Wealthy Chinese buy space tourism flight tickets

More than 300 Chinese space enthusiasts have booked tickets costing nearly $100,000 for a five minute trip to outer space, official media in oppressive China reported.

The 305 buyers snapped up tickets for a trip with Dutch firm Space Expedition Corp (SXC) when they went on sale on Taobao, an online retail website, the state-run China Daily reported.

The trips will take place in a two-man craft that remains in space for five to six minutes, giving the tourist a rarely seen view and the experience of weightlessness, the report said.

The tickets were sold for 599,999 yuan ($96,000) it said, adding that four entrepreneurs from the southwestern city of Chengdu and two from the commercial hub of Shanghai were among those who signed up.

The Taobao page selling the tickets was only available on June 12th, a spokesman for the website told reporters. A screenshot seen by reporters confirmed that transactions had been made.

No date for the trip was given. Despite a flurry of interest in space tourism in recent years, no private firms have yet been able to launch regular trips.

Participants, who must weigh no more than 125 kilograms (275 pounds), are required to receive flight simulation and weightlessness training before their trip.

China has its own aggressive, dominating and military-run space programme, which in the last decades has sent astronauts into orbit and landed a rover on the moon.

To date oppressive China is not interested in the peaceful exploitation of Space or Space Tourism by commercial aerospace firms.

NASA Space food: Astronauts' Breakfast

Breakfast: Experimental space diet. Cheese grits, eggs, corn flakes, coffee!

ESA: First ‘Fly Your Thesis!’ campaign gives students a taste of space

First ‘Fly Your Thesis!’ campaign gives students a taste of space

ESA’s ‘Fly Your Thesis!’ programme made its successful debut during ESA’s 51st Parabolic Flight Campaign, held 25 October to 5 November. Four student teams from five European countries took advantage of this new educational initiative to conduct microgravity experiments on the Airbus A300 ‘Zero G’ aircraft.

‘Fly Your Thesis!’ was introduced by ESA’s Education Office in close coordination with ESA’s Directorate of Human Spaceflight in 2008. It provides students with a unique opportunity to perform scientific experiments in microgravity as part of their Masters or PhD theses. The first participants were chosen in January 2009, after a rigorous selection process.

The 2009 campaign students and the 'Fly Your Thesis!' team

A group from the University of Münster, Germany, studied the behaviour of tiny particles under different illumination conditions in order to improve understanding of dust storms on Mars. Students from the Open University in the UK and the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, France, simulated the loose surface material on asteroids as a precursor to sample-return missions.

A group from the University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, investigated the flow birefringence of clay nanoparticles in water, research with potential applications such as the prevention of catastrophic landslides.

Another team from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain, recorded the behaviour of enzymes that modify assimilation of drugs by the human body.

The ABC team, from Spain

After months of assembling and testing their experiments, the 15 university students arrived in Bordeaux, France, on 25 October. Over the next few days, they completed the assembly of their experiment racks and, on 28 October, these were loaded onto the Airbus.

With all safety checks completed, the first flight took off from Bordeaux on 3 November. After heading out over the Atlantic Ocean, the students were cleared to switch on their experiments and prepare for the first of 31 parabolas, each providing about 20 seconds of microgravity.

Russia Proposes to build Nuclear Powered Spaceship

Russia should build a new spaceship with a nuclear engine, the country's space chief has proposed, promising that it would give Russia an edge in the space race.

President Dmitry Medvedev hailed the plan and ordered the Cabinet to find the money for it, but environmentalists expressed concern.

Federal Space Agency chief Anatoly Perminov told a government meeting that the preliminary design could be ready by 2012, but it would then take nine more years and 17 billion rubles (£353 million) to build the ship.

"The implementation of this project will allow us to reach a new technological level surpassing foreign developments," Mr Perminov told a meeting on communications and space technologies. "It's a very serious project," added Mr Medvedev, who chaired the meeting. "We need to find the money."

Mr Perminov's ambitious statement contrasted with the current state of the Russian space programme, sounding more like a plea for extra government funds than a detailed proposal.

