What: NASA will host "International Observe the Moon Night" Saturday, Sept. 22 at the Education Training Facility located at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. International Observe the Moon Night is an annual event, now in its third year, that encourages the public to engage in lunar science and innovations, and allows scientists, educators, and moon enthusiasts from around the globe to share in the excitement of new discoveries in science and space exploration.

Visitors will be able to participate in several hands-on activities, view the moon with a variety of telescopes, and learn more about the moon and planets in an inflatable planetarium show. A specially equipped astronomy van will give visitors the chance to take 3-D trips to the moon, and will give participants the chance to see a magnified, command-module view of the lunar surface. Special speakers and presenters will be on hand, and there will be a trivia game with prizes offered to participants.

Who: NASA presenters include:

Dr. Barbara Cohen, a planetary scientist, from 6:15-6:45 p.m. in the auditorium. Dr. Rob Suggs, head of Marshall's Space Environments Team, from 7:15-7:45 p.m. in the auditorium. Dr. Renee Weber, a planetary scientist, from 6-7:30 p.m. at the "Ask a Scientist Table." Dr. Bill Cooke, lead of Marshall's Meteoroid Environments Office, and Rhiannon Baauw, a meteor physicist, will present in the NASA Inflatable Planetarium throughout the evening.

When: Saturday, Sept. 22 from 5:30-8:30 p.m. Speakers will be available for interviews following their presentations.

Where: NASA's Education Training Facility at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center

Directions: Take Interstate 565 to exit 15 for Madison Pike toward Sparkman Drive/Bob Wallace Avenue. Keep right at the fork, and follow signs to the Space & Rocket Center. Take the first left after the Marriott entrance.

To attend:The event is free and open to the public. News media interested in covering the event should contact Shannon Ridinger in the Marshall Public & Employee Communications office at 256-544-0034 no later than close of business Sept. 21. Media must report to NASA's Education Training Facility to participate in the event.

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NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center Hosts Third Annual 'International Observe the Moon Night'

(SPACE.com) A glitch with a Russian spacecraft has helped clear the way for a private capsule's first contracted cargo flight to the International Space Station early next month, NASA officials say.

Russia's Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft was originally set to launch three astronauts toward the station on Oct. 15. But the Soyuz's liftoff will be delayed by about a week while technicians install a replacement part to fix a technical issue, Russian space officials announced Sunday (Sept. 16).

The window is thus open fairly wide for SpaceX's Dragon capsule to blast off in the first two weeks of October.

"The new launch date will help de-conflict the station's schedule for the upcoming launch of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft," NASA's Amiko Kauderer said in an International Space Station mission commentary yesterday (Sept. 17).

Dragon could lift off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as early as Oct. 9 or Oct. 10, officials have said. California-based SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion contract with NASA for 12 robotic cargo runs to the orbiting lab, and October's flight will be the first of these 12.

But it won't mark the capsule's first visit to the space station. In May, Dragon became the first private spacecraft ever to dock with the $100 billion orbiting complex during a historic demonstration flight.

NASA also signed a $1.9 billion contract with Virginia-based firm Orbital Sciences Corp. to make eight robotic supply runs to the station with its Cygnus spacecraft and Antares rocket. Orbital plans to fly a demonstration mission to the orbiting lab later this year.

Three astronauts departed the space station over the weekend, leaving just three crewmembers aboard the 430-ton orbiting complex. The Soyuz TMA-06A will bring the current Expedition 33 to its full complement of six crewmates, delivering NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin to the station.

Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook andGoogle+.

Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Private space craft to launch space station cargo

Shuttle Endeavour's Last Ferry Flight

Space shuttle Endeavour stands atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft ahead of its flight to Los Angeles in September 2012. Endeavour is destined to be displayed for public viewing at the California Science Center.

Space shuttle Endeavour, atop its Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, takes off on NASA's last-ever ferry flight from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sept. 19, 2012. Endeavour is headed for Los Angeles, Calif., to be put on public display at the California Science Center.

