The Russian MS21 Soyuz mission has just docked to the ISS with 3 Russian Cosmonauts aboard.
Tullio

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I've never bothered to check but is it true that the ISS doesn't pass over any Russian territory? I would love to see SpaceX take over management of the ISS.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

The ISS does pass over some of southern Russia as it covers the whole of the Earth's surface between 51.6N and 51.6S. If you want to learn a more about the ISS https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/Tools/orbitTutorial.htm is a good place to start.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Russia would not let Space X take over the ISS for obvious reasons. It's life is only up until 2030 anyway.

If it is everywhere and it is "matter" then let's send out an astronaut on a space walk with a bucket so he can collect some for analysis.

So you see, best beloveds, that is not "matter" that is "everywhere".

I still claim that it is a mis-reading of the fact that the universe is expanding when I think in my simple-minded analysis that it is contracting and that what we have here is good old gravity in which mass warps space.

We could go back to the "energy of the vacuum" way of thinking -------- for now I wish that we could understand the electron and electricity and avoid our convenient fictions that we use to control them to our availment. Philosophically this may not be possible to understand nature's reality completely. This may be true because true understanding for now is merely observation translated into language and mathematics and may always obscure a more profound explanation of the "truth". Truth is beauty, beauty is truth that is all we need to know-- Keats.

Russia would not let Space X take over the ISS for obvious reasons. It's life is only up until 2030 anyway.

It's life is open ended. As long as they periodically boost the ISS's orbit it can stay up indefinitely. The question is, does spaceX or anyone else feel it is worth the investment to keep it operating after those that are currently maintaining it are finished.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

I've never bothered to check but is it true that the ISS doesn't pass over any Russian territory? I would love to see SpaceX take over management of the ISS.

The orbital inclination of the ISS was deliberately set so as to fly over the Russian space port at Baikonur.

That orbit is somewhat highly inclined from the optimum for launches from Florida, but was very well worth bringing the Russians onboard into the ISS project at the time.


Here's hoping that good sense and good science prevails over the stupid deadly politics of deranged dictators!

Keep searchin'!
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

American astronaut Max Vande Hei returns to Earth on a Soyuz spacecraft with two Russian Cosmonauts after setting a record of 355 days in orbit on the ISS for American astronauts. Next NASA misssion to the ISS is SpaceX Crew-4 mission, which includes ESA astronaut Samantha Crisoforetti of Italy in her second space mission. It should happen on April 19.
Tullio

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Here's wishing for a smooth return and a non-political safe escape!...


Stay safe folks!!
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

More "technical glitches" plague NASA's Artemis 1.

NASA Artemis 1 wet dress rehearsal delayed again after technical fault.

1 has to wonder if they'll ever get the thing working at all.

Putin makes announcement about Russia’s lunar program

“We’ll resume the lunar program,” Putin asserted as he visited Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far Eastern Amur Region on Tuesday with his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko.

The Russian leader said he was referring to the launch of the Luna-25 robotic lander, which is scheduled to take place at Vostochny on August 22, according to spacecraft developer NPO Lavochkin.

The probe will be tasked with perfecting a soft landing on the lunar surface for future missions and studying the area near the Moon’s south pole. It’s planned to carry 30kg of scientific equipment, including a robotic arm and a drill.

THE SPACE RACE has restarted! Who will go to the moon first, USA, China or Russia?

Another fail for NASA's Artemis 1 and more $'s having to be spent. :-(

Third Attempt of NASA's Megarocket Rehearsal Foiled by Hydrogen Leak.

Third time was not really the charm for the SLS rocket.

NASA’s third attempt at a modified rehearsal of the Space Launch System (SLS) came to a halt on Thursday when a leak of liquid hydrogen was detected during tanking operations. The space agency is planning another wet dress rehearsal for the Moon rocket no earlier than April 21.

This is the latest in several setbacks to the rocket’s wet dress rehearsal, including delays due to weather, malfunctioning ventilation fans, and valve issues.

“All the issues that we’re encountering are procedural and lessons learned,” Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager, said during a press conference on Friday....

This costly on going comedy is getting beyond belief now. :-O

Cheers.

It's back to the drawing board hanger again for yet more repairs to the Artemis I rocket.

Why was NASA's 'Mega Moon Rocket' test delayed (again)?

NASA’s huge "Mega Moon rocket" is being removed from its launchpad and sent for repairs after failing three fuel tests in two weeks. Following the failures, NASA has said that the rocket’s slated June launch window will be "challenging" to meet.

The space agency has been running various prelaunch tests on the rocket, officially known as the Space Launch System (SLS), since April 1, two weeks after it was brought out to Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. NASA hoped that the tests, known as the "wet dress rehearsal," would take less than 48 hours to complete, but two weeks and three trials later, the agency has decided to bring the 322-foot-tall (98 meters) rocket back inside.

