Human spaceflight – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Human spaceflight (or manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight) is space travel with humans aboard spacecraft. When a spacecraft is manned, it can be piloted directly, as opposed to machine or robotic space probes controlled remotely by humans or through automatic methods on board the spacecraft.

Humans have been continually present in space for 700113000000000000013years and 700174000000000000074days on the International Space Station. The first manned spaceflight was launched by the Soviet Union on 12 April 1961 as a part of the Vostok program, with cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin aboard.

Currently, only Russia and China maintain human spaceflight capability independent of international cooperation. As of 2013, human spaceflights are only launched by the Soyuz program conducted by the Russian Federal Space Agency and the Shenzhou program conducted by the China National Space Administration. The United States lost human spaceflight launch capability upon retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.

In recent years there has been a gradual movement towards more commercial means of spaceflight. The first private human spaceflight took place on 21 June 2004, when SpaceShipOne conducted a suborbital flight. A number of non-governmental startup companies have sprung up, hoping to create a space tourism industry. NASA has also tried to stimulate private spaceflight through programs such as Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) and Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS). With its 2011 budget proposals released in 2010,[1] the Obama administration moved towards a model where commercial companies would supply NASA with transportation services of both crew and cargo to low Earth orbit. The vehicles used for these services would then serve both NASA and potential commercial customers. NASA intended to spend $6 billion in the coming years to develop commercial crew vehicles, using a model similar to that used under COTS.[2]

The first human spaceflight took place on 12 April 1961, when cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made one orbit around the Earth aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft, launched by the Soviet space program. Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space aboard Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963. Both spacecraft were launched by Vostok 3KA launch vehicles. Alexei Leonov made the first spacewalk when he left Voskhod 2 on 8 March 1965. Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to do so on 25 July 1984.

The United States became the second nation to achieve manned spaceflight with the suborbital flight of astronaut Alan Shepard aboard Freedom 7 as part of Project Mercury. The spacecraft was launched on 5 May 1961 on a Redstone rocket. The first U.S. orbital flight was that of John Glenn aboard Friendship 7, launched 20 February 1962 on an Atlas rocket. From 1981 to 2011, the U.S. conducted all its human spaceflight missions with reusable space shuttles. Sally Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983. Eileen Collins was the first female shuttle pilot, and with shuttle mission STS-93 in 1999 she became the first woman to command a U.S. spacecraft.

China became the third nation to achieve human spaceflight when Yang Liwei launched into space on a Chinese-made vehicle, the Shenzhou 5, on 15 October 2003. The flight also made China the third nation to have launched its own manned spacecraft using its own launcher. The first Chinese woman, Liu Yang, was launched in June 2012 aboard Shenzhou 9. Previous European (Hermes) and Japanese (HOPE-X) domestic manned programs were abandoned after years of development, as was the first Chinese attempt, the Shuguang spacecraft.

The farthest destination for a human spaceflight mission has been the Moon. The only manned missions to the Moon have been those conducted by NASA as part of the Apollo program. The first such mission, Apollo 8, orbited the Moon but did not land. The first Moon landing mission was Apollo 11, during whichon 20 July 1969Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to set foot on the Moon. Six missions landed in total, numbered Apollo 1117, excluding Apollo 13. Altogether 12 men walked on the Moon, the only humans to have been on an extraterrestrial body. The Soviet Union discontinued its program for lunar orbiting and landing of human spaceflight missions in 1974 when Valentin Glushko became General Designer of NPO Energiya.[3]

The longest single human spaceflight is that of Valeriy Polyakov, who left Earth on 8 January 1994, and did not return until 22 March 1995 (a total of 437 days 17 hr. 58 min. 16 sec.). Sergei Krikalyov has spent the most time of anyone in space, 803 days, 9 hours, and 39 seconds altogether. The longest period of continuous human presence in space is 700113000000000000013years and 700174000000000000074days on the International Space Station, exceeding the previous record of almost 10 years (or 3,634 days) held by Mir, spanning the launch of Soyuz TM-8 on 5 September 1989 to the landing of Soyuz TM-29 on 28 August 1999.

For many years beginning in 1961, only two countries, the USSR (later Russia) and the United States, had their own astronauts. Citizens of other nations flew in space, beginning with the flight of Vladimir Remek, a Czech, on a Soviet spacecraft on 2 March 1978. As of 2010[update], citizens from 38 nations (including space tourists) have flown in space aboard Soviet, American, Russian, and Chinese spacecraft.

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Human spaceflight - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What is Microscale Testing of Materials? | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center – Video


What is Microscale Testing of Materials? | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
My mentor explains how he got a job at NASA and his field of Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) and Microscale testing of materials. Learn the key to landing a job at NASA and some of the biggest...

