NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter safely watches Comet Siding Spring FlyBy

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has sent home more data about Mars than all other missions combined, is also now providing data about a comet that buzzed The Red Planet today (Oct. 19).

The orbiter continues operating in good health after sheltering behind Mars during the half hour when high-velocity dust particles from comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring had the most chance of reaching the paths of Mars orbiters.

The Comet Siding Spring C/2013 A1 is indicated on this image as it passes Mars, seen here shining brightly on the bottom left.

Credit: Slooh

maintained radio communications with Earth throughout the comet's closest approach, at 11:27 a.m. PDT (2:27 p.m. EDT), and the peak dust-risk period centered about 100 minutes later.

"The spacecraft performed flawlessly throughout the comet flyby," said Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Manager Dan Johnston of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "It maneuvered for the planned observations of the comet and emerged unscathed."

Following the critical period of dust flux, the orbiter is communicating at 1.5 megabits per second with NASA's Deep Space Network.

It remained on Side A of its two redundant computers, and all subsystems are working as expected.

The remainder of the NASA Mars orbiters, Mars Express and ISRO's MOM, appear to be in good health and unaffected by the comet flyby.

An artist impression of the passing of Comet Siding Spring as seen by Curiosity Rover on Mars.

Credit: SLOOH

ISS Expedition 36 Crew touchdown safely

Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov (right) waves to cameras alongside NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy after a successful Soyuz landing in Kazakhstan on Sept. 10, 2013 EDT (Sept. 11 local time), ending a five-month mission to the International Space Station. Crewmate Alexander Misurkin is not pictured.

Credit: NASA TV

A Soyuz capsule carrying three astronauts has touched down on Earth after undocking from the International Space Station after 166 days in space.

Nasa's Chris Cassidy and Russians Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin landed safely in Kazakhstan, where they launched on March 29.

Live Nasa footage showed the three men emerging from the capsule and onto the sunny Kazakh steppe, where they will first be put into reclining chairs that will help them readjust to the Earth's gravity.

The Soyuz is the only means for international astronauts to reach the orbiting laboratory since the decommissioning of the US shuttle fleet in 2011.

Before leaving the space station, Cassidy told reporters he would be sad to leave the orbiting lab behind, but at the same time he was excited to return home and see his wife and three children again.

In addition to rejoining his family, a "gooey, fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie ranks right on the top of my list," stated Cassidy.

The Expedition 36 crew of the International Space Station waves farewell before undocking a Soyuz space capsule to return to Earth on Sept. 10, 2013. 

They are Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin (right), Pavel Vinogradov (left) and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy. 

Credit: NASA

Space Station Expedition 35 Crew Return Safely to Earth

A Soyuz Progress space capsule carrying a three-man crew returning from a five-month mission to the International Space Station has landed safely on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, American Thomas Marshburn, and Russian Roman Romanenko landed as planned south east of the town of Dzhezkazgan.

Live footage on NASA TV showed the Soyuz TMA-07M capsule slowly descending by parachute onto the sun-drenched steppes under clear skies. Russian search and rescue helicopters hovered over the landing site for a quick recovery effort.

Rescue teams moved quickly to help the crew in their bulky spacesuits get out through the narrow exit hatch of the capsule. They were then put into reclining chairs to start adjusting to Earth's gravity after 146 days in space.

The three astronauts smiled as they chatted with space agency officials and doctors who were checking their condition. Mr Hadfield, who served as the space station's commander, gave a thumbs-up sign. They then made quick phone calls to family members and friends.

NASA spokesman Josh Byerly said by telephone from the landing site that the three returning astronauts were doing very well.

Cmdr Hadfield, 53, an engineer and former test pilot from Milton, Ontario, was Canada's first professional astronaut to live aboard the space station and became the first Canadian in charge of a spacecraft. He relinquished command of the space station on Sunday.

"It's just been an extremely fulfilling and amazing experience end to end," he told Mission Control.

"From this Canadian to all the rest of them, I offer an enormous debt of thanks." He was referring to all those in the Canadian Space Agency who helped make his flight possible.

