Category Archives: Space Station

Chinas Tiangong Space Station soon will receive its second batch of astronauts. Shenzhou 13 is scheduled to be launched on Oct. 16, bringing three astronauts to the space station on a six-month mission.

The aerospace industry, which spans a host of applications from aviation to industrial and military, has taken innovationin plastic materials into a broader space. While metals remain mainstays in the aerospace industry, since the 1970s plastics have enabled key breakthroughs, notably by reducing aircraft weight by as much as 50%.

Beyond lightweighting, plastics have been meeting the aerospace industrys requirements for strength and durability; resistance to corrosion and fatigue; impact-resistance; thermal stability; and ease of assembly. Materials such as polyetheretherketone (PEEK), polyimide (PI), polyamide-imide (PAI), polychlorotrifluoroethylene (PCTFE), among others, are now being tapped for their inherent properties.

The shift from heavy metals to lightweight plastic materials brought to the fore the use of carbon fiberreinforced plastic. Carbon-fiber composites have been used to produce large, complex parts for the aerospace industry. From narrow-body aircraft such as the Airbus 320 to the top-selling Airbus A350 and Boeing 787, material innovations have created major technological leaps in the aviation industry.

The wide-body Airbus A350 XWB is made up of more than 50% composites, helping to achieve a 25% reduction in fuel cost. The A350 XWBs wing, which measures 32 x 6 meters, is the biggest single aviation part produced from carbon fiberreinforced plastic.

The Boeing 787 is made of 50% composites by weight and 80% by volume; composites enabled a total 20% weight reduction. Carbon fiber has led to tougher body frames at reduced weight, letting the aircraft carry higher numbers of passengers at lower fuel costs.

High-performance plastics are extensively used in the space program, from helmets made of polycarbonate and the protective equipment and space suits worn by astronauts to the interior parts and structures of the spacecraft.

China aims to transform itself into an aviation powerhouse, drawing on its more than 70 years of technological experience in this area. The countrys decision to implement a manned space program in 1992 has reaped tremendous developments. The launch of the Shenzhou-12 crewed spaceship in June 2021 to Chinas earth-orbiting space station Tianhe was a major step toward the construction of Chinas permanent space station. The three-person crew in the return capsule of Shenzhou-12 marked another milestone in Chinas space program, noted the release from Chinaplas organizers.

A special exhibit at next years Chinaplas will highlight the use of plastics in the aviation and aerospace industries. Chinaplas 2022 is scheduled for April 25 to 28 in Shanghai. More information is on the Chinaplas website.

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Plastics, Composites Venture into Orbit and Beyond - Plastics Today

Earlier this week, a Soyuz spacecraft launched to the International Space Station with three people on board. But only one of them was a cosmonaut. The other two crew members were Russian actress Yulia Peresild and film producer Klim Shipenko. They will be on the ISS for 12 days to film scenes for an upcoming movie, called Challenge.

NASA says the film crew is there under a commercial agreement between Roscosmos and Moscow-based media entities, adding that the launch will mark the expansion of commercial space opportunities to include feature filmmaking.

Veteran cosmonaut, Anton Shkaplerov, is on his fourth flight to space. He will actually be assisting with the filming for the movie.

This brings the total on board the ISS to 10, as the three space flyers join Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency), NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov. Vande Hei is currently working towards completing the longest single spaceflight by an astronaut in U.S. history, at 355 days. Hes scheduled to return to Earth in March 2022.

While astronauts have helped film previous documentaries about the ISS and the Hubble Space Telescope, this is the first movie with real actors to actually be filmed in space. Russian journalist Vitaly Egorov told NPR that Russias space agency made no secret of filmmaking junket, saying that the project promotes our space program and shows it hasnt gathered cobwebs, that were still flying and can come up with interesting ideas.

Some reports say NASA is working with Tom Cruise to shoot a film in outer space.

Related: Its Official: William Shatner Will be Flying to Space With Blue Origin

The Russian film is about a surgeon, played by Peresild who has to operate on a sick cosmonaut in space because his medical condition prevents his return to Earth. The real launch was filmed as part of the movie, with the Baikonur Cosmodrome becoming a film set.

The real docking of the Soyuz to the ISS created a little drama because of communications issues that led to Shkaplerov taking manual control of the spacecraft to complete the docking. This event added about 10 minutes to the expected docking time, which cut it close to when there was an known upcoming brief communications blackout.

