Tag: Human Spaceflight

Astronauts aboard China’s Tiangong space station have been getting some assistance from an “intelligent” robot. Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze — the crew of the current Shenzhou 19 mission aboard Tiangong — have been working alongside a robot named Xiao Hang (“Little Space”) using human-robot collaborative interaction software. The software has allowed them to carry out a variety of experiments related to human-robot spatial relationships, robot behavior characterization and multimodal interaction technologies. The goal of these experiments is to help enhance mission efficiency by fostering a more effective…

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Space Station Astronauts Deliver a Christmas Message for 2024 – YouTube Watch On Surrounded by floating candy canes and a makeshift snowman made out of stowage bags, the astronauts aboard the International Space Station gathered together to wish a Merry Christmas to everyone back on Earth. Expedition 72 commander Sunita “Suni” Williams, sporting a pair of festive reindeer antlers, joined fellow NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore, Don Pettit and Nick Hague to share some holiday cheer from their home away from home, 260 miles (420 kilometers) above the planet. “It’s…

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A new documentary about the life and love of America’s first woman in space will premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. “SALLY,” from National Geographic and director Cristina Costantini, reveals the legacy of NASA astronaut Sally Ride. Featuring archival footage filmed both on the ground and in space, along with new interviews with Ride’s close friends and colleagues, the documentary allows access to the “real Ride,” who struggled with the “limits and sacrifices true heroism demands.” “‘SALLY’ is the story of pioneering astronaut Sally Ride, who was the first…

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This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Art Cotterell is Research Associate at the School of Regulation and Global Governance, Australian National University. In recent years, a new “space race” has intensified between the United States and China. At a campaign rally last weekend, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump invoked this rivalry when declaring the US will “lead the world in space,” echoing Democratic counterpart Vice President Kamala Harris. Meanwhile, the president of China, Xi Jinping, has…

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China’s Shenzhou 18 crew have passed the keys to the Tiangong space station to its new occupants. The Shenzhou 19 mission launched on a Long March 2F rocket from Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China on Oct. 29 and arrived at the Tiangong space station 6.5 hours later.  Shortly thereafter, at 12:51 a.m. EDT (0451 GMT) on Oct. 30, the hatch between the Shenzhou 19 spacecraft and Tiangong was opened, allowing the three Shenzhou 18 mission astronauts to greet the trio of new arrivals aboard. The formal handover of the station…

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This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Loizos Heracleous is a Professor of Strategy at the Warwick Business School, University of Warwick. SpaceX has launched its Crew Dragon spacecraft on a “rescue mission” to bring back two astronauts stranded at the International Space Station (ISS) since June. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams travelled to the space station on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which was on its first mission with a human crew. But several engines malfunctioned once in…

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China has been operating its completed Tiangong orbital outpost for almost two years now — and is looking to expand its capabilities with new modules and spacecraft. The three-module, T-shaped Tiangong space station was fully assembled in November 2022, with the arrival of the Mengtian science module. The station seems set to grow again, however. “In the future, we will try to upgrade our facilities,” said Li Ming, chairman of the science and technology committee of the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), speaking during a plenary session on human…

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Four space station crewmates are safely back on Earth after an extended mission and a long wait for the weather to cooperate. SpaceX Crew-8 astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps all with NASA and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida on Friday (Oct. 25) at 3:29 a.m. EDT (0729 GMT). Their landing after 235 days — including a more than two-week wait on board the International Space Station (ISS) for acceptable conditions — set a record for…

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The Chinese company Deep Blue Aerospace is getting into the space tourism business. Deep Blue, which is based in the eastern province of Jiangsu, announced on Wednesday (Oct. 23) that it plans to start launching paying customers to suborbital space in 2027. Tickets will cost 1.5 million RMB apiece — about $210,000 U.S. at current exchange rates. For that price, customers will get “much more than a brief weightlessness experience,” Deep Blue wrote in a statement on Wednesday. (Translation to English by Google.) “They will experience the vastness and mystery…

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NASA is still unsure when it will next put astronauts on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which experienced issues during its first crewed test flight this summer. Starliner‘s next “potential” crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2025 “will be determined once a better understanding of Boeing’s path to system certification is established,” NASA officials wrote in a statement on Tuesday (Oct. 15). NASA and Boeing are still reviewing the requirements for Starliner’s certification, after propulsion problems arose on the first test flight with astronauts, which launched on June 5,…

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