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What is Microscale Testing of Materials? | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center - Video

Virgin Galactic edges closer to space in third rocket test flight (+video)

Virgin Galactics SpaceShipTwo made its third rocket-powered supersonic test flight about eight months before the space tourism company has said it plans to begin offering commercial flights.

Virgin Galactics would-be commercial spaceship has made its third rocket-powered, supersonic test flight, surpassing its previous height milestones and edging closer to its ambitions of boosting extremely well-paying customers into space.

Staff Writer

Elizabeth Barber is a staff writer at The Christian Science Monitor. She holds a masters degree from Columbia Journalism School and a bachelors degree in International Relations and English from SUNY Geneseo. Before coming to the Monitor, she was a freelance reporter at DNAinfo, a New York City breaking news site. She has also been an intern at The Cambodia Daily, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and at Washington D.C.s The Middle East Journal.

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SpaceShipTwo, Virgin Galactics supersonic spaceship, reached about 71,000 feet in its latest test flight on Friday, about 2,000 feet higher than its previous test flight in September.

It was the first time that Virgin Galactic pilot Dave Mackay commanded the plane in a rocket-powered flight, joining a test pilot from Scaled Composites, the company that develops Virgin Galactics spaceships. Scaled Composites test pilots had flown SpaceShipTwos previous rocket test flights.

SpaceShipTwo lifted off from Californias Mojave Air and Space Port under a WhiteKightTwo carrier jet at 7:22 a.m. local time. At around 46,000 feet, the spaceship was dropped from the carrier, ignited its engines, and burst to Mach 1.4. The rocket burn that carried the craft to 71,000 feet, near the middle of the Earths stratosphere, lasted just 20 seconds.

The test flight cleared the latest hurdle in British billionaire Sir Richard Bransons race to make his company the worlds first space tourism outlet. The ventures planned commercial start date is August 2014.

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Virgin Galactic edges closer to space in third rocket test flight (+video)

Bitcoin-Economy | Virgin Galactic Accepts Bitcoin for Space Flight – Video


Bitcoin-Economy | Virgin Galactic Accepts Bitcoin for Space Flight
Learn how to get invested into the bitcoin economy for the $5. For more details visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtI7NHMHEbI =============================================================...

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Bitcoin-Economy | Virgin Galactic Accepts Bitcoin for Space Flight - Video

Iran’s auspicious monkey launch

Iran's president says the Islamic republic has successfully sent a monkey into space for the second time, as part of a program aimed at manned space flight.

Hassan Rouhani's website president.ir said on Saturday the launch of the rocket dubbed Pajohesh, or 'Research' in Farsi, was Iran's first use of liquid fuel.

It said the monkey, named Fargam, or 'Auspicious', was returned to Earth safely.

It did not say when the launch happened or give other details.

Iran frequently claims technological breakthroughs that are impossible to verify independently.

The Islamic republic has said it aimed to send an astronaut into space.

It said it sent a monkey into space in January, reaching a height of 120 kilometres, but one of two official packages of photos of the simian space traveller depicted a different monkey, raising doubts among international observers as to whether the launch was as successful as reported.

The US and its allies worry that technology from the space program could also be used to develop long-range missiles that could potentially be armed with nuclear warheads.

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Iran's auspicious monkey launch

Orbital-1 Antares Launch of Cygnus from Wallops Space Flight Center on 1/9/14 – Video


Orbital-1 Antares Launch of Cygnus from Wallops Space Flight Center on 1/9/14
Launch of Orbital-1 Anteres Rocket from Wallops Space Flight Center. Sound is awesome, video is crappy at best. So turn up the volume and close your eyes!

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Orbital-1 Antares Launch of Cygnus from Wallops Space Flight Center on 1/9/14 - Video

Wallops Island: A hub for space flight in Virginia

Norfolk, Va. More and more people are coming to Wallops Island these days to experience space travel up close and personal.

They played an important part in getting the space program going, and since, they have launched thousands of sounding rockets, said Zig Leszczynski, deputy executive director of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority (VCSFA). The organization owns and operates launch pads at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island.

Since the 1940s, NASAs Wallops Flight Facility has played a big role in space research.

Theres a culture of innovation, a culture of experimentation and it really gels well with what were trying to do, said Leszczysnski. He says that while the shuttle program is no longer around, interest in space hasnt gone anywhere. In fact, launches, like the Antares rocket Thursday, is making this area a hub for space flight. The Eastern Shores location also gives it an edge over places like Florida.

Its very optimal in that geographic location. The incline orbits, when you send a satellite up and theyre going to take pictures or do what they do, services most of the population of the world and so that really is a draw for customers, said Leszczysnski.

A draw to visitors along the Eastern Shore, too, helping the local economy.