Anton, we have very little time left, Russian mission control said. After that, just as you trained for. Youll be fine.

I can see everything really well, Shkaplerov radioed down, shortly before safely docking.

Whether that bit of drama will be added to the movie is not known at this time.

When the space flyers came on board, some on Twitter wondered why Peresild was wearing a red uniform which on the Star Trek shows and movies is the characters who are expendable and quite often end up killed.

Cosmonaut Shkaplerov is part of Expedition 66, a long-term mission expected to last 174 days, while the spaceflight participants Shipenko and Peresild will just stay onboard for less than two weeks to shoot their scenes.

They are expected to return to Earth with Novitskiy Oct. 16 on another Soyuz craft, which has been docked at the space station for several months. They will make a parachute-assisted landing on the Kazakh steppe.

Lead image caption: The Soyuz MS-19 rocket with three Russian crewmates aboard ascends into space shortly after launching under clear blues skies in Kazakhstan. Credit: NASA

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Russian Actor and Filmmaker are On the Space Station to Shoot Scenes for a Film - Universe Today

A Nasa astronaut who brought a tin whistle which once belonged to the late Chieftains legend Paddy Maloney has said he was the kind of guy that once hes been somewhere hes always going to have a presence there.

ady Coleman posted a photo of Paddys tin whistle looking down on earth from the International Space Station (ISS) after the news broke of his death on Tuesday.

Speaking to Independent.ie, Ms Coleman said: Just because I came home, and I brought the whistle home, doesnt mean theres not a piece of Paddy out there in space.

In 2011 Ms Coleman travelled to the International Space Station on a six-month mission and said she had to be very careful about what she brought with her.

Taking something to space is very personal. We dont get very much room to do that and theres a certain amount of trust involved. It has to be something that agrees with the space mission, which is that even though only a few of us get to go and explore, we bring other people with us and that why were allowed to bring these kind of things.

The whistle and the flute were both part of a very official allocation where we get to bring things with us that will help people on Earth to understand what we do up there and why we go and hope that they can see themselves up there too, she said.

The whistle and flute in question belonged to Paddy and his Chieftains bandmate Matt Molloy.

Ms Coleman said when she asked the two musicians what they would like her to bring for them, they both selected items which were close to their hearts.

[Paddy] chose the tin whistle because its so characteristic of him. He liked these generation tin whistles and theyre really not very expensive. Everyone can kind of go and buy one, so I think he liked that he was sending something not so very precious and something that everyone could play up to space.

I also brought an E Flat Irish flute given to me by Matt Molloy. That type of flute is like a treasure of Ireland and I think he felt like it belonged to Ireland and by sending that he was bringing other flute players with it, she said.

Ms Coleman who was immortalised on an Irish stamp in 2019 has always been a fan of Irish music and said its about making a community whether youre in a pub or sitting on a bench or youve gone to the space station.

She met Paddy years earlier through his son Padraig who was an intern at Nasa. She began playing music with Padraig and others from Nasa, including another astronaut famous in Ireland, Chris Hadfield.

Mr Hadfield and Ms Coleman, who played in a folk and Celtic music group called Bandella, were invited to play at the Lorraine Celtic Music Festival in France at Paddys request.

Ms Coleman said: Paddy was all about family, family for music and also for family.

She said the support he gave his fellow musicians and the sense of community which he always strived for was epitomised when he joined the band on stage in France.

He goes, oh no heres the deal, were playing together. But when youre playing and Paddy Maloney starts into a solo you cant help but take your whistle down and stop, but he looked me right in the eye and took his whistle down as if to say if youre not playing, Im not playing.

For me he really had a way of making every stage the site of family meeting, she added.

Following the announcement of Paddys death, Ms Coleman sought to immortalise him one more time by posting the image of his tin whistle on Twitter.

With the image she wrote a commemorative message saying: I loved playing Paddy Moloneys tin whistle on the ISS while floating/watching Earth go by. Paddy had the rare ability to connect w/ people across the globe & I treasured our time together. My heart is w/ his family & musical family everywhere-he/his music will forever be missed.

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'Just because I brought Paddy's tin whistle home from space, it doesn't mean there's not a piece of him still out there,' says Nasa astronaut -...

