Moscow (RIA Novosti) Jan 30, 2008 - Russia's rocket and space corporation Energia may build a new-generation piloted spacecraft by 2015, the company president said on Tuesday. Energia has been developing a reusable manned spacecraft since 2000. It is designed to replace the Soyuz and Progress launch vehicles in making regular flights to the International Space Station and even the Moon and Mars.
Hawthorne CA (SPX) Jan 29, 2008 - On Jan. 18, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) conducted the first multi-engine firing of its Falcon 9 medium to heavy lift rocket at its Texas Test Facility outside McGregor. The engines operated at full power, generating over 180,000 pounds of force, equivalent to a Boeing 777 at full power, and consuming 700 lbs per second of fuel and liquid oxygen during the run.
Bonn, Germany (SPX) Jan 29, 2008 - On 31 January and 7 February, two research rockets developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the European Space Agency (ESA) will be launched from northern Sweden. Both organisations are taking their TEXUS (Technologische Experimente unter Schwerelosigkeit, technological experiments in weightlessness) science programmes into a fourth decade.
Paris (AFP) Jan 29, 2008 - The European Space Agency (ESA) on Tuesday said it expected to carry out the maiden launch of a robot supply ship to the orbital space station between February 22 and March 8 or 9.
Paris, France (ESA) Jan 29, 2008 - Three weeks into delicate fuelling operations, Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle has also been successfully loaded with oxygen. In orbit this will be transferred to the International Space Station's atmosphere for the crew to breathe. The maiden voyage of the first European International Space Station (ISS) resupply spaceship is targeted for no earlier than 22 February.
Washington DC (SPX) Jan 29, 2008 - Images from NASA telescopes are jewels of the space program, marvelous to behold. But how do you behold them when you can't see? The answer lies between the covers of a new NASA-funded book written in Braille, Touch the Invisible Sky. In an inspiring forward to the volume, blind mountain climber Erik Weihenmayer writes, Sight ... is only one of the many tools with which to experience the marvels of the world.
Haikou, China (XNA) Jan 28, 2008 - Yang Liwei, China's first taikonaut, the Chinese term for astronaut, on Saturday dismissed worries about the environmental effects of a new space launch center to be built in the island province of Hainan, saying the launches will be non-toxic and do no harm to the local ecology.
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jan 28, 2008 - Think of the average handyman, who relies on a standard set of tools -- screw drivers, socket wrenches, power drills -- to get the job done. But when you're working in space, the average tools just won't cut it. Our specially trained handymen are astronauts, and they need specialty tools to accomplish out-of-this-world tasks.
Seoul (AFP) Jan 27, 2008 - South Korea's top research organisation said it cemented Sunday a deal with NASA to work together to develop satellites and other space technology.
China may broadcast its first ever spacewalk live when it launches its third manned space mission later this year, state media reported Friday.
Houston TX (SPX) Jan 25, 2008 - Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Dan Tani are readying their spacesuits for the upcoming spacewalk on Wednesday, Jan. 30. They are installing metal oxide canisters that remove carbon dioxide and new batteries to power their suits for the 6-hour spacewalk.
Baltimore MD (SPX) Jan 24, 2008 - As MESSENGER approached Mercury on January 14, 2008, the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) snapped this image of the crater Matisse. Named for the French artist Henri Matisse, the Matisse crater was imaged during the Mariner 10 mission and is about 210 kilometers (130 miles) in diameter.
Longueuil, Canada (SPX) Jan 24, 2008 - Pratt and Whitney Canada joined Virgin Galactic in New York City to unveil detailed scale models of the world's first commercial passenger suborbital spacecraft, SpaceShipTwo, together with the launch aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo. Pratt and Whitney Canada's PW308 turbofan is the engine selected to power WhiteKnightTwo (WK2). Pratt and Whitney Canada (P and WC) is a United Technologies company.
New York (AFP) Jan 23, 2008 - British tycoon Richard Branson unveiled Wednesday his newest spaceship and said that test flights for the vessel would begin this year.
Moscow (UPI) Jan 23, 2008 - Russia announced Wednesday it will build a new space center near Uglegorsk, with the launch of booster rockets expected by 2016 and manned flights by 2018.
Tokyo (AFP) Jan 23, 2008 - A Japanese astronaut plans to throw a boomerang inside a space station to test how it can fly in zero gravity, an official said Wednesday.