Space shuttle Endeavour, atop its Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, takes off on NASA's last-ever ferry flight from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sept. 19, 2012. Endeavour is headed for Los Angeles, Calif., to be put on public display at the California Science Center.

NASA's space shuttle Endeavour, perched atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (a modified 747 jumbo jet), taxis to the end of the Shuttle Landing Facility runway at the Kennedy Space Center ahead of its final departure from Cape Canaveral, Fla., to Los Angeles, Calif., on Sept. 19, 2012. Endeavour will be placed on display at the California Science Center in L.A.

NASA's space shuttle Endeavour, perched atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (a modified 747 jumbo jet), taxis to the end of the Shuttle Landing Facility runway at the Kennedy Space Center ahead of its final departure from Cape Canaveral, Fla., to Los Angeles, Calif. Endeavour will be placed on display at the California Science Center in L.A.

Hundreds of NASA workers watch as the space shuttle Endeavour takes off on the last-ever shuttle ferry flight from Florida on Sept. 19, 2012. Endeavour, riding atop a Shuttle Carrier aircraft, began a three-day trip from Florida to Los Angeles, Calif., to go on display at the California Science Center.

NASA's space shuttle Endeavour, perched atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (a modified 747 jumbo jet), taxis to the end of the Shuttle Landing Facility runway at the Kennedy Space Center ahead of its final departure from Cape Canaveral, Fla., to Los Angeles, Calif., on Sept. 19, 2012. Endeavour will be placed on display at the California Science Center in L.A.

NASA's space shuttle Endeavour, perched atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (a modified 747 jumbo jet), taxis to the end of the Shuttle Landing Facility runway at the Kennedy Space Center ahead of its final departure from Cape Canaveral, Fla., to Los Angeles, Calif., on Sept. 19, 2012. Endeavour will be placed on display at the California Science Center in L.A.

NASA's space shuttle Endeavour, perched atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (a modified 747 jumbo jet), taxis to the end of the Shuttle Landing Facility runway at the Kennedy Space Center ahead of its final departure from Cape Canaveral, Fla., to Los Angeles, Calif., on Sept. 19, 2012. Endeavour will be placed on display at the California Science Center in L.A.

Link:

Space Shuttle Endeavour Makes Final Ferry Flight from KSC (Photos)

The space shuttle Endeavour will begin a three-day trip across the United States today (Sept. 19), and you can catch some of that journey —the final piggyback flight ever for a NASA shuttle — live via the Internet.

Read more here:

How to Watch Space Shuttle Endeavour's Ferry Flight Online Today

Bangalore:India will not undertake a human space flight before the year 2017 and is likely to use a next-generation rocket for the ambitious mission, the cost of which would be reworked, Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation K Radhakrishnan said on Monday.

Mr Radhakrishnan, also Department of Space Secretary and Space Commission Chairman, confirmed that the venture is not part of the 12th five-year plan (2012-2017). However, he said that there are funds to continue with pre-project studies and develop critical technologies associated with the proposed mission.

ISRO officials noted that the space agency currently does not have an operational GSLV, after two unsuccessful missions, one with Indian cryogenic engine and another with the imported Russian one in 2010.

Mr Radhakrishnan said GSLV with indigenous cryogenic engine and stage would be flight-tested in January-February next year.

"If you look at the scenario today, we do not have a programme (human space flight) declared as such (yet to get Cabinet approval)", he told reporters in response to questions. ISRO's proposed human space flight programme was much talked about in the second half of the last decade. However, the twin-failures of the GSLV saw to it that it lost momentum. In 2008-09, it was estimated that a sum of Rs 12,400 crore would be required for undertaking the mission. "We need to rework (on that figure)", Mr Radhakrishnan said.

GSLV-Mk II (rocket) was proposed to be used for the mission then, but Mr Radhakrishnan on Monday said it would be able to carry a two-member crew only, while GSLV-Mk III which is under development would have additional mass left for conducting scientific experiments besides a two-member crew.