Swiss researchers say they have completed the most detailed virtual reality (VR) map of the universe ever created.

The map permits users to travel through space and time, the researchers said in a recent statement. It can be imagined as a kind of Google Earth, but for the universe. The map was created by a team at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL).

With the help of VR headsets, users can visit places in the universe virtually. This includes the International Space Station, the Moon, Saturn and far away exoplanets.

The software program is called the Virtual Reality Universe Project, or VIRUP. The researchers said they combined the largest data set of information about the universe to create the three-dimensional (3D) experience.

People can see the virtual universe through VR equipment or with 3D glasses in a theater. A personal computer can also be used to see the universe in a non-3D way.

Jean-Paul Kneib is the director of EPFL's astrophysics laboratory. He told The Associated Press one of the best parts of the project was putting together parts of the data set into one framework.

You can see the universe at different scales -- nearby us, around the Earth, around the solar system, at the Milky Way level," Kneib said. "To see through the universe and time up to the beginning -- what we call the Big Bang." Many scientists believe the Big Bang is the explosion that created the universe.

VIRUP produces images that can appear as close as one meter or seemingly at an infinite distance. It is available to everyone for free, but does require at least a computer and is best experienced with VR equipment that can also show 3D images.

It aims to get many kinds of visitors. This includes both scientists looking to get a virtual picture of the data they collect and people seeking a new way to explore the universe.

The software has been released in its first, or beta version. This version can run on personal computers, but not Mac computers from Apple.

Downloading the software and content can be difficult for less skilled computer users. Users seeking the best experience will also need a powerful computer with a lot of storage.

There are different versions of the software. A smaller version is aimed at the public and a larger one is meant for scientists or astronomy experts.

The project combines information from eight databases. It includes at least 4,500 known exoplanets, tens of millions of galaxies and hundreds of millions of space objects. More than 1.5 billion light producing objects from the Milky Way alone are included.

The researchers expect to continually add data, meaning the virtual experience will keep getting better with time. Future databases could include space rocks called asteroids in our solar system or farther objects in our galaxy.

Yves Revaz is an astrophysicist with the EPFL who spoke to the AP about the effort. He called the system a very efficient way of visiting all the different scales that compose our universe. Revaz added: A very important part of this project is that it's a first step toward treating much larger data sets which are coming."

Im Bryan Lynn.

The Associated Press reported this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

_________________________________________________

virtual reality (VR) n. a set of images and sounds produced by a computer to represent a real place or situation

headset n. a device worn on the head that permits the use to see and hear computer images

exoplanet n. a planet that orbits a star outside our solar system

three-dimensional (3D) adj. having or appearing to have length, depth and height

framework n. a set of ideas or facts that provide support for something

scale n. the size or level of something

infinite adj. extremely large or great

efficient adj. working well and not wasting time or energy

compose v. to be the parts that something consists of

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New Map of the Universe Lets Users Travel Through Space and Time - VOA Learning English

On October 8, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet capturedsomething strikingly rarefrom on board the International Space Station (ISS).

The photo which is a single frame taken from a longer timelapse might look like it shows a cobalt bomb exploding over Europe, but this scary-looking blue light didn't do any damage. In fact, most people would never have noticed it happening.

Instead, the frame shows something far less ominous called a 'transient luminous event' a lightning-like phenomenon striking upwards in the upper atmosphere.

Also known as upper-atmospheric lighting, transient luminous events are a bunch of related phenomena which occur during thunderstorms, but significantly above where normal lighting would appear. While related to lighting, they work a little bit differently.

There are 'blue jets', which happen lower down in the stratosphere, triggered by lightning. If the lighting propagates through the negatively charged (top) region of the thunderstorm clouds before it gets through the positive region below, the lightning ends up striking upwards, igniting a blue glow from molecular nitrogen.

Then there are red SPRITES (Stratospheric/mesospheric Perturbations Resulting from Intense Thunderstorm Electrification) electrical discharges that often glow red, occurring high above a thunderstorm cell, triggered by disturbances from the lightning below and slightly dimmer red ELVES (Emission of Light and Very Low Frequency perturbations due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources) in the ionosphere.

Sticking with the theme, there are also TROLLs (Transient Red Optical Luminous Lineaments) which occur after strong SPRITES, as well as Pixies and GHOSTS. We're sure the scientists had lots of fun naming all of these phenomena.

