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NASA on Monday named the four astronauts who will fly to the moon by the end of next year, including one woman and three men. The three Americans and one Canadian were introduced during a ceremony in Houston, home to the nation's astronauts as well as Mission Control. This is humanity's crew, said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. The four astronauts will be the first to fly NASA's Orion capsule, launching atop a Space Launch System rocket from Kennedy Space Center no earlier than late 2024. They will not land or even go into lunar orbit, but rather fly around the moon and head straight back to Earth, a prelude to a lunar landing by two others a year later. The mission's commander, Reid Wiseman, will be joined by Victor Glover, an African American naval aviator; Christina Koch, who holds the world record for the longest spaceflight by a woman; and Canada's Jeremy Hansen. All are space veterans except Hansen. This is a big day. We have a lot to celebrate and it's so much more than t
Amit Kshatriya, a decorated Indian-American software and robotics engineer was appointed as the first head of NASA's newly-established Moon to Mars Programme that will help the agency ensure a long-term lunar presence needed to prepare for humanity's next giant leap to the Red Planet. Kshatriya will serve as NASA's first head of the office, with immediate effect, the agency announced on Thursday. The new office aims to carry out the agency's human exploration activities on the Moon and Mars for the benefit of humanity, a NASA press release said. The golden age of exploration is happening right now, and this new office will help ensure that NASA successfully establishes a long-term lunar presence needed to prepare for humanity's next giant leap to the Red Planet," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. The Moon to Mars Programme Office will help prepare NASA to carry out our bold missions to the Moon and land the first humans on Mars, Nelson explained. The new office resides within t
The Indian Space Research Organisation has conducted tests simulating the clustered deployment of parachutes as part of preparations for the Gaganyaan human space flight mission. ISRO carried out the 'Rail Track Rocket Sled' deployment tests of the Gaganyaan Pilot and Apex Cover Separation (ACS) parachutes in cluster configurations at the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory (TBRL), Chandigarh. The first test simulated the clustered deployment of two pilot parachutes -- one parachute was subjected to a minimum angle with respect to flow conditions and the second to a maximum angle with respect to flow, the national space agency headquartered here said. "These pilot parachutes are used in the Gaganyaan mission to extract and deploy the main parachutes independently," an ISRO statement said. The second test simulated the clustered deployment of two ACS parachutes under maximum dynamic pressure conditions. The test also simulated clustered deployment at a 90-degree angle of attack
SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Thursday, including the first person from the Arab world going up for an extended monthslong stay. The Falcon rocket bolted from Kennedy Space Center shortly after midnight, illuminating the night sky as it headed up the East Coast.. Nearly 80 spectators from the United Arab Emirates watched from the launch site as astronaut Sultan al-Neyadi only the second Emirati to fly to space blasted off on his six-month mission. Half a world away in Dubai and elsewhere across the UAE, schools and offices planned to broadcast the launch live. Also riding the Dragon capsule that's due at the space station on Friday: NASA's Stephen Bowen, a retired Navy submariner who logged three space shuttle flights, and Warren Woody Hoburg, a former research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and space newbie, and Andrei Fedyaev, a space rookie who's retired from the Russian Air Force. The first attempt to launc
Russia launched a rescue ship on Friday for two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut whose original ride home sprang a dangerous leak while parked at the International Space Station. The new, empty Soyuz capsule should arrive at the orbiting lab on Sunday. The capsule leak in December was blamed on a micrometeorite that punctured an external radiator, draining it of coolant. The same thing appeared to happen again earlier this month, this time on a docked Russian cargo ship. Camera views showed a small hole in each spacecraft. The Russian Space Agency delayed the launch of the replacement Soyuz, looking for any manufacturing defects. No issues were found, and the agency proceeded with Friday's predawn launch from Kazakhstan of the capsule with bundles of supplies strapped into the three seats. Given the urgent need for this capsule, two top NASA officials travelled from the US to observe the launch in person. To everyone's relief, the capsule safely reached orbit nine minutes after lift
An earth-observation satellite jointly developed by NASA and ISRO that will help study Earth's land and ice surfaces in greater detail is all set to be shipped to India later this month for a possible launch in September. ISRO Chairman S Somanath visited NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the US state of California on Friday to oversee the final electrical testing of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite before being shipped to India. This mission will be a powerful demonstration of the capability of radar as a science tool and help us study Earth's dynamic land and ice surfaces in greater detail than ever before, Somanath said at the formal send-off ceremony organised at the JPL which was attended by senior scientists from the two space agencies. Later this month, the SUV-size payload will be moved into a special cargo container for a 14,000-kilometer flight to the U R Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru. ISRO and NASA joined hands in 2014 to build the 2,80