Mar 26
Yesterday afternoon’s Soyuz launch
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Mar 26
#Kazakhstan – Russian-US crew blast off for ISS from Kazakhstan by Vasily Maximov #AFP #Soyuz pic.twitter.com/NKAUzOEBl0
— AFP Photo Department (@AFPphoto) March 26, 2014
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Mar 24
Here’s your daily dose of mysterious steel structures direct from Kazakhstan.
Posted in: Today's Chili
Here’s your daily dose of mysterious steel structures direct from Kazakhstan. NASA’s chief photographer, Bill Ingalls, got up early yesterday to capture this stunning sunrise scene at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. You can see the empty Soyuz launch pad with its support booms and trusses wide open, shortly before the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft was rolled out by train. The launch of the Soyuz rocket is scheduled for March 26th, when it will send a new crew to the International Space Station. [Bill Ingalls/NASA]
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Nov 01
In a planned mission, three ISS crew members took their Soyuz out for a ride around the ISS. Why? Did they want to show Sandra Bullock’s character in Gravity how it’s really done? Not exactly. Instead, it’s actually the astronaut equivalent of moving your car out of a parking space so your roommate can park his. Only we’re dealing with Soyuz spacecrafts as cars. And the ISS as your apartment. And oh yeah, space.
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Sep 13
While exciting in some ways—homecoming, yay!—the trip home from the International Space Station is a scary enough journey even when everything goes right. Now imagine doing it with no height sensors to tell you how far from the ground you are and when to brace for impact. That’s exactly what happened earlier week.
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Apr 30
NASA’s space shuttle fleet was retired back in 2011 and since then the agency has not launched any U.S. astronauts in space on its own. It has entered in to an agreement with Russian Space Agency, Roscosmos, to let U.S. astronauts ride on their Soyuz spacecraft for missions to the International Space Station and back. NASA initiated the Commercial Crew Program, a public-private partnership, three years ago to make sure that American companies would be launching their astronauts in to space from U.S. soil by 2015. However due to budget cuts this plan now faces a two year delay, forcing NASA to extend its agreement with Roscosmos till 2016 at a cost of $424 million.
NASA and Roscosmos originally signed an agreement for space transportation back in 2009, so this extension doesn’t come as a shock. Though it is a setback for SpaceX and its competitors who hope to rocket astronauts to the ISS from U.S. soil, and that too at a relatively lower cost than what the Russians are charging NASA. If more Commercial Crew Program budget cuts hit NASA in fiscal year 2014, it might once again force the agency to extend their agreement for transportation aboard the Soyuz. To keep its plan on schedule, NASA needs the full $821 million in funding.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Japanese Firm Launches ‘Unimo’ Wheelchair That Can Traverse Any Terrain, Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Achieves 1st Rocket-Powered Flight , 
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Mar 29
Normally, a trip from Earth to the ISS takes about two days. Thursday, a Soyuz capsule docked with the orbiting laboratory after less than six hours of flight time, setting a record. Accelerating the trip wasn’t an issue of newer technology or more powerful engines, necessarily, but of better math and planning. The Russian vehicle essentially took a shortcut that required precisely timed steering over the course of four orbits, putting three crew members (including one American astronaut) on the space station at 10:28pm ET — just five hours and 45 minutes after takeoff from Kazakhstan. Russian engineers are already looking at ways to trim more time off the trip, by cutting two more orbits from the route. Obviously the human cargo appreciates spending less time in the cramped quarters of the Soyuz. But getting equipment and materials for experiments to the ISS quicker should also yield better and more reliable scientific results. For a few clips of liftoff and the docking itself check out the NASA link in the source.
Filed under: Transportation, Science, Alt
Dec 27
Russia’s new spaceship will fly you to the moon, let you swing among the stars
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Russia’s protracted attempts at replacing the aging space warhorse that is Soyuz may finally bear fruit. RSC Energia has announced that it has finished the design of a prototype spacecraft under the country’s Prospective Piloted Transport System — the equivalent of the Orion program. The as-yet unnamed craft is expected to be ready for testing by 2017, and unlike the current model, will be fully reusable. It’s been designed not only as a taxi to take cosmonauts (and the odd multi-billionaire) to the International Space Station, but also ferry crews to the moon. That is, of course, assuming that Elon Musk doesn’t get there first and make the moon his summer home.
Filed under: Transportation, Science, Alt
Via: Moon Daily
Source: Ria Novosti
Oct 07
If you thought that year out around Europe was an eye opener, how about 12 months on the International Space Station? That’s what’s in store for two unnamed astronauts. Currently, the maximum stay on the ISS is six months, but in 2015, one Russian, and one American will work their way through the whole calendar, in a trip that could help pave the way for deep space travel. Plenty of data has already been collected about the effect microgravity has on the body, but less is known of the longer-term implications. NASA is already considering sending manned expeditions to near-Earth asteroids and Mars in the coming decades — but the results from this excursion could prove invaluable. The names of the chosen two haven’t been revealed, and the Soyuz capsule‘s (currently unaccounted for) third-seat has also sparked talk of another person possibly coming along for the ride. Time to re-plan that gap year?
Filed under: Misc, Science, Alt
US and Russian space agencies to launch first year-long mission on the ISS originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Oct 2012 06:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Aug 03
In Six Hours, A Russian Robo-Freighter Sprints To the ISS with Tons of Supplies [Video]
Posted in: Today's Chili
Two days might not seem that long for your latest Amazon order’s arrival. But for the crew of the International Space Station, waiting 48 hours for fresh supplies must be an eternity. That’s why NASA and Rosaviakosmos have melded new technology and an old technique to deliver supplies eight times faster than ever before. More »
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