"What is fascinating about this lightning is that just a few decades ago they had been observed anecdotally by pilots, and scientists were not convinced they actually existed," Pesquet explains in a photo caption.

"Fast forward a few years and we can confirm elves, and sprites are very real and could be influencing our climate too!"

Although Pesquet doesn't explain specifically which type of luminous event we're seeing, this particular image could be showing a 'blue starter', which is a blue jet that doesn't quite make it to the jet part, and instead creates a shorter and brighter glow.

These events are particularly hard to photograph from the ground as they are both very high in the sky and also regularly obscured by storm clouds. Plus, the phenomena usually only last for milliseconds or a couple of seconds each time.

With all those things in mind, it makes the ISS a particularly great place to look for these transient events, particularly if you have a timelapse turned on. So far we've seen a number of these events captured by astronauts on the ISS, and a small number taken from the ground.

Interestingly, Earth isn't even the only place where the light shows take place, with researchers discovering just last year that 'blue sprites' were occurring on Jupiter too.

"The Space Station is extremely well suited for this observatory as it flies over the equator where there are more thunderstorms," says Pesquet.

"This is a very rare occurrence and we have a facility outside Europe's Columbus laboratory dedicated to observing these flashes of light."

We hope that this research will give us plenty more photos of this incredible phenomena in the future!

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What The Heck Was This Blue 'Luminous Event' Photographed From The Space Station? - ScienceAlert

The Soyuz MS-18 crew ship relocates from the Rassvet module to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module on September 28, 2021. Credit: NASA

The Expedition 65 crew focused on a variety of advanced housekeeping activities today aboard the International Space Station. There was also time for robotics research, crew departure preparations, and filmmaking activities.

Five station astronauts had their hands full on Friday working on everything from electronics, cleaning, plumbing, and setting up temporary crew quarters. Some of the crewmates also had time to continue ongoing research, which is the main mission of the orbiting lab.

NASA Flight Engineer Shane Kimbrough installed computer networking gear and connected cables inside the Unity module. Over in the Tranquility module, NASA Flight Engineers Mark Vande Hei and Megan McArthur reorganized stowed items to make space for upcoming operations inside the NanoRacks Bishop airlock.

Commander Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) replaced components on the water recovery system located inside the Kibo laboratory module. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Flight Engineer Akihiko Hoshide stayed busy in the Columbus laboratory module checking out science computers and then outfitting crew alternate sleep accommodations.

McArthur also turned on an Astrobee robotic free-flyer and tested its maneuvering abilities using a perching arm. Kimbrough removed a science freezer from the Cygnus space freighter and installed it in the Kibo lab. Vande Hei called down to NASA nutritionists and discussed his views about the stations food menu.

The stations three cosmonauts worked on the docked Soyuz crew ships and their complement of Russian space research. Flight Engineers Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov practiced Earth descent techniques inside the Soyuz MS-18 crew ship, and then tried on the lower body negative pressure suit that prevents fluids from pooling toward a crew members head in microgravity. Veteran cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov checked on life support and computer components inside the Soyuz MS-19.

All three cosmonauts also participated in filmmaking activities in the stations Russian segment with spaceflight participants Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko. The two space station guests will return to Earth on Oct. 16 with Novitskiy as he leads the pair to a parachute landing in Kazakhstan inside the Soyuz MS-18 crew ship.

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Advanced Housekeeping Keeps Space Station in Tip-Top Shape - SciTechDaily

latest happenings around NASA

ABOVE VIDEO: A change of command aboard the space station, getting curious for World Space Week, and expanding commercial opportunities in space a few of the stories to tell you about This Week at NASA!

Change of Command Aboard the Space Station

On Oct. 4 aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 65 Commander Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency officially handed over command of the station to European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

Pesquet will command the station until he departs aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft in mid-to-late November with Hoshide and NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough.

Get Curious for World Space Week

Get Curious with Vice President Harris is a YouTube Originals video released on Oct. 7 to kick off World Space Week. It follows a group of kids as they meet the Vice President and go on a scavenger hunt with clues delivered by our Shane Kimbrough from the International Space Station. The Vice President is the chair of the National Space Council.