"We feel it (GSLV-Mk III) would be a better vehicle (for the mission)", he said.

Mr Radhakrishnan, however, said ISRO already has a budget of Rs 150 crore for conducting pre-project studies and developing critical technologies including environmental control, space suit, reentry and crew escape system. The rocket must have man-rating, he noted.

The mission is aimed at building and demonstrating the capability for carrying humans to low earth orbit and their safe return to earth.

In the year 2008, the buzz was that India would likely to have the human space flight during 2014-15, which now appears to be surely missed.

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India not to undertake human space flight before 2017: ISRO

MIAMI (Reuters) - The departure of the space shuttle Endeavour on its final flight to a Los Angeles museum has been delayed until Wednesday by bad weather, NASA said. Endeavour, which was retired last year, was scheduled to travel piggyback on top of a specially modified 747 jet, but storms along the planned flight path have pushed back its departure from the Kennedy Space Center until Wednesday ...

Originally posted here:

Weather delays last flight of space shuttle Endeavour to museum

Click photo to enlarge

This photo provided by NASA shows space shuttle Endeavour atop NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Monday, Sept. 17, 2012 in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/NASA, Bill Ingalls)

If all goes as planned, the Bay Area will be treated to the stunning spectacle Friday of the space shuttle Endeavour riding across the region's sky and dipping low toward the ground on the back of a 747 carrying a piece of American ingenuity into retirement.

I'm pretty jazzed. And Silicon Valley should be, too.

Face it: If any one place could get excited about hosting the first and last Northern California flyover of a space shuttle, it's Silicon Valley, a place that not only can claim to be the spaceship's birthplace (more or less), but also is the land where the geekerati are obsessively fixated on just what technology makes possible.

Weather permitting, it will be a morning of wide eyes and craned necks, as the 100-ton shuttle jets from Sacramento, where it will make a low pass near the Capitol; to San Francisco, where it will fly low near the Golden Gate Bridge; and on to Moffett Field, where in honor of NASA Ames, the piggybacking shuttle will make its final low pass -- at 1,500 feet or so, NASA officials say.

"I just think it's so cool. It's going to fly low and people will be able to see it," says Donald James, NASA Ames' acting director of new ventures and communication who's been with the space agency for 30 years. "A space shuttle has never been in Northern California, ever, and it's never going to be here again."

The flight, which should reach Moffett sometime after 9 a.m., is a farewell flight, after all.

While the shuttle remains a technological marvel, Endeavour's goodbye tour is a reminder that there is only so much humans can conquer with know-how. The weather, particularly low cloud cover, could wreak havoc on NASA's plans, or even scrub Endeavour's last mission. Stormy weather along Endeavour's cross-country flight path already has pushed its Bay Area visit back from Thursday to Friday. Friday's Bay Area forecast is for low clouds, burning off by late morning, so keep your fingers crossed.

Only a general flight schedule had been released as of Monday, but considering the flight's schedule at Moffett and its need to be in Los Angeles by about 11 a.m., you can assume the shuttle and its chauffeur will be flying through the Bay Area from roughly 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Continue reading here:

Cassidy: Space shuttle Endeavour expected to take final flight over Silicon Valley

India [ Images ] will not undertake a human space flight before the year 2017 and is likely to use a next-generation rocket for the ambitious mission, the cost of which would be reworked, Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, K Radhakrishnan said on Monday.

Radhakrishnan, also Department of Space Secretary and Space Commission Chairman, confirmed that the venture is not part of the 12th five-year plan (2012-2017) but said there are funds to continue with pre-project studies and develop critical technologies associated with the proposed mission.

ISRO officials noted that the space agency currently does not have an operational GSLV, after two unsuccessful missions, one with Indian cryogenic engine and another with the imported Russian one in 2010.

Radhakrishnan said GSLV with indigenous cryogenic engine and stage would be flight-tested in January-February next year.

