The U.S. Air Force is standing ready for this week's much anticipated return to Earth of a robotic space plane that has spent more than a year in orbit on a secret mission.

Air Force officials say landing day for the unmanned X-37B space plane is imminent, and could occur on Friday (June 15). But weather conditions at its intended landing site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, as well as other factors, will determine when the spacecraft's will ultimately land.

"Team Vandenberg is prepared to safely receive the X-37B at a moment's notice," Air Force Lt. Austin Fallin told SPACE.com in an email this week. "Exact landing date and time depend on weather and technical considerations."

The X-37B spacecraft's landing window opened on June 11 and runs through June 18, with Friday being the next opportunity, Fallin said. The exact nature of the space plane's mission is classified, so aside from a brief May 30 statement announcing the upcoming landing in the mid-June timeframe, Air Force officials have remained mum on re-entry details. [Photos: Air Force's 2nd Secret X-37B Mission]

"More information will be released as it becomes available," Fallin said.

The X-37B space plane set to land this week is known as the Orbital Test Vehicle 2 (OTV-2) and looks much like a smaller version of NASA's reusable space shuttles. Unlike NASA's shuttles, the OTV-2 is completely unmanned and is powered by a solar panel that allows it to stay in orbit for months at a time.

Air Force officials have said the estimated mission length for its X-37B space planes (there are currently two) is about 270 days, but the OTV-2 mission has far outlasted that timeframe. The OTV-2 mission launched into orbit on March 5, 2011 and has racked up more than 460 days in orbit so far.

The Air Force's X-37B space planes are built by Boeing and originally began as a NASA test program that shifted into the U.S military's control in 2006, first to DARPA and then to the Air Force, due to funding issues. Each X-37B spacecraft is about 29 feet long (8.8 meters) 15 feet wide (4.5 m), and has a payload bay about the size of a pickup truck bed.

The spacecraft are launched into orbit atop unmanned Atlas 5 rockets and are designed to guide themselves back to Earth on autopilot by re-entering the atmosphere and landing on a runway at Vandenberg. The OTV-2 mission and its predecessor were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The first X-37B space plane, OTV-1, launched in 2010 and spent 225 days in space. This OTV-2 mission has more than doubled the duration of that debut flight. Air Force officials have said they intend to launch the OTV-1 vehicle on another test flight soon, possibly as soon as this fall.

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Air Force's Secretive X-37B Space Plane May Land Friday

The first of four instruments to fly aboard NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) has been delivered to NASA. The Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) will allow scientists to study cold and distant objects in greater detail than ever before.

MIRI arrived at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. on May 29. It has been undergoing inspection before being integrated into Webb's science instrument payload known as the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM).

Assembled at and shipped from the Science and Technology Facilities Council's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the United Kingdom, MIRI was developed by a consortium of 10 European institutions and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and delivered by the European Space Agency.

George Rieke, MIRI science team lead at the University of Arizona, Tucson, noted, "MIRI is the first Webb instrument to be delivered, the result of teamwork in the U.S. and internationally."

MIRI will observe light with wavelengths in the mid-infrared range of 5 microns to 28 microns, which is a longer wavelength than human eyes can detect. It is the only instrument of the four with this particular ability to observe the physical processes occurring in the cosmos.

"MIRI will enable Webb to distinguish the oldest galaxies from more evolved objects that have undergone several cycles of star birth and death," said Matt Greenhouse, ISIM project scientist at Goddard. "MIRI also will provide a unique window into the birth places of stars which are typically enshrouded by dust that shorter wavelength light cannot penetrate."

MIRI's sensitive detectors will allow it to observe light, cool stars in very distant galaxies; unveil newly forming stars within our Milky Way; find signatures of the formation of planets around stars other than our own; and take imagery and spectroscopy of planets, comets and the outermost bits of debris in our solar system. MIRI's images will enable scientists to study an object's shape and structure.

"MIRI will help us understand what's out there at the edge of what we can see," said Mike Ressler, the instrument's project scientist at JPL. "The shorter-wavelength instruments will discover the glow of the farthest known objects, but we need MIRI to help identify what they are -- supermassive black holes, newborn galaxies or something we've never seen before."