Expanding Commercial Space Opportunities

On Oct. 5, Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, Russian actress Yulia Peresild and producer Klim Shipenko launched to the space station from Kazakhstan. Several hours later, the Expedition 65 crew welcomed the trio aboard the orbiting outpost. The actress and producer are filming scenes aboard the station for a movie as part of a commercial agreement that marks the expansion of commercial space opportunities to include feature filmmaking.

Space Stations Next SpaceX Crew Rotation Mission

We previewed NASAs SpaceX Crew-3 mission during a pair of virtual briefings Oct. 6 and 7. Crew-3 is the next crew rotation flight of a U.S. commercial spacecraft with astronauts to the International Space Station.

NASAs Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, and Kayla Barron along with European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer are targeted for launch to the station Oct. 30 from our Kennedy Space Center. Meanwhile, NASA has reassigned astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada to our SpaceX Crew-5 mission, expected to launch to the space station no earlier than fall 2022. Mann and Cassada previously were assigned to missions on NASAs Boeing Crew Flight Test and NASAs Boeing Starliner-1 mission, respectively.

Build Your Own Lucy Time Capsule

The team for our Lucy mission invites you to create your very own time capsule for the mission and share it online using the hashtag #LucyTimeCapsule. The plan is to revisit your time capsule at future mission milestones, for personal reflection and/or to maybe add new items. The Lucy spacecraft will carry a time capsule that includes a plaque inscribed with words of wisdom on its 12-year odyssey to several asteroids, including the never-before-explored Trojan asteroids that share an orbit with Jupiter. Lucy is targeted for launch no earlier than Oct. 16.

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage: El Ayer y El Maana

On Oct. 7, award-winning journalist Soledad OBrien hosted El Ayer y El Maana, which translates to Yesterday and Tomorrow in English. The NASA Hispanic Heritage month event featured a conversation about the new National Museum of the American Latino, NASAs impact and influence, and the pioneering spirit of Latinos on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agencys website.

The 10th International Space Apps Challenge

On Oct. 2-3, NASA collaborated with several space agency partners for the 10th International Space Apps Challenge, which was entirely virtual. Each year the event, which is recognized as the largest annual hackathon in the world, engages thousands of people around the globe to work with the agencys open source data to answer some of the most pressing challenges on Earth and in space. Space Apps is managed by NASAs Earth Science Division.

Thats whats up this week @NASA

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THIS WEEK @NASA: Space Station's Next SpaceX Crew Rotation Mission, Change of Command Aboard ISS - SpaceCoastDaily.com

Indias strategic rival China has already made advances in maintaining a sustained human presence in orbit and the learning curve for India appears steep. Only collaboration with Russia can give India a leg up and may perhaps be the only path for India to catch up to China in any meaningful way, writes Aditya Pareek, Research Analyst at the Bangalore-based Takshashila Institution.

Russia and China have seen their interests converge in opposition to the West in many strategic domains, including outer space. The two nations are collaborating on a lunar scientific exploration project called the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). Russia may also be helping China develop an early warning system with orbital components. These moves can be interpreted by some as the two nations presenting a quasi-joint front and an alternative to a de-facto US dominated order in outer space.

The International Space Station (ISS), the iconic symbol of multilateral international co-operation in orbit, has long been plagued by many problems. These include failing equipment reaching the end of its service life, cracks in the modules and threats of a Russian withdrawal potentially taking away a substantial part of the existing structure, leaving it a mere shadow of itself.

Russia has contemplated pulling out of the ISS since at least2009. At the time, it was even giving serious thought to detaching Russian modules from the ISS instead of letting them be decommissioned with the rest of the station.

By contrast, recently Russia has launched an integrated scientific module called Nauka to the ISS, and has an agreement in place with NASA for outer space co-operation until 2030. Russias state space company ROSCOSMOS chief Dmitry Rogozin has also recently clarified that previous reports of his remarks about pulling out of the ISS reflected an error in interpretation and Russia is not looking to pull out after all.

Russia also has plans to launch a separate space station by 2025, likely partly motivated by the anticipated failure of equipment in an avalanche of malfunctions on board the ISS at around the same time. This concern becomes aggravated due to the sheer old age of the ISS and numerous cracks in the modules, leading to atmosphere leaks.

China has already launched the core module, Tianhe, for its Tiangong Space Station, which has many similarities to the former Soviet Space station Mir but is overall smaller in size.

