Future Guests on the ISS and Tiangong Space Station

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): China’s Tiangong space station. (The New York Times)

The CEO of the South African National Space Agency announced plans to send two female astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). It is something that the space agency hopes to accomplish in the next two years.

This latest announcement appears to be based on Russian efforts to parlay better relations with African nations. The Russian RT news recently stated:

Roscosmos announced plans last month to expand its space partnerships with African countries. According to its director, an agreement will be signed with a number of the continent’s nations at the Russia-Africa summit this week in St. Petersburg.

In other news, the Chinese Tiangong space station is also getting visitors – zebrafish. The fish are part of experiments to learn more about bone loss in astronauts. The news story goes on to note that the Russians were the first to use zebrafish in space back in 1976.

Russia is also Heading to the Moon

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Russia’s Luna-Glob-Lander. (https://www.russianspaceweb.com/)

As noted in an earlier post, India left for the moon’s south pole last week, but it won’t be alone for long. Russia is planning to launch its Luna-25 spacecraft, also called the Luna-Glob-Lander, next month. According to NASA, the mission has two primary scientific objectives at the Moon’s south pole:

  • to study composition of the polar regolith, and
  • to study the plasma and dust components of the lunar polar exosphere.

The last Luna mission was Luna-24 back in 1976 and involved the return of lunar samples to Earth.

The European Space Agency was planning to be part of this latest mission until the invasion of Ukraine, so Russia is on its own now.

I imagine simpler missions like this will be necessary if Russia plans to eventually build a moon base, though finding a partner may be tough. It is clear that the US and Russia are no longer in a neck-to-neck race back to the Moon. Only China seems to have the stamina to compete with NASA’s Artemis program, though the US is still in the lead for now.

The Luna-25 launch is planned for August 10 if all goes well.

Space Quote: A Space Detente with China?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: factsanddetails.com

“With geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing extending into space, it is only to be expected that policymakers are looking back to the Cold War for helpful lessons. Unfortunately, it is far too easy to learn the wrong lessons from space cooperation during and immediately after the Cold War. Certainly, space cooperation was not a silver bullet to superpower problems on Earth and in space. The pattern of space cooperation between the United States and Russia is an important reminder that space cooperation has generally been the product of improving relations rather than the catalyst for change.”

-Statement by Aaron Bateman in his Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ article, “The Prospects for United States–China Space Cooperation are Limited.” The article suggests some ways that the two space-faring nations can find common ground even if they are not working on the same space missions as the American and Russians did in the past and still do today.

Pic of the Week: New Crew Sent to the Tiangong Space Station

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Launch of China’s Shenzhou 16 spacecraft. (AP)

This week’s image shows China’s launch of the Shenzhou 16 spacecraft earlier this week atop a Long March 2-F rocket. The launch included a three-man crew, one being the first civilian astronaut in the Chinese crew rotation, who will relieve the current crew on the Tiangong Space Station.

Two Space Stations, Two Stories

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The three Chinese astronauts who left for the Tiangong space station this week. (VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

This week astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) said goodbye to the second set of private astronauts who are part of the Axiom Space mission, while China sent its first non-military astronaut to its Tiangong space station. It is not surprising that China started out with military astronauts. NASA also recruited from the US military for its early astronauts, and still does today. Yet it is encouraging that China is already shifting to scientists.

So while China is following the expected trajectory towards more scientists, the ISS (and more particularly its US partners) is shifting towards greater tourism since Axiom missions are for quick flybys rather than deep research. For instance, the “astronauts” on the second Axiom mission were on the ISS for about a week. At least the second mission included a few scientists, whereas the first Axiom mission consisted of wealthy investors.

With commercial space stations in development, we can expect to see tourism as a key piece of the space industry, as we already see with SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic. China is not far behind, indicating that it wants to find ways to be part of the space tourism industry as well.

Maintaining the right balance between the militarization of space, real science, and tourism will not be an easy balance, as we watch it all in play this week. I would rather see more tourists than military crews in space, but I am hoping we can find a way to keep the scientists fully engaged and the main players for now. Space mining and related industries will probably beat all of these other uses, but we are not at that stage just yet.