Russia is using 40-year-old Soyuz booster rockets and capsules to send crews to the International Space Station. Development of a replacement rocket and a prospective spaceship with a conventional propellant has dragged on with no end in sight.

While Russia has been slow to develop a replacement for its old workhorse Soyuz, it stands to take a greater role in space exploration in the coming years. Nasa's plan to retire its shuttle fleet next year will force the United States and other nations to rely on the Russian spacecraft to ferry their astronauts to the International Space Station and back to Earth until Nasa's new manned ship becomes available.

Mr Perminov described the proposed nuclear-powered spaceship as a "unique breakthrough project," but offered few details.

NASA: ARES 1-X in High Bay 3 of VAB = Fab!

Platforms surround the Ares I-X in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building before it was moved to the launch pad on Oct. 20, 2009. Closer in height to the hulking Saturn V moon rockets than the space shuttle, Ares I-X looks unlike any rocket that's ever stood at Launch Complex 39. But it blends familiar hardware from existing programs with newly developed components.

Four first-stage, solid-fuel booster segments are derived from the Space Shuttle Program. A simulated fifth booster segment contains Atlas-V-based avionics, and the rocket's roll control system comes from the Peacekeeper missile. The launch abort system, simulated crew and service modules, upper stage, and various connecting structures all are original.

Image Credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

Chinese taikonauts' great leap into space - CNN.com

Chinese taikonauts' great leap into space - CNN.com

In 2003 Yang Liwei became a national hero when he became the first Chinese man in space, followed five years later by Zhai Zhigang who became the first "taikonaut" to make a spacewalk.

"The moment I stepped out of the hatch and entered space, the sensation of completely becoming one with space was a feeling I had never felt before on Earth," Zhai told CNN.

"I deliberately looked into outer space, looking past my toes and deep into outer space. The differing brightness and distances of the celestial bodies really brought out the deepness of outer space. The vast , boundless expanse of outer space stirred my soul."

From out of this world moments to their place in Chinese history, these two pioneering spacemen tell CNN's John Vause about their missions, how they had prepared for the worst should things go wrong and if China and other nations with the moon in their sights are creating a new international space race.

And tune in to Talk Asia on September 30 to watch the show, as the nation gears up to celebrate its 60th anniversary.


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NASA: Shuttle Discovery is going home courtesy of SCA

Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA)
NASA uses two modified Boeing 747 jetliners, originally manufactured for commercial use, as Space Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA).

One is a 747-100 model, while the other is designated a 747-100SR (short range).

The two aircraft are identical in appearance and in their performance as Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA).

The 747 series of aircraft are four-engine intercontinental-range, swept-wing "jumbo jets" that entered commercial service in 1969.

The SCAs are used to ferry space Shuttle orbiters from landing sites back to the launch complex at the Kennedy Space Center and also to and from other locations too distant for the orbiters to be delivered by ground transportation.

The Shuttle orbiters are placed atop the SCAs by Mate-Demate Devices, large gantry-like structures that hoist the orbiters off the ground for post-flight servicing and then mate them with the SCAs for ferry flights.

Features which distinguish the two SCAs from standard 747 jetliners are:

• Three struts with associated interior structural strengthening protrude from the top of the fuselage (two aft, one forward) on which the orbiter is attached.
• Two additional vertical stabilizers, one on each end of the standard horizontal stabilizer, to enhance directional stability.
• Removal of all interior furnishings and equipment aft of the forward No. 1 doors.
• Instrumentation used by SCA flight crews and engineers to monitor orbiter electrical loads during the ferry flights and also during pre- and post-ferry flight operations.
The two SCAs are under the operational control of NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas

US Arms are Tied!

CIVILIAN space flight companies are this week pressing the US government to change strict arms-control rules that could cripple their nascent industry.

At issue are the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), which are supposed to prevent technological secrets ending up in the hands of 21 proscribed nations, including China, Iran and North Korea.

If a technology appears on a document called the US Munitions List, companies need a licence to export it or to reveal details to a foreign national. Even if granted, the licence often forces the firm to mount a security guard on the system while it is in another country.