The most powerful space telescope ever built, Webb is the successor to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Webb's four instruments will reveal how the universe evolved from the Big Bang to the formation of our solar system. Webb is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

To view two "Behind the Webb" videos about MIRI, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/LQUFC9 and http://go.nasa.gov/LQUPta

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First Flight Instrument Delivered for James Webb Space Telescope

As China prepares to launch its first manned space flight in four years, Chinese stock prices are going up.

For the Chinese government, this weekends space shot the countrys first manned space flight for nearly four years is a matter of national pride.

Beijing Bureau Chief

Peter Ford is The Christian Science Monitors Beijing Bureau Chief. He covers news and features throughout China and also makes reporting trips to Japan and the Korean peninsula.

For some canny Chinese stock pickers, however, it is a chance to make money.

The Shenzhou 9 mission, due to take off on Saturday, will send three taikonauts, one of them a woman, to dock for the first time with Chinas orbiting space lab. The maneuver will mark a major step toward Beijings goal of building its own space station.

Back on Earth, meanwhile, the flurry of publicity surrounding the launch has done wonders for the stock prices of Chinese state-owned firms in the space sector. One of them has seen the value of its shares jump 16 percent since the mission was announced Saturday.

The Chinese government and the companies it controls are generally tight-lipped about the space program, releasing information to the public only at high points such as rocket launches. Shares go up because they are stimulated by the news, says Li Qin, an aerospace analyst at China Investment Securities in Beijing.

At the same time, adds Mr. Li, launches are evidence of progress in Chinas space sector, which sparks market expectations of the sector, so speculative investors jump in.

The last time China launched a rocket in its space lab program, last year, space sector stocks bucked a falling market to rise by about 10 percent, Li recalls. They have risen by the same amount over the past four days, he says, led by Shaanxi Aerospace Power, a manufacturer of rocket parts, whose shares have leaped 16 percent.

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Space launch: One small step for China, one giant opportunity for investors

PALO ALTO, Calif., June 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Engineers and scientists at the Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] Space Systems Advanced Technology Center (ATC) have completed delivery of key hardware subsystems for NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission (MMS). The delivery comprised four flight subsystems and one flight spare unit. The prime contractor Southwest Research Institute (SWRI) partnered with Lockheed Martin to develop and build the Hot Plasma Composition Analyzer (HPCA) as part of the MMS instrument suite.

When it launches in 2014, the MMS mission will provide unprecedented insights into a little-understood physical process at the heart of all space weather. This process, known as magnetic reconnection, sparks solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and other phenomena that can imperil Earth-orbiting spacecraft and terrestrial power grids. High-resolution data from MMS will provide researchers much greater clarity into the mechanisms involved in magnetic reconnection and associated phenomena.

"Magnetic reconnection at the Earth's magnetopause is the mechanism by which magnetic fields in different regions in this case, from the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) carried by the solar wind, and the Earth's magnetic field change topology to open magnetospheric field lines. This connection allows energy and momentum to flow from the solar wind into the magnetosphere," said Dr. Karlheinz Trattner, Lockheed Martin ATC space plasma physicist, and co-investigator on MMS.

The MMS mission is a Solar Terrestrial Probes mission comprising four identically instrumented spacecraft that will use Earth's magnetosphere as a laboratory to study the microphysics of magnetic reconnection and two other fundamental plasma processes: energetic particle acceleration, and turbulence. These processes have implications for many space science research areas since they occur in all astrophysical plasma systems but can be studied in situ only in our solar system and most efficiently only in Earth's magnetosphere, where they control the dynamics of the geospace environment and play a significant role in space weather.

The four satellites of the MMS mission will be deployed in an orbit to skim the boundary layer between the magnetosphere and the interplanetary magnetic field where magnetic reconnection is known to exist.The MMS spacecraft are being developed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland. GSFC is also responsible for the overall management of the MMS mission and mission operations.

The ATC is the research and development organization of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (LMSSC) and creates the technology foundation for the company's business. In addition, the ATC conducts basic research into understanding and predicting space weather and the behavior of our Sun, including its impacts on Earth and climate. It has a five-decade-long heritage of spaceborne instruments.