He bowed out of orbit by posting a music video on YouTube on Sunday - his own version of David Bowie's Space Oddity. It is believed to be the first music video made in space, according to NASA.

NASA MARS: Landing Astronauts Safely remains the key problem

An art installation titled "Landing Excursion Module (LEM)," part of "SPACE PROGRAM: MARS" by artist Tom Sachs at the Park Avenue Armory May 16, 2012 in New York. 

Landing astronauts safely on Mars is one of the biggest technological hurdles for any future manned mission to the Red Planet, even more complicated than last year's daring rover touchdown.

Landing astronauts safely on Mars is one of the biggest technological hurdles for any future manned mission to the Red Planet, even more complicated than last year's daring rover touchdown.

NASA dazzled observers by landing the one-ton Curiosity rover on Mars in August in a high-speed operation using a sky crane and supersonic parachute, but experts say the task would be even more challenging with humans onboard.

Robert Braun

"The Curiosity landing was an amazing accomplishment," said Robert Braun  a former NASA engineer now at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

"But it's really a baby step that we needed to take, on the way of one day walking on the Mars surface," he said at a conference in Washington on Tuesday. "

"The three-day meeting, which started Monday, has brought together NASA experts, university researchers and members of the aerospace industry for talks focused on exploring the neighbouring planet."

"Curiosity has been described as a small car," Braun said of the six-wheeled mobile lab that has been exploring Mars for the last nine months.

"What we are really talking about today is landing a two-storey house, and maybe landing that two-storey house next to another one that has been pre-positioned," he said.

Where Curiosity weighed one ton, engineers estimate a supply capsule to prepare for a manned landing would weigh somewhere around 40 tons.

Such a mission would require not only food, water and oxygen for the astronauts, but a vehicle powerful enough to get them back to their spaceship, which would likely remain in orbit.

First Indian (ISRO) Astronaut Lands safely

Sorry, guys. Just kidding!

Rajaram Das, a Sadhu or a Hindu holyman, performs yoga in a dry pond in the northern Indian city of Mathura, as part of a ritual to appease Indra, the Hindu rain god, for rain

ESA Astronaut Frank de Winne comes safely home from ISS

European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Frank De Winne, Expedition 21 commander, works with the RadSilk experiment in the Kibo laboratory of the International Space Station. RadSilk examines the effects of radiation exposure in microgravity on silkworms.

Scorched Soyuz Re-entry Capsule
After falling through the Earth's atmosphere where th eouter coating is burned off, the Soyuz TMA-15 reentry module (shown here) landed safely in Kazakhstan at 13.15 local time (08.15 CET), bringing ESA astronaut Frank De Winne, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk back to Earth.

3 Men in a Fireball!
The wild ride and parachute landing concluded the six-month OasISS mission, ESA’s second long-duration mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

First European Commander
This flight saw Frank De Winne, from Belgium, become the first European to take command of the largest human outpost ever assembled in space. When De Winne, Romanenko and Thirsk arrived on the ISS in May 2009, they joined the three resident astronauts to form the first permanent crew of six, allowing more scientific experiments to be conducted onboard.

Swedish Astronaut Christer Fugelsang
In August 2009, De Winne was joined by ESA astronaut Christer Fuglesang, from Sweden, as part of the 14-day Alissé mission on the Space Shuttle STS-128 flight. Fuglesang participated in two spacewalks and returned to Earth with the first external payload from Europe’s Columbus laboratory module. The European Technology Exposure Facility had been in space since February 2008 and continues to yield a wealth of samples and data for the international science teams.

Japan's HTV-1 Duties
Soyuz TMA-15 crew: Frank De Winne, Roman Romanenko and Bob Thirsk
During his six months on the ISS, De Winne was instrumental in performing the robotic operations during which Japan’s HTV 1 supply ferry was attached to the ISS and the external payloads of Japan’s Kibo laboratory were installed.

Shuttle Atlantis lands safely at Florida runway 33