15-06-2012 22:46 On May 25, 2012, SpaceX became the first private company in history to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station. Here's to the people who made it possible, and who are ushering in a new era of space flight. Well done guys! Looking forward to what you do next! Plant some economic seeds; go sign the petition! Song: Kings and Queens by 30 Seconds to Mars Edited by Andrew Robles

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Congratulations SpaceX - Dragon Makes History - Video

16-06-2012 10:03 China has launched its latest manned space mission - whose crew includes its first female astronaut, Liu Yang. The Shenzhou-9 capsule rode to orbit atop a Long March rocket from the Jiuquan spaceport on the edge of the Gobi desert. Ms Liu and her two male colleagues are heading to the Tiangong space lab. They will spend over a week living and working on the 335km-high vessel, testing new systems and conducting a number of scientific experiments. Before leaving, the crew were presented to Communist Party officials, VIPs and the media. Wearing their flight suits and sitting behind glass, they waved and smiled. "We will obey orders, listen to directions and be calm; and co-ordinate together to successfully complete China's first manned rendezvous and docking mission," said Commander Jing Haipeng. China's top legislator, Wu Bangguo, wished them well and told them: "We are expecting your safe return." The Shenzhou-9 spacecraft lifted off on schedule at 18:37 local time (10:37 GMT; 11:37 BST). All systems appeared to function normally and eight minutes later, the spacecraft had entered orbit. Very shortly after Shenzhou-9 had unfurled its solar panels. It will take a couple of days to reach Tiangong. A docking is planned for Monday at 15:00 Beijing time (07:00 GMT; 08:00 BST). Mr Jing, 46, is making his second spaceflight after participating in the Shenzhou-7 outing in 2008 - the mission that included China's first spacewalk. His flight engineers are both first-timers, however ...

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China launches space mission with first woman astronaut - Video

Friendship 7 launch. Image: NASA.

Hermann Potonik, an Austrian Army officer writing under the pseudonym Hermann Noordung, described the benefits of telescopes in space in his seminal 1929 book Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums: der Raketen-Motor. The 1995 NASA-sponsored English translation of Noordungs work includes a brief section titled Unlimited Visibility. It describes how, beyond Earths blanket of air,

nothing weakens the luminosity of the stars; the fixed stars no longer flicker; and the blue of the sky no longer interferes with the observations. At any time, the same favorable, almost unlimited possibilities exist, [and] telescopes of any arbitrary size, even very large ones, could be used. . .

In 1946, Princeton University astronomer Lyman Spitzer also wrote about the possibilities of space-based astronomy, and it was with him that U.S. efforts to place telescopes into space originated. In 1960, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland, began work on the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO) series of space telescopes. The Grumman-built satellites would image the cosmos in wavelengths that could not easily penetrate Earths atmosphere and radio the images they captured to receiving stations on Earth.

Astronomers eagerly anticipated the OAOs, but for the general public NASA in 1960 was all about Project Mercury. The first manned Mercury orbital flight, designated MA-6, took place on Feb. 20, 1962. An Atlas rocket propelled astronaut John Glenn into space on board the Friendship 7spacecraft (image above). Glenn orbited Earth three times and splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean a little less than five hours after launch.

Faith 7 readies for launch. Image: NASA.

Three more astronauts rode Mercury capsules into orbit. The last Mercury mission, MA-9, saw Gordon Cooper orbit Earth 22.5 times in the Faith 7 capsule. His 34-hour mission spanned May 15-16, 1963.

If Windsor Sherman, an engineer at NASAs Langley Research Center (LaRC) in Hampton, Virginia, had had his way, then Mercury would have found a new role as part of NASAs space astronomy program. In a NASA Technical Note published a year and a half after MA-9, Sherman proposed that NASA modify manned Mercury capsules to serve as recoverable unmanned Earth-orbiting observatories.

Shermans Mercury-derived observatory would weigh more than the manned Mercury (2150 kilograms versus 1660 kilograms) and would require a higher orbit (at least 500 kilometers) to ensure that it would operate above Earths atmospheric airglow. The manned Mercurys Atlas booster would not be up to the task, so the recoverable observatory would launch on an Atlas with an Agena B upper stage. A similar rocket launched Ranger robot explorers to the moon.