LMSSC, a major operating unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation, designs and develops, tests, manufactures and operates a full spectrum of advanced-technology systems for national security and military, civil government and commercial customers. Chief products include human space flight systems; a full range of remote sensing, navigation, meteorological and communications satellites and instruments; space observatories and interplanetary spacecraft; laser radar; ballistic missiles; missile defense systems; and nanotechnology research and development.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs about 123,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation's net sales for 2011 were $46.5 billion.

Media Contact: Buddy Nelson, (510) 797-0349; e-mail, buddy.nelson@lmco.com

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Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center Delivers Flight Hardware For NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission

11-06-2012 08:44 During a record-breaking June 8 test, engineers throttled the J-2X powerpack up and down several times to explore numerous operating points required for the fuel and oxidizer turbopumps. The results of this test will be useful for determining performance and hardware life for the J-2X engine turbopumps. The J-2X engine will power the upper stage of the evolved NASA¹s Space Launch System, an advanced heavy-lift rocket that will provide an entirely new national capability for human exploration beyond Earth¹s orbit. The test was conducted at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center in south Mississippi. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is developing the J-2X engine for NASA¹s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. (NASA/SSC)

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Throttle Up! J-2X Powerpack Test Sets Record - Video

Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) (SAI) announced today it was awarded a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 2011 Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Contractor Excellence Award (CEA) at the annual Center Director's Breakfast on May 17 in the Davidson Center for Space Exploration at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala. SAIC was honored in the Large Business - Service category for contributions to the MSFC's mission.

SAIC provides NASA a wide spectrum of information technology (IT) services for MSFC, including software development and maintenance, mission-critical IT implementation, operations and maintenance, telecommunications, and network management. SAIC was honored for its outstanding performance on three major contracts - the longstanding NASA Information Technology Services (UNITeS) contract, and two follow-on awards under the agency's IT Infrastructure Integration Program (I3P) - the multi-year Enterprise Applications Service Technologies (EAST) and NASA Integrated Communications Services (NICS) contracts. These three contracts provide MSFC and the agency with comprehensive IT services that are critical to NASA's mission and daily operations.

Eligible contractor companies were evaluated for the award on seven criteria: contract technical performance; schedule and cost performance; leadership and quality improvements; customer satisfaction; innovation; and a category that included safety, diversity and outreach.

As a CEA winner at MSFC, SAIC is now a finalist for the NASA George M. Low Award, the agency's oldest and most prestigious award for quality and performance in the aerospace industry.

"SAIC is honored to receive the MSFC CEA award," said Doug Wagoner, SAIC senior vice president and business unit general manager. "We have a long history of service to NASA, and this award is a testament to our employees for their commitment to providing excellent support for the MFSC mission."

About SAIC

SAIC is a FORTUNE 500(R) scientific, engineering, and technology applications company that uses its deep domain knowledge to solve problems of vital importance to the nation and the world, in national security, energy and the environment, critical infrastructure, and health. The Company's approximately 40,000 employees serve customers in the U.S. Department of Defense, the intelligence community, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, other U.S. Government civil agencies and selected commercial markets. Headquartered in McLean, Va., SAIC had annual revenues of approximately $10.6 billion for its fiscal year ended January 31, 2012. For more information, visit http://www.saic.com/. SAIC: From Science to Solutions(R)

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SAIC Receives NASA 2011 Marshall Space Flight Center Contractor Excellence Award

MCLEAN, Va., June 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) (SAI) announced today it was awarded a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 2011 Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Contractor Excellence Award (CEA) at the annual Center Director's Breakfast on May 17 in the Davidson Center for Space Exploration at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala. SAIC was honored in the Large Business Service category for contributions to the MSFC's mission.

SAIC provides NASA a wide spectrum of information technology (IT) services for MSFC, including software development and maintenance, mission-critical IT implementation, operations and maintenance, telecommunications, and network management. SAIC was honored for its outstanding performance on three major contracts the longstanding NASA Information Technology Services (UNITeS) contract, and two follow-on awards under the agency's IT Infrastructure Integration Program (I3P) the multi-year Enterprise Applications Service Technologies (EAST) and NASA Integrated Communications Services (NICS) contracts. These three contracts provide MSFC and the agency with comprehensive IT services that are critical to NASA's mission and daily operations.