It is curious that Russia and China have not pursued a joint Space Station project like ILRS. One possible reason behind the lack of Russia-China cooperation on a joint space station could be Russias desire to maintain some strategic autonomy and not live up to the Junior Partner image that a lot of observers in the West attribute to it in the highly pragmatic and tentative alliance it has with China.

Nevertheless, Russia has shown a willingness to send a crew of cosmonauts to Tiangong and China has welcomed it. Most interestingly, an article in Chinas state controlled Global Times, quoting unnamed observers, asserts that while Moscow has decided to do it alone, it has not shut the door for future cooperation on Chinas upcoming space station, which is expected to be operational by 2022.

Chinas national prestige and demonstrated space capabilities will likely be boosted by building Tiangong on its own. The main Chinese goal in this endeavour may be to leave little doubt that it has now entered the same league as Russia and the US, the two pioneering space powers.

With a proven heavy lift launch capability in the form of its Long March 5B and other successive rockets, China will likely continue to undertake more and more ambitious missions and orbital launches. Its efficient launch capability, space technology, industrial base and a burgeoning economic wherewithal to support it all gives Beijing increasingly little reason to depend on Moscow or any other partner for achieving national objectives in space.

It is more likely that China engages with Moscow out of international political balancing and counter-balancing concerns. However, in addition to a shared adversary in Washington, the two nations also share many strategic alignment goals.

The Wolf Amendment makes it impossible for the US to engage with China on any space co-operation, thus making a space race and opposing blocs emerging between China and US inevitable. Russia had its own considerable space capabilities and can shift this balance in the favour of the party it aligns with, thus making it indispensable to Beijing in this contention against the US.

Similarly, India, which is growing ever close to the US, apart from serving as an important lynchpin on terrestrial security co-operation, can also become a major partner in space co-operation. With its own relatively nascent but efficient launch capabilities, New Delhi can be instrumental in supplementing the payload and crew missions required for any prolonged missions in orbit.

According to Chairman Dr. K Sivan of the Indian Space Agency (ISRO), India is also looking at a sustained human presence in space and that technology for an Indian space station may emerge from ISROs human Space flight programme, for which Russia is a key supplier and partner. A critical question to ask may be whether India-Russia collaboration on a joint space station serves as a sort of counterbalance to Russia-China collaboration on ILRS to give Moscow some leverage over Beijing.

However, the possibility of this strategy backfiring and causing rifts in existing co-operation between Moscow, China and India, as well as Washington, can also materialise, thereby pushing all involved towards pursuing unilateral goals and missions in space.

In another scenario, a parallel alignment between Moscow and India for space co-operation can aggravate Beijings anxieties. Any India-Russia high-tech co-operation in orbit roughly on par with their own early warning system collaboration with Russia will deteriorate Chinas own perceived place in the world, dealing a blow to Chinese morale. A less likely but possible source of Beijings anxiety can also be the prospect of India indirectly absorbing ideas from Chinese Intellectual Property (IP) in space systems via co-operation with Moscow.

India has several options for its approach to its envisioned space station, including a unilateral approach, a bilateral approach, or a multilateral approach with either the US or Russia. India can also keep the door open for collaboration with other space faring nations too by negotiating crew training missions on-board the ISS across modules owned by different international partners.

However, should India adhere to the unrealistic goal of launching the entire programme itself with little to no foreign co-operation, it stands to reason that the road to success will not be easy or quick. With the precedent of co-operation on many high-tech projects like the BRAHMOS cruise missile and the Gaganyan Human Space Flight mission, India can look towards Russia for assistance. India can provide the necessary funding for implementing key technologies and Russia can supply the know-how.

However, the partnership out of which the aforementioned Indian space station emerges shouldnt be a vendor-client deal between ISRO and Russian state space subsidiary Glavkosmos but rather a strategic partnership between ROSCOSMOS and ISRO.

Indias strategic rival China has already made advances in maintaining a sustained human presence in orbit and the learning curve for India appears steep. Only collaboration with Russia can give India a leg up and may perhaps be the only path for India to catch up to China in any meaningful way.

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Prospects of Indian and Chinese collaboration with Russia on a Joint Space Station - Valdai Discussion Club

Actor William Shatner, famously known as Captain Kirk of the original 1960s Star Trek television series, is the latest in a line of celebrities slated to fly into space aboard a Blue Origin rocket. While these flights are great publicity for the emerging space tourism industry, it could overshadow the real science taking place in space.

