Image (Credit): The Expedition 74 crew members launched towards the space station earlier today aboard a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (NASA/Bill Ingots)
This week’s image shows a Soyuz rocket sending a crew to the International Space Station (ISS) on Thanksgiving Day. One NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts are thankful today that they are safe and sound on the ISS. NASA astronaut Chris Williams joined Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev aboard a Soyuz rocket launched from Russia earlier today.
The three crew members of Expedition 74 join the Expedition 73 crew members already on the station, increasing the crew count to 10 members for the next few weeks. Expedition 74 is scheduled to begin on Monday, December 8th, once three members depart the ISS.
These crews change like clockwork, regardless of holidays, government shutdowns, or even hot wars back on the surface. This dedication to duty is something we can all be thankful for.
No trip to space can be counted a success unless you make it safely back to Earth…And it’s a lesson that was learned anew this week by the taikonauts—Chinese astronauts—Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui, and Wang Jie. The trio arrived at China’s Tiangong Space Station aboard their Shenzhou-20 spacecraft on April 24, and were set to come home on Nov. 5, handing the keys to the station over to the three-person crew of Shenzhou-21, who arrived on Oct. 31.But that was not to be. Not long before Shenzhou-20 was set to carry the three home it was struck by a piece of space debris, leaving cracks in one of its windows. That can be deadly in a spacecraft that is supposed to remain airtight both in the vacuum of space and in the steadily thickening atmosphere as it returns to Earth.
A powerful geomagnetic storm that dazzled skywatchers across the Northern Hemisphere earlier this month also affected life aboard the International Space Station (ISS). During the Nov. 11-12 solar storm, Russian cosmonauts temporarily relocated their sleeping quarters as a precaution against increased radiation exposure, NASA confirmed.
Sierra Space has completed key testing milestones for its Dream Chaser vehicle as the company explores both civil and national security missions for the spaceplane. The company announced Nov. 13 that the first Dream Chaser vehicle, Tenacity, completed electromagnetic interference and compatibility testing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center...While Sierra Space is emphasizing national security uses, the company is keeping open the option of using Dream Chaser to support the ISS or future commercial space stations, known as commercial low Earth orbit destinations, or CLDs.
Image (Credit): The Expedition 1 crew of Yuri P. Gidzenko (left), William M. Shepherd, and Sergei K. Krikalev in the ISS’s Zvezda Service Module. (NASA)
It was 25 years ago on this day that the Expedition 1 crew arrived at the International Space Station (ISS), which marked the beginning of very successful space collaboration between five space agencies from the United States, Russia, the European Union, Japan, and Canada.
The Expedition 1 crew, arriving at the ISS aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule, consisted of NASA astronaut William M. Shepherd and Russian cosmonauts Yuri P. Gidzenko and Sergei K. Krikalev. This first mission of four months focused on the continued assembly of the station, with the Expedition 2 crew arriving in March 2001 aboard Space Shuttle Discovery.
In 24 hours, the space station makes 16 orbits of Earth, traveling through 16 sunrises and sunsets.
The living and working space in the station is larger than a six-bedroom house (and has six sleeping quarters, two bathrooms, a gym, and a 360-degree view bay window).
A spacecraft can arrive at the space station as soon as four hours after launching from Earth.
The space station travels an equivalent distance to the Moon and back in about a day.
Image (Credit): Drawing of the International Space Station with all of the elements labeled. (NASA)
The U.S. has plenty of issues regarding the pace of its space programs in the face of Chinese achievements, as noted multiple times in posts on this site. We should not see this as anything new. U.S. politicians and citizens had plenty of similar complaints during the space race with the USSR, and we also have evidence of similar complaints within the USSR.
For instance, on this day in 1965, Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, wrote a letter with other cosmonauts to the USSR’s General Secretary Brezhnev with a list of concerns. The letter stated, in part:
The USA have not only caught up with us, but even surpassed us in certain areas. The flights of space vehicles Ranger-7, Ranger-8, Mariner-4, Gemini-5, and others are serious achievements of American scientists. This lagging behind of our homeland in space exploration is especially objectionable to us, cosmonauts, but it also damages the prestige of the Soviet Union and has a negative effect on the defense efforts of the countries from the socialist camp…Why is the Soviet Union losing its leading position in space research? A common answer to this question answer is as follows: the USA have developed a very wide front of research in space; they allocate enormous funds for space research. In the past 5 years they spent more than 20 billion dollars, and in 1965 alone 7 billion dollars. This answer is basically correct. It is well known that the USA spend on space exploration much more than does the USSR.
The letter covers other issues, including battles between the various organizations involved in space affairs as well as a stated preference by some for robotic flights rather than manned-flights.
It is an interesting reminder that the same issues constantly crop up to potentially cripple space initiatives, and today’s leader in space can quickly fall behind.
Image (Credit): The Ukrainian Flamingo cruise missile. (Fire Point)
It is a sad truth that war can create some useful items that propel mankind forward. Maybe these inventions would have occurred anyway, but the desire to survive can certainly stimulate the mind.
Ukraine is a perfect example. Recent stories about its Flamingo cruise missile indicate that the same Ukranian know-how that created the drones was also used to design a cruise missile that costs $500,000 a piece and can penetrate deep into Russian territory. Such quick innovation by Fire Point, the Ukrainian defense firm that created the new cruise missile, puts even Elon Musk to shame (remember, Musk tried to start SpaceX with old Russian rockets).
Just think if all of this ingenuity had been put towards a peaceful space program. Of course, this war too shall end, and Ukraine may have some promising industries that can be quickly retooled for a space program.
Ukraine had a strong space industry when it was part of the USSR, and these latest foolhardy efforts by Putin to reestablish that Soviet empire may instead only reestablish the Ukranian space industry.
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