the country seems set on establishing multiple ways for tourists to reach space.

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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China plans to open its Tiangong space station for tourism within a decade - Space.com

Its an ISS meet-cute! Two robots working aboard the International Space Station finally met after two years of working in different parts of the station. NASA shared an image of an Astrobee robot and a Project CIMON (Crew Interactive MObile companioN) robot meeting for the first time. While science fiction movies make it clear that robots uniting in space is a giant red flag, this image from the ISS is very charming.

NASAs Ames Research Center shared the delightfully robotic image in a post outlining the robots roles aboard the ISS. The Astrobee pictured (on the right) is one of three identical robots launched to the ISS by NASA. The only difference between the three is the color of their shell. Bumble, pictured above in blue, launched in 2019. The other two robots on Team Astrobee are also named after bees. Honey has a yellow shell and Queen has a green one. Their role aboard the ISS is to perform general assistance tasks like taking inventory or monitoring the environment aboard the station.

The Project CIMON, meanwhile, is a longtime ISS resident. The free-flying robot first launched to the space station back in 2018. Hailing from the German Space Agency, its the ISSs first artificial intelligent assistant. True to its title, Project CIMON is a hands-free database, computer, and camera to support research. But it also has another important task. The teams monitoring the robot are also examining how to use AI for social purposes. The astronauts aboard the ISS find incredible ways to pass the time. But it must be isolating being away from their friends and family. Not to mention their general confinement to the expansive research station. Hopefully, Project CIMON and its technology can help reduce the stress astronauts face.

While the robots couldnt look more distinct from one another, they both play vital roles in the ISSs day-to-day operations. In the post, NASA wrote,These free-floating helpers come from different countries and have unique functions, but they share a mission to assist astronauts, support station operations, and enable research that will take humans to the Moon and on to Mars.

Both robots have pretty vital roles on the ISS. But we hope this isnt their first and last hang session. In fact, get the whole Team Astrobee crew and Project CIMON together for a little robot party. Nothing could go wrong there.

Continued here:
Two Robots Aboard the International Space Station Finally Met - Nerdist