At 90 years old, the Canadian-born Shatner will become the oldest person to ever reach space. He'll breakthe record set in July by82-year-old Wally Funk, the pioneering female aviator who flew on board thefirst passenger flightof the Blue Origin rocket. She in turn had broken the record set byJohn Glenn, whospent nine days aboard Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998 at age 77. Glenn was a former astronaut, fighter pilotwho had experienced the rigours of spaceflight and knew what to expect.

Mr. Shatner may find the ride to space a little less comfortable than the bridge of the starship Enterprise. He'll face the physical challenges of launch and re-entry as he is carried aloft on a straight up, straight down hop above the atmosphere. It may not be the crowning achievement of his long acting career, but it will be a major accomplishment for a very senior citizen.

Space tourism is definitely taking off.JeffBezos, the 57-year-old billionaire behind Blue Originand founder of Amazon, also flew on his rocket's first passenger flight in July.That was justover a week after fellow billionaire and space tourism entrepreneur, Richard Branson, flew aboard his Virgin Galactic rocket plane at the age of 71.

In September four space tourists spent three days in orbit aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule. And a Russian actor and film director are now aboard the International Space Station to shoot a movie about a medical emergency in space.Even Tom Cruise is talking about filming action scenes on the space station.

All this may sell tickets for space tourism and blockbuster movies, but will it detract from the real science that has been going on for more than 20 years on the space station by dedicated astronauts who spend years training for each flight?

The International Space Station is first and foremost a scientific laboratory operated by the U.S., Russia, Canada, Japan and 11 European nations. Oh, and it happens to be in space.

The walls, ceilings and floors are packed with scientific experiments holding everything from growth chambers that study how plants survive in microgravity, to a flame box that watches fire progress without gravity, to an aquarium and rodent box where we can see how animals adapt to a weightless world.

Over more than 20 years of operations, thousands of experiments have been done in the space laboratory, many of them using the astronauts and cosmonauts themselves as subjects.

For example, Scott Kelly spent almost a year up there and was part of a study that compared him to his identical twin who remained on Earth in an effort to understand the effects of prolonged spaceflight on the human body. This will be an important issue for future spacefarers who will make the long journey to Mars and back.

While NASA and the other space agencies have done a good job justifying the need for these experiments, what they don't seem to be as good at is advertising the results. We seldom hear about new drugs, new breakthroughs or new products that were developed thanks to research done on the space station, though NASA's website points to a raft of findings, from drugs for cancer, and muscular dystrophy, to new understandings of bone loss, to environmental science to improved water purification systems.

It is interesting that much of thepublic knows more about the adventures of a fictional space traveller on a fictional starship than they do about the actual people who are up there in a real space station.

It would be in the best interest of the space agencies to do a better job of publicizingthe results of their space station research. It would go a long way towards justifying the upwards of $100 billion invested in the ISS. Otherwise it could end up looking like the world's most expensive movie set.Space science may not be as exciting as an action movie or seeing your favourite celebrity floating weightless, but it can still be enormously valuable.

In the meantime, good luck Mr. Shatner, as you boldly go where no nonagenarian has gone before.

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Are celebrity tourists eclipsing the real science done in space? - CBC.ca

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.coms list of space policy events for the week plus a day of October 10-17, 2021 and any insight we can offer about them. The House will be in session for at least one day, Tuesday, and committees are meeting virtually. The Senate is in recess except for pro forma sessions.

During the Week

Tomorrow (Monday) is a federal holiday, Columbus Day, and government offices will be closed, although many companies do not observe this one. We know there is an ongoing effort to rename this Indigenous Peoples Day, but the official name per the Office of Personnel Management has not changed.

On Tuesday, the House will be back in session for what is planned for just one day in order to vote on the revised debt limit bill that cleared the Senate last week. The House was supposed to be in a committee work week where committees hold mostly virtual hearings, but the House itself meets only in pro forma sessions. But the Senate amended the debt limit bill that passed the House earlier, so a new vote is required and before October 19 when the House was scheduled to return for legislative business. Bills can pass by unanimous consent in a pro forma session, but recorded votes are not permitted. It is clear such a contentious bill will not pass by UC, so everyone has to come back to town. A reminder: the Senate-passed bill simply raises the debt limit by a fixed amount that is expected to be reached in early December. At that point, we will have to go through this yet again.