Cutaway of Sherman's Mercury-derived recoverable observatory. Image: NASA.

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Mercury Space Observatory (1964)

China's latest space mission is its most ambitious yet and shows Beijing's resolve to increase its technological capabilities and bridge the gap with the United States and Russia, experts say.

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China's space mission shows growing ambitions

Capping a 15-month clandestine military mission circling the planet, the Pentagon's miniature spaceplane, one quarter the size of NASA's now-retired space shuttle, returned to Earth just after dawn Saturday for a pinpoint touchdown at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

The powerless glider's approach and landing used Vandenberg's three-mile-long concrete runway once envisioned to support manned space shuttles returning from polar-orbiting military flights. The base is located on California's Central Coast about 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

"Similar to OTV-1, the vehicle will go through post-landing assessments and refurbishment and lessons learned from that will be incorporated into the next mission," said Maj. Tracy Bunko, an Air Force spokeswoman.

Watch a video of the landing and see a collection of post-landing photos.

The official duration for OTV-2 was 468 days, 13 hours and 2 minutes on a voyage that circled the globe more than 7,000 times. The single-mission numbers surpassed the flight time amassed and orbits accumulated by any of the individual space shuttles in their reusable lives. Discovery had the fleet-leading credentials at 365 days and 5,800 orbits on 39 trips to space.

The marathon OTV-2 flight also lasted twice as long as the program's maiden mission in 2010.

Vandenberg officials said its personnel had conducted extensive, periodic training to stay ready to receive the spaceplane at a moment's notice. Range Safety personnel had the duty to destroy vehicle if it had deviated from prescribed boundaries, but all went according to plan Saturday.

"Team Vandenberg has put in over a year's worth of hard work in preparation for this landing and today we were able to see the fruits of our labor," said Col. Nina Armagno, 30th Space Wing commander. "I am so proud of our team for coming together to execute this landing operation safely and successfully."

Launched atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral on March 5, 2011, shrouded inside the booster's nose cone for the flight through the atmosphere, the winged craft was inserted into low-Earth-orbit where it operated in secret to carry out a research mission with a classified payload.

Its pickup truck-size cargo bay, seven feet long and four feet wide, could have been filled with equipment being exposed to the harsh environment of space for proof testing or could have contained experimental instruments intended for use by future military and reconnaissance satellites. The craft's unique capability to drop from orbit and land on a runway allows technicians to get their hands on the hardware after it spent more than a year in space.

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Air Force's mini space shuttle returns after 468-day flight

Liu Yang becomes the first Chinese female astronaut to go to space while traveling on the Shenzhou 9 capsule. NBC's Ed Flanagan reports.

By Ed Flanagan, NBC News

BEIJING -- China's first woman in space, Liu Yang, will be conducting space medical experiments on a 10-day mission that started Saturday, but experts are deeply interested in the mechanics of the mission -- namely the manual space docking the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft will attempt with the Tiangong-1 module.

Launched last September, the Tiangong-1 is Chinas first space laboratory module and a key cog in Beijings larger ambitions of establishing a space station by 2020. From this outpost, Chinese scientists over the next few years will be able to test out new equipment and experiment with future space station capabilities.

But first Chinese astronauts need to prove they can actually dock with it.

Last year, China successfully got its unmanned Shenzhou-8 spacecraft to remotely link up with the Tiangong-1 module, but this will be the first time Chinese astronauts will attempt to manually guide a spacecraft into docking.

"Some people describe the manual docking as threading a needle from 100 meters away, so you can see how difficult and precise the procedure would be said astronaut Jing Haipeng, who with 14 years of experience in Chinas space program, will be responsible for this critical aspect of the mission.

"The manual space rendezvous ... is a huge test for astronauts' ability to judge spatial position, eye-hand coordination and psychological abilities," he added.

According to NBC News space analyst, James Oberg, the sooner Chinas astronauts master how to linkup with the Tiangong-1, the faster the country will be able to realize its long-term vision.

The Tiangong-1 is not just a docking target ... this is a full-fledged, live support module that can also can be used as a living space if the Chinese decide to move beyond low-Earth out to the moon or deep space said Oberg. The Tiangong-1 is exactly the kind of module for long term, deep space missions.

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China space flight a test of docking precision