The people up on the Eastern Shore are wonderful. Chincoteague is a great area, so when folks come out to see the launches, you can also enjoy a kayak trip and some good seafood, said Leszczysnski.

And now that the space station will stay in orbit until at least 2024, Wallops Island will continue to play an important role, as rockets send cargo there and keep space exploration alive.

Its all these peoples dreams you know, wrapped into that rocket, that its going to go and complete a mission. Theres just something about that something about realizing human dream, said Leszczysnski.

The Virginia General Assembly created the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority in 1995.

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Wallops Island: A hub for space flight in Virginia

SpaceShipTwo Reaches New Heights During Third Test Flight Friday

January 11, 2014

Image Credit: Virgin Galactic

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports Your Universe Online

Virgin Galactics SpaceShipTwo (SS2) reusable space vehicle reached an altitude of 71,000 feet and speeds of Mach 1.4 during a supersonic test flight conducted early Friday morning, the Sir Richard Branson-owned commercial space travel firm has confirmed.

With chief pilot David Mackay and co-pilot Mark Stucky at the helm, the six-passenger aircraft lifted off from the Mojave Air and Space Port at 7:22am PST on Friday morning, according to Irene Klotz of Reuters.

It was SS2s third test flight as it prepares for the worlds first commercial suborbital space flight later this year, and during the voyage it soared to heights approximately twice those normally achieved by commercial jetliners. It also completed a 20-second rocket burn over the Mojave Desert that allowed it to exceed the speed of sound.

According to W.J. Hennigan of the Los Angeles Times, Mackay and Stucky tested the spaceships reaction control system, which will allow it to maneuver in space, and a newly installed thermal protection coating on the vehicles tail booms, which is being evaluated for its ability to maintain vehicle skin temperatures when the rocket motor is firing. All of the flight objectives were successfully completed, the company told him.

In a statement, Mackay called the flight a dream come true, and added that he has seen SS2 evolve into an incredible vehicle that is going to open up space to more people than ever before. To be behind the controls and fly it as the rocket ignited is something I will never forget. She flew brilliantly. All the tests went really well and generated vital data that will be used to further fine-tune our operations.

SpaceShipTwo, which was modeled after the award-winning SpaceShipOne prototype and built by Northrop Grumman-subsidiary Scaled Composites, has also made 28 glide flights, according to Reuters. Virgin Galactic is offering rides on the vehicle for $250,000, and according to reports, the company has already received payments or deposits from at least 650 would-be space travelers.

The first flights are expected to reach altitudes of over 65 miles above Earth, making it possible for passengers to see the curvature of the planet against the dark backdrop of space and experience a few minutes of weightlessness. Branson and his two children are expected to be among those on SS2s inaugural space flight.

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SpaceShipTwo Reaches New Heights During Third Test Flight Friday

Virgin Galactic’s third supersonic flight reaches highest altitude yet

If youre planning to pay out for a commercial space flight in the coming years, youll be pleased to know that Virgin Galactics test runs are continuing successfully. The company has announced that its SpaceShipTwo aircraft has completed its third rocket-powered test and reached a new high 71,000 feet in the air, to be exact. The SpaceShipTwo also reached a maximum velocity of Mach 1.4 under the stewardship of pilot Dave Mackay and returned safely to Earth.

The aim of this third test flight was to monitor the thermal coating on the tail of SpaceShipTwo as well as the ships reaction control system, which enables the pilot to maneuver the craft out in space (and give you the best views from your seat). Virgin Galactic has always promised to have its first passenger flights running sometime in 2014, and the company is showing no signs of backing down from that deadline.

I couldnt be happier to start the New Year with all the pieces visibly in place for the start of full space flights, said Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson in a press release. 2014 will be the year when we will finally put our beautiful spaceship in her natural environment of space. Today, we had our own Chief Pilot flying another flawless supersonic flight and proving the various systems required to take us safely to space, as well as providing the very best experience while were up there.

Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides was equally enthusiastic about SpaceShipTwos progress: Todays flight was another resounding success.We focused on gathering more transonic and supersonic data, and our chief pilot, Dave, handled the vehicle beautifully. With each flight test, we are progressively closer to our target of starting commercial service in 2014.

It was just over three years ago that the SpaceShipTwo made its first solo flight. Even if you have the $250,000 necessary to book one of the six seats on the SpaceShipTwo, you might still be waiting a while for your trip beyond the atmosphere: over 600 people have already signed up. Get your name down on the list through this booking page.

DT

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Virgin Galactic’s third supersonic flight reaches highest altitude yet

Space Radiation Can Affect Rocket Launches

On Jan. 8, 2014, Orbital Sciences Corp. elected to scrub that day's launch attempt of an Antares rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va., due to unusually high levels of space radiation - an example of the ways in which space weather can affect human technology.