Eligible contractor companies were evaluated for the award on seven criteria: contract technical performance; schedule and cost performance; leadership and quality improvements; customer satisfaction; innovation; and a category that included safety, diversity and outreach.

As a CEA winner at MSFC, SAIC is now a finalist for the NASA George M. Low Award, the agency's oldest and most prestigious award for quality and performance in the aerospace industry.

"SAIC is honored to receive the MSFC CEA award," said Doug Wagoner, SAIC senior vice president and business unit general manager. "We have a long history of service to NASA, and this award is a testament to our employees for their commitment to providing excellent support for the MFSC mission."

About SAIC

SAIC is a FORTUNE 500 scientific, engineering, and technology applications company that uses its deep domain knowledge to solve problems of vital importance to the nation and the world, in national security, energy and the environment, critical infrastructure, and health. The Company's approximately 40,000 employees serve customers in the U.S. Department of Defense, the intelligence community, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, other U.S. Government civil agencies and selected commercial markets. Headquartered in McLean, Va., SAIC had annual revenues of approximately $10.6 billion for its fiscal year ended January 31, 2012. For more information, visit http://www.saic.com/. SAIC: From Science to Solutions

Statements in this announcement, other than historical data and information, constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be very different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in SAIC's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended January 31, 2012, and other such filings that SAIC makes with the SEC from time to time. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof.

Contact:

Melissa Koskovich

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SAIC Receives National Aeronautics and Space Administration 2011 Marshall Space Flight Center Contractor Excellence ...

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/l4lnwj/astronautics_the) has announced the addition of John Wiley and Sons Ltd's new book "Astronautics: The Physics of Space Flight, 2nd, Enlarged and Improved Edition" to their offering.

As a crewmember of the D-2 shuttle mission and a full professor of astronautics at the Technical University in Munich, Ulrich Walter is an acknowledged expert in the field. He is also the author of a number of popular science books on space flight.

The second edition of this textbook is based on extensive teaching and his work with students, backed by numerous examples drawn from his own experience. With its end-of-chapter examples and problems, this work is suitable for graduate level or even undergraduate courses in space flight, as well as for professionals working in the space industry.

Key Topics Covered:

Preface to Second Edition

1 Rocket Fundamentals

2 Rocket Flight

3 Rocket Staging

4 Thermal Propulsion

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Research and Markets: Astronautics: The Physics of Space Flight, 2nd, Enlarged and Improved Edition

10-06-2012 17:51 Visit my website at - this Starchaser IV rocket is located in Alamogordo, New Mexico; at the Science and Space Museum. Please rate and comment, thanks!

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Starchaser IV Private Industry Space Rocket | Spaceship Commercial Space Flight HD Video - Video

11-06-2012 04:21 Come visit NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center: Putting ideas in space.... bringing knowledge home. For more info:

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What Do They Do at Goddard Space Flight Center - Video

LAS CRUCES The iris in Virgin Galactic's logo is that of Sir Richard Branson's you know, the billionaire owner very own eye. Did you know that the business cards of other executives also includes their own irises.

Well, whether you consider that creepy, innovative, or both, the undeniable fact is that the company has its eye, figuratively, on southern New Mexico.

Seven and a half years ago, Branson stopped by a spot in the desert about 40 miles north of Las Cruces and celebrated with school children the spot where Spaceport America would be built. Last week, CEO and President George Whitesides was in town as the company held an open house event for its Las Cruces office.

Such an event flies in the face of some of the comments we've all heard in the past 7 1/2 years:

"The spaceport will never happen. We'll drive by up there and see a concrete pad with brush grown up around it."

"New Mexicans will never support an expensive project for rich people."

"The economy will kill the project."

Whitesides said he's heard the comments too. Still the company plans to launch suborbital space flights at the $200 million Spaceport America, which is nearly complete. Whitesides said he's looking forward to the start of space flights as a company exec and as a customer. In fact, the company executive said Virgin hopes to begin flights in the second half of 2013.