"If you look at the scenario today, we do not have a programme (human space flight) declared as such (yet to get Cabinet approval)", he told reporters in response to questions.

ISRO's proposed human space flight programme was much talked about in the second half of the last decade but the twin-failures of the GSLV has saw to it that it lost momentum.

In 2008-09, it was estimated that a sum of Rs 12,400 crore would be required for undertaking the mission. "We need to rework (on that figure)", Radhakrishnan said.

GSLV-Mk II (rocket) was proposed to be used for the mission then, but Radhakrishnan said it would be able to carry a two-member crew only, while GSLV-Mk III which is under development would have additional mass left for conducting scientific experiments besides a two-member crew.

"We feel it (GSLV-Mk III) would be a better vehicle (for the mission)", he said.

Radhakrishnan, however, said ISRO already has a budget of Rs 150 crore for conducting pre-project studies and developing critical technologies including environmental control, space suit, reentry and crew escape system. The rocket must have man-rating, he noted.

Read more here:

No human space flight for India before 2017: ISRO

Calcutta News.Net Monday 17th September, 2012

India's first human space flight would be delayed further for want of requisite technologies and capabilities, a top space official admitted Monday.

"The launch programme of our first manned mission in space is going in a skewed phase. Though we have identified critical technologies for such an ambitious project, we have to build the capabilities for undertaking such a challenging mission," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K. Radhakrishnan told reporters here.

The state-run Indian space agency in 2006-07 planned to send a two-member crew into the space orbit for seven days and bring it back safe to Earth by 2014-15 at an estimated cost of Rs.12,400-crore ($2.8 billion).

"A human space flight is a complex mission requiring a host of things such as a heavy rocket, re-entry vehicle, space capsule, space suits, environmental control, life support systems and an escape system for the crew at the launch-pad and during the flight to be safe in the event of a mishap," Radhakrishnan pointed out.

The space agency, however, has commissioned pre-project studies for the manned mission with Rs.150 crore grant from the government.

"With human life at stake, there is no room for error at any stage of the flight mission. Though we had successfully conducted a 12-day space capsule recovery experiment using a lower-orbit rocket in January 2007, we have to work on a full-fledged project on mission mode for the human space flight at a revised cost," Radhakrishnan observed.

The Indian space agency plans to undertake 58 missions over the next five years during the 12th plan period (2012-17) spanning communication satellites, remote-sensing satellites for earth observation and space applications.

"As of now, we do not have a programme to launch a human space flight over the next five years. We are also yet to get approval from the government for the manned mission," Radhakrishnan added.

The proposed missions, however, include Chandrayaan-2, India's second mission to moon, by 2016 after Chandrayaan-1 in 2008.

The rest is here:

Indian manned space flight delayed further

The beginning of space shuttle Endeavour's final flight to California has been postponed because of weather along the flight route.

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NASA postpones final ferry flight of Endeavour

Space shuttle Endeavour, atop a NASA 747, awaits final preparations for its journey to Los Angeles. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times / September 16, 2012)

September 16, 2012, 6:24 p.m.

NASA has delayed the space shuttle Endeavours departure for Los Angeles by 24 hours because of a threat of stormy weather along its flight path, officials announced Sunday.

Endeavour, which is scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles on Thursday, will now take off around sunrise Tuesday. It will still arrive in L.A. on schedule its pit stop in Houston will be shortened to a day. Once it arrives, it will be driven through the streets of Los Angeles to its final destination, the California Science Center.

As it flies, the specially outfitted Boeing 747 aircraft carrying Endeavour will still pull some crowd-pleasing low flyovers along the Space Coast, including the Kennedy Space Center and the Patrick Air Force Base.

Though Endeavour has made 25 missions into space, its still the baby of the shuttle family. It was built to replace Challenger, which was destroyed when it exploded after launch in 1986.