Monitoring for space radiation - which refers to excessive high-energy protons in near-Earth space, often funneled in from space in association with an event on the sun such as the solar flares and associated coronal mass ejections that occurred on Jan. 7, 2014 - is a standard protocol for any launch attempt. Excess radiation can affect the critical computer systems aboard the launch vehicle.

"The launch vehicle avionics do everything from guiding the rocket, to telling it when to start up, to moving it through the various stages, to communicating with the payload after it has been ejected," said Chris St. Cyr, a space weather scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "If there's too much radiation these crucial systems could be damaged."

There are two ways that the radiation can cause problems. First, a single well-aimed proton can interfere with the electronic systems, causing circuit damage or system shut downs. Second, a strong dose of radiation can cause degradation of microelectronics. Such radiation effects are also of concern to satellites that orbit high above Earth, and in the face of a strong proton storm spacecraft operators sometimes put their spacecraft into safe mode for added protection.

Launches, however, are simply postponed. As the radiation subsides, the Antares launch team will determine a new launch date and time.

For more on space weather effects:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/spaceweather/index.html

For updates on the Antares launch:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/wallops/home/index.html

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Space Radiation Can Affect Rocket Launches

Commercial Spaceflight Federation Welcomes New Executive and Associate Members

Washington D.C. - The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is pleased to announce the addition of seven new member organizations. The Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority joins as the 18th Executive Member. New Associate Members include Ares Corporation, Colorado Space Coalition, Penn State Applied Research Laboratory, QinetiQ North America, Satwest, and Space Coast Spaceflight Alliance.

"The unprecedented expansion in our membership mirrors the growth of the commercial spaceflight industry, and an increasing interest in private spaceflight," said CSF President Michael Lopez-Alegria. "The industry celebrated many successes last year, and we see 2014 as a vital year in which our members will continue to demonstrate the tremendous promise of commercial spaceflight to engage and educate people around the world."

"We are happy to be a part of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation," said VCSFA Executive Director and new CSF Board member Dale Nash. "We look forward to adding our experience and expertise to those of the CSF membership to promote the development of the commercial spaceflight sector."

The new CSF Members are as follows:

Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority (http://www.marsspaceport.com/): VCSFA is an independent authority of the State of Virginia with a charter to support within the Commonwealth space-related business, economic development, and STEM education. In that, its current focus is on development and operation of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) to support both Federal and Commercial Space Launch. MARS is launching cargo resupply missions to the ISS, in support of the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract Orbital Sciences Corporation has with NASA. VCSFA is launching cargo resupply missions to the ISS from MARS Pad 0A, in support of the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract Orbital Sciences Corporation has with NASA, and launching missions to orbit from MARS Pad 0B for the Department of Defense and NASA.

ARES Corporation (http://www.arescorporation.com/): ARES Corporation is one of the foremost engineering, project management, safety and mission assurance, and information technology solutions companies in the United States. ARES has supported the commercial space industry since 2006, leveraging its extensive knowledge of the first destination of Government procured commercial space services, the International Space Station, and its intimate knowledge of NASA's safety approval process to provide key insights to providers of commercial spaceflight services.

Colorado Space Coalition (http://www.spacecolorado.org/): The CSC is a group of industry stakeholders working to make Colorado a center of excellence for commercial, civil, and military space activity. The CSC focuses its efforts in two key areas: Marketing and promoting Colorado's significant space assets; and advancing legislation vital to the industry's growth and success by providing a platform for legislative advocacy is Colorado's congressional delegation. The CSC actively supports key Colorado programs such as SNC's Dreamchaser and ULA Launch Services, plus other commercial interests such as the FAA's Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation through marketing efforts and legislative advocacy.

Penn State University Applied Research Laboratory (http://arl.psu.edu/): Space Systems Initiative is a new organization within Penn State that serves the space industry through research and education. SSI Penn State is pursuing the Google Lunar X PRIZE as its first mission, demonstrating that low-cost system development and mission execution is possible through a new business model, named uSpace. The uSpace model combines university resources, philanthropy, corporate sponsorship, industry partnership, and strategic government corporations.

QinetiQ North America (https://www.qinetiq-na.com/): QinetiQ North America's offerings range from software development to systems engineering, from mission-level engineering to enterprise-wide IT support, and from cyber security to cyber mission assurance. In aerospace, services include systems engineering, integration and fielding for aerospace, software safety engineering, independent verification and validation for evolved expendable launch vehicles, engineering and verification services to various spaceflight companies, and engineering services for NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

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Commercial Spaceflight Federation Welcomes New Executive and Associate Members