"I bought tickets for me and my wife," he said. "I was one of

In fact, the company has sold more than 500 rides to suborbital space at $200,000 a pop. You do the math. OK, I'll do it for you: If we round off to 500, that's 100 million big ones, a bit more than your average lemonade stand.

Continued here:

Dream nearly fulfilled: Virigin Galactic closer to space flight

Image: Orbital Sciences

With a few decades of space launch experience already under its belt, the Orbital Sciences Corporation is next up to demonstrate cargo delivery capabilities to the International Space Station.

With so much attention focused on SpaceXs successful demonstration flight last month, it might be easy to forget Elon Musks company is just one of two receiving investments from NASA as part of its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program to deliver cargo to the ISS. And unlike upstart SpaceX, the other company in the COTS program is a veteran of the commercial space industry.

Orbital Sciences Corporation is a 30-year-old firm with more than 60 launches to space using its own rockets, and more than 125 satellites delivered to orbit. The company was founded in 1982 by a trio of Harvard Business School friends who thought a commercial company could provide space products and launch services in a much more affordable way than what was available at the time. After raising the cash, Orbital began work on its first space launch vehicle in the mid-1980s, and by 1990 the company had eight successful launches under its belt.

COTS is exactly what the company was founded to do, says Orbital spokesman Barry Beneski.

Roughly a third of the companys $1.5 billion revenue this year will come from civil government contracts, including the NASA COTS development program and the Commercial Resupply Services contracts to deliver cargo to the ISS. Beneski says a little less than a third of the companys business comes from commercial customers, mainly communication satellite companies, while the rest of the business is comprised of military and intelligence customers.

Were not a new space company, Beneski told Wired, emphasizing Orbitals history of building and launching satellites.

Orbital fills a gap between some of the big veteran companies in the space industry, such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin, and the newer firms, such as SpaceX and the yet-to-fly-to-space Blue Origin. Were big enough to take on big challenges and have the experience to back it up, Beneski says, touting Orbitals capabilities.

An artist rendition of the Cygnus spacecraft approaching the International Space Station. Image: Orbital Sciences

It would be easy to understand if Orbital felt a bit ignored in all the recent news about private companies getting involved with delivering cargo to the space station, and Beneski says there was a bit of we do that too. But he says the company is simply ready to show it has the expertise to build upon its launch experience and deliver cargo to the ISS. Were confident and were ready to show [our capabilities] later this year.

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Veteran Space Company Orbital Sciences Ready for ISS

Shenzhou 9 Spaceship at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center

A Chinese Long March 2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft rolls out to the launch pad at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on June 9, 2012. The Shenzhou 9 mission will launch three astronauts on China's first manned space docking flight.

A Chinese Long March 2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft rolls out to the launch pad at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on June 9, 2012. The Shenzhou 9 mission will launch three astronauts on China's first manned space docking flight.

A Long March 2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou 9 rocket rolls out to the launch pad at China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center ahead of a planned June 2012 launch of the country's first manned space docking mission.

A Chinese Long March 2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft rolls out to the launch pad at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on June 9, 2012. The Shenzhou 9 mission will launch three astronauts on China's first manned space docking flight.

This image released by the China Manned Space Engineering Office shows the Long March 2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou 9 capsule that will launch three astronauts to the Tiangong 1 space lab in June 2012.

The docking of two robotic spacecraft, the Tiangong 1 space station and Shenzhou 8 capsule, provided a preview of larger Chinese space complexes planned for the future.

Take a look at how China's first space station, called Tiangong ("Heavenly Palace") will be assembled in orbit in this SPACE.com infographic.

A Chinese Long March 2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft rolls out to the launch pad at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on June 9, 2012. The Shenzhou 9 mission will launch three astronauts on China's first manned space docking flight.

Launch technicians stand ready as China's Shenzhou 9 spacecraft and Long March 2F rocket are rolled out to the launch pad on June 9, 2012.