[For the record, 6:25 p.m. Sept. 16: An earlier version of this post incorrectly said Endeavour was built to replace the shuttle Columbia.]

amina.khan@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @aminawrite

Link:

NASA space shuttle Endeavour's L.A. flight delayed to Tuesday

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Image caption: Endeavour mated to Boeing 747 in the Mate-Demate device at the Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility on Sept. 14 for Final Ferry Flight to California on Sep. 17. Credit: Ken Kremer

Space Shuttle Endeavour was joined to the 747 Jumbo carrier jet that will carry her majestically on Sept 17 on her final flight to the California Science Center her permanent new home at the in Los Angeles. Enjoy my photos from onsite at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

On Friday (Sept. 14), Endeavour was towed a few miles in the predawn darkness from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB ) to the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) and the specially modified 747 known as the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA.

In a day long process, Endeavour departed the VAB at 5:04 a.m. and was hauled into the gantry-like Mate-Demate device, hoisted and then lowered onto the awaiting 747 Jumbo Jet. The pair were joined at about 2:41 p.m.

Image caption: Endeavour towed past waiting Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) at the Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility on Sept. 14 for Final Ferry Flight to California on Sep. 17. Credit: Ken Kremer

Final work to hard mate NASAs youngest orbiter to the SCA Jumbo Jet known as NASA 905 is due to be completed by Sunday.

The 747 crew will fly perform multiple, crowd pleasing low flyovers of the Florida space coast region, the KSC Visitor complex and the beaches giving every spectator a thrilling front row seat to this exciting but bittersweet moment in space history as the shuttle takes flight for the very final time.

Excerpt from:

Shuttle Endeavour mated to Jumbo Jet for Final Flight

Masten Space Systems has lost one of its research rockets after a mostly successful test flight this week. Company spokesman Colin Ake told Wired the flight was designed to expand the flight envelope of its Xaero rocket when the incident occurred.

One of the primary goals was to test how the vehicle would handle at higher wind loads and at higher altitudes, Ake said.

Xaero is part of Mastens development program to build a reusable, sub-orbital rocket that is capable of precision landings. The 12-foot-tall rocket had made 110 flights before this weeks accident. The flight at the Mojave Air and Space Port was supposed to fly to an altitude of one kilometer while testing the flight controls at higher ascent and descent velocities and then return to a precise landing point.

With about two-thirds of the flight complete, Xaero was in the descent stage when control was lost.

As we were throttling up for landing, we had a throttle valve failure, it was essentially stuck, Ake said. We are entirely dependent on high-precision throttling, thats the core of the handling in the descent stage. The flight was terminated and the vehicle was destroyed.

Ake says the safety systems worked as they were designed, but could not say whether the on-board system terminated the flight or if the flight was terminated by a person on the ground.

No one was hurt, thats the most important thing, he added. Hardware failures happen. Rocket science is a cliche because rocket science is not easy.

Indeed, after more than 220 successful vertical take-off and landing test flights over the past two years, Masten was beginning to make the development of precision-landing rockets look routine. This weeks accident is a reminder of the dangers of flight-testing new rocket vehicles.

Xaero flew to an altitude of 444 meters on July 4. Masten is focused on the precision landings that will allow its rockets to fly into space and return to a specific landing spot on the ground, rather than a ballistic reentry with a splashdown in the ocean.

The company already has an updated, larger version of the Xaero standing in its facility in Mojave. Ake would not say when the first flight of the new version was expected to happen.

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Masten Space Systems Loses Rocket After Record Flight

WHAT: Space shuttle Endeavour will make its final flight from Florida on Monday. It will be aboard a special 747 that will transport the craft to Los Angeles, where eventually it will be on display at the California Science Center. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is offering a couple of options to watch Endeavour fly off, including "front row" seats as it departs from the Shuttle ...