The wet dress rehearsals were being performed to ready the world’s most powerful rocket for the upcoming Artemis I flight, which will see the SLS fire an uncrewed Orion capsule around the moon and back in preparation for later crewed missions. But after the colossal rocket inched its way out onto the launchpad, NASA engineers’ attempts to load it with propellant and prepare it to the point of ignition failed. NASA has identified the main problems as a faulty helium check valve and a liquid hydrogen leak and hopes to remedy the issues through improvements to both the supply systems and the rocket, the agency said in a statement.

The agency insists that, aside from these "nuisance" issues, the rocket is fine....

I can't see how they can say that "the rocket is fine" when it keeps on failing all these tests.

Cheers.

As in all government endeavors ...if there is no profit motive there may be less incentive to do diligent and quality work.

Small slips like this got astronauts killed and almost doomed the Hubble to a useless pile of junk.
Perhaps this will spur NASA to get their act together. Seems like we had a passel of delays with the James Webb. May be time to kick ass and clean house.

Emirates Mars Mission Discovers New Mysterious Martian Aurora

The Emirates Mars Mission, the first interplanetary exploration undertaken by an Arab nation, today released stunning images of Mars' enigmatic discrete auroras, following a series of revolutionary observations that promise new answers - and new questions - about the interactions between Mars' atmosphere, the planet's magnetic fields and the solar wind.

The observations include a never-before seen phenomenon, dubbed the 'sinuous discrete aurora' by the EMM team, a huge worm-like aurora that extends halfway around the Red planet.

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Will it work this time?

NASA, Boeing say Starliner on track for May 19 launch.

Cheers.

NASA's SLS fails tests yet again.

After Failed Tests, Launch of NASA’s Megarocket Won’t Happen Until at Least August.

NASA will attempt another countdown rehearsal of the Space Launch System in early June, but the space agency warned that multiple tests of its finicky rocket might be necessary.

SLS returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on April 26, allowing technicians to swap out a faulty upper stage helium check valve and fix a small hydrogen leak on the tail service mast umbilical. These and other “nuisance” problems, as NASA describes them, prevented groundcrews from performing a fourth wet dress rehearsal, in which the rocket was to be fully loaded with super-cooled propellants and a full countdown practiced. NASA was hoping to perform the fourth test while the 322-foot-tall (98-meter) rocket was still standing on Launch Complex 39B, but it was not to be.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, NASA officials said they’ll try again to perform a full wet dress rehearsal in early or mid June. The added time will allow the team to resolve some lingering technical problems, perform additional checkouts of the rocket, and allow an off-site supplier of gaseous nitrogen to perform necessary upgrades of its pipeline system.

SLS is a key component of NASA’s upcoming Artemis program, which seeks to return U.S. astronauts to the dusty lunar surface for the first time in over 50 years. NASA also needs the megarocket to build its upcoming Lunar Gateway (a small space station in orbit around the Moon) and to enable future crewed trips to Mars. The SLS program has suffered from cost overruns and delays, with these latest setbacks adding insult to injury....

Maybe they should get Musk to give that black hole for $'s a tow into space as it maybe the only way that it'll get there.

[edit] In other news.

Take a Virtual Ride Toward Space in This bad*** Slingshot.

Cheers.

The Pentagon’s Nuclear Thermal Rocket Is Getting Serious.

The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is calling for proposals for the next generation of spacecraft: a nuclear-powered rocket. The technology would allow a craft to travel farther with less propellant than today’s chemical rocket systems. The Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) would also enable agile spacecraft maneuvers in space, which is a goal for future space operations, according to DARPA. In case of war, fast maneuvering would be crucial to get out of the way of enemy craft....

.....Nuclear thermal propulsion starts with a liquid propellant, such as hydrogen, pumped through a reactor core. Inside the core, uranium atoms split in a process called fission, which releases heat. When the propellant heats up, it converts into a gas. At this point, the process is similar to other rockets, in which gas propellant expands and shoots through a nozzle, thrusting the aircraft away.

NTP isn’t the same as chemical propulsion, however. Chemical rockets produce water vapor as a byproduct when the chemicals are being burned, making them heavier and less efficient. Hydrogen byproduct in an NTP system is far lighter, so the rocket travels farther on less fuel. The amount of thrust you can get from a chemical rocket that combusts a specific amount of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen is 450 seconds. This is half the minimum thrust expected for nuclear-powered rockets, estimated at 900 seconds....

Cheers.

SpaceX President Predicts People on Mars This Decade

SpaceX still envisions boots on Mars by 2030 and the rocket that will make the trip heading to orbit for the first time as soon as next month. "We should put people on the surface of Mars... in this decade," SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell told CNBC. "People on the moon, sooner."

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After many problems, delays and $'s will it finally get off the ground?

Boeing's Starliner to fly crucial OFT-2 test flight to space station this week at long last.