The future of travel beyond Earth.
Space Travel Editorial Team
Editorial Team

Space Travel Editorial Team

Editorial Team

The Space Travel Editorial Team produces Space Travel's coverage of human spaceflight and access to space. We report on launch, crewed missions and space tourism, and the propulsion, vehicles and human factors of getting people to space. Articles reflect our team's collective editorial process, source verification, drafting, technical review, and editing, rather than a single writer's work. Space Travel takes editorial responsibility for content under this byline. For more on how we work, see our editorial policy.

Legacy Reports

First Stop Moon. Next Stop, Mars

Vienna, Austria (SPX) Oct 19, 2007 - The distant red planet Mars has captured the imagination of humankind for generations. It has inspired novelists to write stories about its exploration and motivated scientists to find ways to make space travel there a viable possibility. Now, for the first time in Europe, scholars such as historians, philosophers and sociologists are banding together with space scientists to share their thoughts and ideas on how humankind will be taking these first steps.

Oct 19, 2007
Legacy Reports

Space Shuttle Crew Arrives Friday

Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) Oct 19, 2007 - As preparations for the launch of space shuttle Discovery on mission STS-120 enter the final days, the astronauts are due to arrive at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida midday on Friday. The countdown will begin at 2 p.m. EDT on Saturday, starting at the T-43 hour mark. This follows the detailed flight readiness review on Tuesday, after which NASA senior managers announced Oct. 23 as the official launch date. Commander Pam Melroy and her six crewmates are scheduled to lift off at 11:38 a.m. EDT on their mission to the International Space Station.

Oct 19, 2007
Legacy Reports

China Plans Ambitious Space Program Over Decade Ahead

Beijing, China (XNA) Oct 19, 2007 - China plans to realize space-walking, spacecraft rendezvous and docking and set up a space laboratory, according to a blueprint approved by the State Council. Meanwhile, the government would also give priority to developing a satellite, aircraft and stratosphere airship-based high definition earth observation system, said a senior official with the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence.

Oct 19, 2007
Legacy Reports

Chinese Taikonauts May Build Communist Party Branch In Space

Beijing, China (XNA) Oct 19, 2007 - Chinese taikonauts (astronauts) may start a branch of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in space, said the country's first taikonaut Yang Liwei. China now has a 14-strong astronaut team. The team members, including Yang himself, are all CPC members. If China has its own space station, the taikonauts on mission will carry out the regular activities of a CPC branch in space in the way we do on earth, such as learning the Party's policies and exchanging opinions on the Party's decisions, said Yang, a delegate to the on-going CPC national congress in Beijing.

Oct 19, 2007
Legacy Reports

Nation Hopes To Cooperate In Space

Beijing, China (SPX) Oct 18, 2007 - China wishes to join nations around the world in the peaceful exploration of outer space, a senior official said Tuesday. Li Xueyong, vice-minister of science and technology, said China is seeking to take part in the International Space Station program, which already includes the US, Russia, Japan, Canada, Brazil and 11 members of the European Space Agency. We hope to become the 17th partner of the global US-led project, said Li at a press conference at the ongoing CPC congress.

Oct 18, 2007
Legacy Reports

Greeting A Living Legend: NASA’s Cosentino Meets Childhood Hero Buzz Aldrin

Edwards CA (SPX) Oct 18, 2007 - Nine-year-old Gary Cosentino watched the television with awe on July 20, 1969, as two men exited an odd-looking craft called the Eagle lunar module, climbed down a ladder and set foot on the moon. When astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission, it was an event that went on to inspire Cosentino, like many others, to seek out a career in aerospace. But few have had the opportunity to shake hands with one of the living legends who helped set the course of their lives.

Oct 18, 2007
Legacy Reports

Russia To Develop New Carrier Rocket For Kliper

Moscow, Russia (RIA Novosti) Oct 18, 2007 - Russia's space agency will soon announce a tender to develop a new carrier rocket, to ensure successful implementation of its manned-flight program, a top space official said Wednesday. A special commission will determine the design criteria [for the new space vehicle] and the domestic companies eligible for participation in the tender, said Anatoly Perminov, the head of the Federal Space Agency. The Federal Space Program for 2006-2015 stipulates the construction of a reusable Clipper spacecraft jointly with European partners, and two carrier rockets, the Angara and the Soyuz-2.

Oct 18, 2007
Legacy Reports

SpaceX Completes NASA CDR For New Dragon

El Segundo CA (SPX) Oct 18, 2007 - SpaceX has successfully completed the Critical Design Review (CDR) for its first Falcon 9 / Dragon mission as part of the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration program. During a three day period, SpaceX hosted a group of over forty top level NASA representatives and key SpaceX customers for a review of the design of the Falcon 9 rocket, Dragon spacecraft and associated ground systems for the first COTS demonstration mission.

Oct 18, 2007
Legacy Reports

Soyuz Docks With ISS

Korolev, Russia (SPX) Oct 18, 2007 - The Russian Soyuz TMA-11 manned transport space vehicle is docked to the International Space Station. Following two-day free flight in near-earth orbit, the Soyuz TMA-11 approached the ISS. Berthing was performed in an automatic mode. At 18:50 Moscow Time the space vehicle docking assembly came into contact with the docking part of Functional Cargo Block Zarya. At that time the ISS was within the Russian ground site coverage.

Oct 18, 2007
Legacy Reports

China Hopes To Join International Space Station Project

Beijing, China (XNA) Oct 17, 2007 - China hopes to become the 17th nation joining the International Space Station (ISS) project, Vice Minister of Science and Technology Li Xueyong said on Tuesday. China sincerely wants to cooperate with the United States in space exploration and join the International Space Station project that has already involved 16 nations, said Li, a delegate to the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), on the sidelines of the event.

Oct 17, 2007
Legacy Reports

ATK Propulsion And Composite Technologies Help Launch GPS Satellite

Minneapolis MN (SPX) Oct 17, 2007 - Alliant Techsystems propulsion and composite technologies supported today's successful launch of the United Launch Alliance's Delta II rocket carrying the fourth modernized NAVSTAR Global Positioning System Block 2R military navigation satellite. Nine GEM-40 solid propulsion strap-on boosters manufactured in ATK's Salt Lake City, Utah facility provided augmented thrust for the launch.

Oct 17, 2007
Legacy Reports

SAIC Awarded NASA Moon Mission Facilities Contract

San Diego CA (SPX) Oct 17, 2007 - Science Applications International announced that its subsidiary, Benham Companies, has been awarded a $51.4 million cost-plus- incentive-fee contract by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to design, engineer and build two testing facilities. Both facilities will support development of the Orion spacecraft that will carry astronauts to the International Space Station and the moon in the next decade, and will be among the largest such facilities ever built.

Oct 17, 2007
Legacy Reports

Final Flight Readiness Review Today

Cape Canaveral (SPX) Oct 17, 2007 - NASA managers are gathered at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida today for a final readiness review for the upcoming flight of space shuttle Discovery. The STS-120 mission to the International Space Station is currently targeted for launch on Oct. 23. At the conclusion of today's review, agency managers will announce an official launch date at a live news conference on NASA TV. The conference is scheduled to begin no earlier than 7 p.m. EDT.

Oct 17, 2007
Legacy Reports

China To Launch First Moon Orbiter In Late October

Beijing, China (XNA) Oct 17, 2007 - A senior Chinese official said here Tuesday that researchers and technicians are making final preparations for the launch of the country's first moon orbiter, Chang'e I, at the end of October. Zhang Qingwei, minister in charge of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND), who is attending the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said in an interview with Xinhua.

Oct 17, 2007