Excerpt from:

Shenzhou 9: China's 1st Manned Space Docking Mission (Pictures)

10-06-2012 11:59 China annonces it's first manned mission to space. NewsyScience:

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China to Launch Manned Space Mission in Mid-June - Video

09-06-2012 10:09 This remarkable video was produced by NASA's MERRA project at GSFC. It shows the flow of air over North America during 1993, a year of heavy rainfall and flooding. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. Source:

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Winds of 1993: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center - Video

China is preparing to launch a manned space flight to an orbiting space laboratory in the middle of this month, according to state media reports and China's human spaceflight agency.

A Long March 2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou 9 capsule has been moved to a launch pad in the north-west of the country, and according to state news agency Xinhua, it will carry three astronauts to the mini-space station Tiangong-1, which has been circling Earth unmanned since its launch last year.

"The Shenzhou 9 will perform our country's first manned space docking mission with the orbiting Tiangong 1 space lab module," the Xinhua news agency quoted Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China's manned space program, as saying.

According to BBC News, this would be China's fourth manned space flight and its first since 2008. It became only the third country to independently send a man into space in 2003.

"It means China's spacecraft will become a genuine manned shuttle tool between space and Earth. It can send human beings to space stations or space labs. This will be a significant step in China's manned space flight history," Zhou said.

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A spokesperson told Xinhua news agency that in the next few days, scientists will conduct functional tests on the spacecraft and the rocket, as well as joint tests on selected astronauts, spacecraft, rocket and ground systems.

China completed a difficult space docking maneuver last year, when an unmanned craft docked with the Tiangong 1 or "Heavenly Body" by remote control. The astronauts onboard the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft will also dock with the Tiangong 1 and carry out scientific experiments on board.

Niu Hongguang, deputy commander-in-chief of the country's manned space program, said in March that the three-person crew might include female astronauts. However, the final selection would be decided "on the very last condition," Xinhua reported.

Tiangong 1 space laboratory module meanwhile is a prototype space station designed to test the technologies required for a much larger space station complex currently under development. The Tiangong 1 module is 34 feet long (10.4 meters), 11 feet wide (3.35 m) and weighed about 8.5 metric tons, Space.com reprted.

Excerpt from:

China Set To Launch Spacecraft This Month For Manned Space Docking

09-06-2012 09:55 This remarkable video was produced by NASA's MERRA project at GSFC. It shows the flow of air over North America during 1988, a year of severe drought. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. Source:

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Winds of 1988: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center - Video

Be it suspended animation, stasis or cryo-sleepwhatever you call itthose nifty devices that help us nap away the years during a long space flight are almost status quo on TV and film spaceships these days. So, what are some of the coolest examples of cold human storage?

With Prometheus set to open today, we've pulled together some of the most famed appearances of sci-fi sleep chambers to get primed for Ridley Scott's lengthy journey to the distant moon LV-223.

From Stargate to Alien, check out the full gallery below:

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14 deep space sci-fi sleep chambers to get primed for Prometheus

China will launch its first manned mission to an orbiting space laboratory in mid-June, according to state media reports and the country's human spaceflight agency.

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China to Launch 3 Astronauts to Space Lab This Month

China's Shenzhou-9 spacecraft will make a manned flight this month, the country's space agency has announced.

According to Xinhua, the spacecraft and its carrier rocket have already been moved to a launch pad at the Jiuquan space center in northwest China.

It is expected to take off "sometime in mid-June," a space agency official told the state news agency.

More from GlobalPost: China's five-year space plans revealed

Three astronauts will be aboard. The crew might include female astronauts, said Niu Hongguang, deputy commander of China's manned space program.

If so, they would be the first Chinese women to go into space, according to Agence France Presse.

The astronauts will dock Shenzhou-9 manually with China's orbitingTiangong-1 space laboratory, where two of them will board and conduct experiments.

It will be the first time a manned spacecraft has docked with Tiangong-1, which has been in orbit around earth since Sept. 2011. China hopes the space lab will help it one day develop its own space station.

This month's flight will be China's fourth manned launch since it became the third country to send a man into space in 2003, the BBC said.

In December, China said it was studying the possibility of landing one of its astronauts on the moon.

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Shenzhou-9: China to make manned space flight mid-June