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Don't miss: The last flight of space shuttle Endeavour

Washington D.C. - Today Masten Space Systems conducted a flight test of its unmanned Xaero from the Mojave Air & Space Port to a target altitude of one kilometer to test flight control at high ascent and descent rates. While the vehicle demonstrated better than expected performance through the test, unexpected instability developed during landing and the flight was terminated while the vehicle was well above ground level. The vehicle was destroyed on impact; no one was injured. The cause of the failure is under review, but a throttle valve malfunction is suspected.

CSF President Michael Lopez-Alegria stated, "Despite the loss of Xaero, the Masten team completed virtually all of their test objectives and collected invaluable data from the flight. More importantly, the personnel from Masten and from the Mojave Air & Space Port, as well as the hardware and software in the flight termination system, performed flawlessly. The vehicle impacted within the designated test area and no one was injured or endangered. It is the nature of the flight test business to occasionally experience anomalies; I'm confident that although Masten lost a vehicle, they gained important data that will be put to good use as they continue to develop their designs. I expect to see Masten in the skies again soon."

About the Commercial Spaceflight Federation

The mission of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) is to promote the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursue ever-higher levels of safety, and share best practices and expertise throughout the industry. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation's member companies, which include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, spaceports, suppliers, and service providers, are creating thousands of high-tech jobs nationwide, working to preserve American leadership in aerospace through technology innovation, and inspiring young people to pursue careers in science and engineering. For more information please visit http://www.commercialspaceflight.org or contact Assistant Director Sirisha Bandla at sirisha@commercialspaceflight.org or at 202.349.1120.

Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.

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Masten Completes Their Test Objectives; Xaero Not Recovered

Space shuttle Endeavour will make a refueling stop in El Paso next week on its way to its final destination in California. (Times file photo)

The space shuttle Endeavour, riding on a carrier aircraft, will make a refueling stop in El Paso before flying low over the White Sands area and Las Cruces next week during the historic final shuttle ferry flight across the country, NASA officials said.

The shuttle's flight on Sept. 19 over the El Paso-Las Cruces region is part of the farewell ferry flight for the space shuttle program.

Endeavour will ride piggyback on a modified 747 flying over NASA facilities on a

The El Paso region has a long history with the space shuttle program, including the landing of the space shuttle Columbia on the Alkali Flats at White Sands Space Harbor in 1982.

Over the decades, thousands of El Pasoans got to view space shuttles making travel stops at Biggs Army Airfield.

"I'm kind of sad to see the fleet being retired," said Richard Lopez, a former NASA electrical engineer who sits on the board of Insights El Paso Science Center.

Lopez plans to try to get a glimpse of the shuttle when it flies over El Paso in what he described as a bitter-sweet end

The space shuttles "sure were workhorses," said Lopez, who worked for NASA for 25 years in Houston and White Sands. "They provided a lot of flights with a lot of good work from the crews. Now, we will rely on rockets going up with the Russians."

The shuttle's final cross-country flight will begin at sunrise Monday when the shuttle departs from the Kennedy Space Center.

Originally posted here:

Space shuttle Endeavour stops in El Paso next week

Astronauts on the International Space Station bade farewell to a Japanese cargo ship Wednesday, ending Japan's latest delivery flight to the orbiting lab.

Japan's unmanned H-2 Transfer Vehicle 3 (HTV-3) left the space station at 11:50 a.m. EDT after station astronauts used a robotic arm to detach the spacecraft from its docking port and set it free. The orbiting lab's robotic arm released the cargo ship, which is now filled with trash and unneeded items, as both spacecraft were sailing 235 miles (378 kilometers) above Canada, NASA officials said.

The HTV-3 spacecraft is expected to be intentionally destroyed early Friday, when it fires its rocket engines for the last time to leave orbit and burn up in Earth's atmosphere somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. That de-orbit maneuver is scheduled for about 12:50 a.m. EDT on Friday, NASA officials said.

Japan's HTV cargo ships are cylindrical vessels capable of hauling tons of supplies and new equipment for astronauts living on the International Space Station. The spacecraft were developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and are also called Kounotori, which is Japanese for "White Stork."