The space program is full of interesting things this week to keep our minds off all that dysfunction. From 90-year-old William Shatner, Star Treks original Captain Kirk, launching to space on New Shepard on Wednesday (a one-day slip due to weather) to the launch of the Lucy mission to the Trojan asteroids on Saturday, and the return of Soyuz MS-18 from the International Space Station Saturday night into Sunday, theres lots going on.

If you havent seen Anderson Coopers interview with Shatner, its hilarious. And at almost 20 minutes, longer than the flight will be (its 10-11 minutes from liftoff to landing).

And of course were all interested in how film director Klim Shipenko and actress Yulia Peresild will be feeling when they climb out of the Soyuz MS-18 capsule at 12:36 am Sunday morning EDT after 12 days in space. They certainly looked happy when they arrived on the ISS last Tuesday. They are returning with Oleg Novitsky, a professional cosmonaut who has been on ISS since April. Peresild portrays a surgeon who must fly to the space station to tend to an ill cosmonaut. Novitsky plays the patient. Should be a fun film.

The Lucy mission launches on a 12-year mission from Cape Canaveral early Saturday morning (5:34 am EDT), preceded by a series of briefings on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Its quite a fascinating mission not just scientifically, but the trajectory it will follow to study seven of the Trojan asteroids that are at the widely-separately L4 and L5 Sun-Jupiter Lagrange points. Unlike many NASA missions, Lucy is not an acronym. The spacecraft is named after the fossilized human ancestor found in 1974 in Ethiopia and given that name.

The week also has some excellent conferences.

Among them is the American Astronautical Societys annual Von Braun symposium, taking place in-person at its usual venue in Huntsville, AL and virtually. This will be the first public talk by Jim Free in his new role as NASAs Associate Administrator (AA) for Exploration Systems Development. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson split the Human Exploration and Operations Missions Directorate (HEOMD) in two on September 21. Now they are the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate (ESDMD) and the Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD). Kathy Lueders, who was the AA for HEOMD, is now AA for SOMD. She speaks on Tuesday, as does Space Technology Mission Directorate AA Jim Reuter. Associate Administrator Bob Cabana (the top civil servant in the agency) is the luncheon speaker on Wednesday, and Free is the luncheon speaker on Thursday. [UPDATE, OCT 11: AAS just sent an email saying that Cabana and Free have swapped places, so Free is on Wednesday and Cabana on Thursday.] Just before Wednesdays luncheon is a panel of five NASA Center Directors that illlustrate the agencys diversity efforts. Four are women: Janet Petro (Kennedy), Marla Prez-Davis (Glenn), Jody Singer (Marshall), and Vanessa Wyche (Johnson). Two are African-American: Wyche and Langleys Clayton Turner, the panels moderator. Prez-Davis is Hispanic.

The Mars Societys annual symposium runs Thursday through Sunday. Each morning Pacific Daylight Time (add 3 for EDT) is full of plenary sessions, including a talk by NASA Chief Scientist Jim Green on Friday and NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy on Saturday. The afternoons are technical sessions. The whole event looks terrific.

There are a bunch of committee meetings and other great events, too many to summarize here.

Chinas Shenzhou-13 launch, which we mentioned last week, could take place Friday or Saturday EDT. China still is not saying anything officially. but rumors are the three-person crew will launch on October 16 Beijing Time, which could be October 15 EDT depending on the time of day (EDT is 12 hours behind Beijing time). We will post whatever we learn when we learn it on our Calendar entry for this event.

Those events and others we know about as of Sunday morning are shown below. Check back throughout the week for others we learn about later and add to our Calendar, or changes to these.

Monday, October 11

Monday-Thursday, October 11-14

Monday-Friday, October 11-15

Tuesday, October 12

Tuesday-Wednesday, October 12-13

Tuesday-Thursday, October 12-14

Wednesday, October 13

Wednesday-Thursday, October 13-14

Thursday, October 14

Thursday-Friday, October 14-15

Thursday-Sunday, October 14-17

Friday, October 15

Saturday, October 16

Saturday-Sunday, October 16-17

Last Updated: Oct 11, 2021 8:33 am ET

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What's Happening in Space Policy October 10-17, 2021 SpacePolicyOnline.com - SpacePolicyOnline.com