Japan launched HTV-3 to the space station on July 20, and the cargo ship arrived at the orbiting laboratory a week later. NASA astronaut Joe Acaba and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide used the station's robotic arm to capture the craft and attach it to an available docking port. The same two astronauts performed the detach-and-release procedure for HTV-3 Wednesday. [ Launch Photos for Japan's HTV-3 Spaceship ]

The HTV-3 spacecraft delivered nearly 8,000 pounds (3,600 kilograms) of cargo to the space station, including care packages of food, clothes and other gear for the outpost's six-person crew. The cargo ship also delivered an aquatic habitat that will eventually house fish for a future science experiment, two student experiments for a YouTube Space Lab contest, and external experiments that were moved to a porch-like platform on the station's Japanese Kibo laboratory module.

Japan's HTV spaceships are part of an international fleet of unmanned spacecraft used to send regular cargo deliveries to the space station. The fleet includes Russia's Progress spacecraft, Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicles and the private Dragon space capsules built by the private U.S. spaceflight company SpaceX.

SpaceX's first Dragon spacecraft flew a test flight to the space station in May, with the first operational delivery flight scheduled to launch in October. Another American company, the Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp., is building an unmanned space cargo ship for NASA called Cygnus. The spacecraft's Antares rocket is expected to make its first test flight later this year.

SpaceX and Orbital Sciences each have contracts with NASA to provide regular cargo delivery flights to the space station.

You can follow Space.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik and Space.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

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Japanese cargo ship leaves space station

The giant rocket NASA is building to carry astronauts to Mars and other destinations in deep space may cost $500 million per launch when it's flying regularly, space agency officials said Tuesday (Sept. 11).

NASA is eyeing $500 million as a target right now for the Space Launch System (SLS) when it begins making roughly one flight per year, which could begin happening after 2023. But things could change as the SLS program which was just announced in September 2011 matures, officials said.

"We've estimated somewhere around the $500 million number is what an average cost per flight is," SLS deputy project manager Jody Singer, of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., said Tuesday during a presentation at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics SPACE 2012 conference in Pasadena, Calif.

"But again, I'd caution you, because we still are working on our contracts and where we're going," Singer added. "Plus we're in the development phase, and you really have to have a little bit more of a steady-state flight launch to be able to get the more efficient launch rate. But that's the number we're using right now." [Photos: NASA's Space Launch System]

NASA's next big rocket

NASA unveiled the SLS just two months after the last flight of its venerable space shuttle program, which was grounded in July 2011 after 30 years of orbital service.

But the giant rocket and the capsule it will loft known as the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle are not a replacement for the space shuttle. That space-taxi role will be filled by private American spaceships, which NASA is grooming to be ready to carry astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit by 2017.

The SLS-Orion combo, on the other hand, is a deep space transportation system. In 2010, President Barack Obama charged NASA with getting astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025 and then on to the vicinity of Mars by the mid-2030s, and SLS-Orion is how NASA will try to make that happen.

The first test flight of the SLS is slated for 2017, and NASA hopes the rocket will begin lofting astronauts in 2021.

If the SLS is able to meet the $500 million target, it would end up being cheaper to fly than the space shuttle. The shuttle program cost about $209 billion (in 2010 dollars) over its lifetime and made a total of 135 flights, yielding an average cost per launch of more than $1.5 billion.

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NASA's Huge New Rocket May Cost $500 Million Per Launch

Astronauts on the International Space Station bade farewell to a Japanese cargo ship today (Sept. 12), ending Japan's latest delivery flight to the orbiting lab.

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Japan's Robotic Cargo Ship Leaves Space Station

GREENBELT, Md., Sept. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center will host a question-and-answer session between local students and residents aboard the International Space Station on Thursday, Sept. 13, beginning 12:40 p.m. EDT. The live 12-minute forum will provide a rare opportunity, via amateur radio, for students to talk directly to astronaut Sunita Williams ...

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NASA Goddard To Host Live Student Session With International Space Station Residents