The written word: spirituality, fashion and cinema

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Far from last years very centrally located venue, the second edition of Bangalore Literature Festival will have a huge section of Bangalore having to negotiate gargantuan traffic and distances to reach Electronics City. But its all worth the effort, the book lover might say, given the distinguished and eclectic mix of guests and panels that discuss everything from cinema and fashion to spirituality.

The event is being held over three days, starting this Friday, at Crowne Plaza, Velankani Park, Electronics City. The inaugural, presided over by Chandrashekara Kambar, is followed by a talk on spiritual writing by Celebration of love and life: an intimate note to the sincere seeker by Art Of Living founder Ravi Shankar. Ensuing sessions have several literary celebrities including Gulzar, Ramachandra Guha, William Dalrymple, U.R. Ananthamurthy, Rajmohan Gandhi and Shashi Deshpande, to name a few.

A new track this year is one commemorating 100 years of Indian cinema with a discussion on the adaptation of biographies to bio-pics. This track features actor Farhan Akhtar, director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and lyricist-writer Prasoon Joshi. Film critics such as Baradwaj Rangan, M.K. Raghavendra and Bhawana Somaaya will also participate.

Like last year, this time too a section of panel discussions are focussed on Kannada literature, with a special focus on oral literary languages of Karnataka including Beary, Tulu, Kodava and Konkani. An entire track is devoted to Mathoor and its success with making Sanskrit all pervasive there, a press release stated.

Many childrens sessions and activity corners have been organised at a tent thats been called the Makkala Koota.

Publishers Pratham Books, Bookalore and Amar Chitra Katha are participating. The festival opens at 10 a.m. on all three days. Entry is free and open to all via registration on the website http://www.bangaloreliteraturefestival.org. The schedule for the event is also on the site.

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The written word: spirituality, fashion and cinema

Spacecraft with American, 2 Russians blasts off and docks with space station

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A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut blasted off from Kazakhstan Wednesday, climbed smoothly into orbit and docked with the International Space Station after an abbreviated six-hour rendezvous, boosting the lab's crew back to six.

The mission kicks off an exceptionally busy few months aboard the space station, with the arrival and departure of multiple cargo ships, a visit by the Olympic torch for a spacewalk photo op in early November and an unusual interlude with an expanded crew of nine astronauts and cosmonauts.

The station has been staffed by a reduced crew of three -- Expedition 37 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano and Karen Nyberg -- since mid September when two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut departed after a five-and-a-half-month stay in orbit.

But the Soyuz TMA-10M launch Wednesday boosted the lab crew back to six just a few days before the delayed arrival of an Orbital Sciences Corp. Cygnus cargo ship making its maiden flight.

Soyuz TMA-10M commander Oleg Kotov, a space station veteran, rookie flight engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy and first-time NASA flier Michael Hopkins lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:58:50 p.m. EDT Wednesday (GMT-4; 2:58 a.m. Thursday local time).

Trailing a brilliant plume of flame from its liquid-fueled engines, the Soyuz booster climbed away to the northeast, launching almost directly into the plane of the space station's orbit.

Hopkins is the first of his 14-member 2009 astronaut class to win a flight assignment. Raised on a farm in Missouri, captain of his University of Illinois football team and an Air Force flight test engineer, Hopkins made the climb to space strapped into the right seat of the cramped Soyuz command module.

Kotov, the veteran commander, monitored cockpit displays from the center seat with Ryazanskiy strapped in to his left.

The ascent appeared to go smoothly and live television from inside the cramped Soyuz command module showed all three crew members calmly monitoring their instruments amid routine calls to and from mission control near Moscow.

"Vibration, oscillations, within norms," Kotov reported at one point. "Nominal operation of the systems."

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Spacecraft with American, 2 Russians blasts off and docks with space station

China aims for space station by 2023

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26 September 2013 Last updated at 08:39 ET By Clive Simpson Beijing

China expects to complete its first orbiting space station within a decade.

The station, in low-Earth orbit, will be able to support six crew on short-term missions and three for long-term stays.

Its design consists of three capsules - a core module attached to two laboratories - with a cargo vessel to transport supplies.

The 2023 launch target was revealed at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Beijing.

According to the China Manned Space Agency, the space station will cover an area of 60 sq m.

Its core module (18.1m long) will weigh 20 to 22 metric tonnes and will be attached to two self-contained labs.

Once operational, astronauts would be able to make long-term missions in orbit and conduct technical tests and science experiments, said Wang Zhaoyao, the director of the space agency.

But before all this, China must first test technologies in renewable life support and in-orbit refuelling.

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China aims for space station by 2023

Russian rocket speeds to space station

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Three crew members arrived at the International Space Station, Wednesday evening. They join three others to bring the station's crew back to full-strength. During their time in space, one of the group's tasks will be to showcase the Olympic torch.

A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday to deliver three new crew members to the International SpaceStation.

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The Soyuz rocket and capsule lifted off at 4:58 p.m. EDT (2058 GMT) on an express route to the station, which orbits about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

Less than six hours after liftoff, veteran Russian commander Oleg Kotov and rookies Sergey Ryazanskiy of Russia and Michael Hopkins of the United States reached the outpost, a $100 billion project of 15 nations. Only two other crews have made the journey as quickly. Previous Soyuz capsules took two days of orbital maneuvers to reach the station.

The arrival of Kotov, Ryazanskiy and Hopkins returns the station to its full, six-member live-aboard crew. Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and European SpaceAgency astronaut Luca Parmitano have been running the station on their own since Sept. 10.

The skeleton crew was to have overseen the arrival of a commercial cargo ship on a test flight to the station this week.

But a software problem left the unmanned Cygnus freighter unable to receive navigation data properly from the station, delaying its arrival until no earlier than Saturday to avoid conflicting with the Soyuz's berthing. Typically, at least 48 hours are needed between spacecraft dockings.

The cargo ship, built and launched by Orbital Sciences with backing from NASA, blasted off aboard an Antares rocket on Sept. 18 from a new launch pad on the Virginia coast.

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Russian rocket speeds to space station

China Plans to Launch First Orbiting Space Station in 2023

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China has announced that it will launch its first orbiting space station 10 years from now, Sept. 26, 2013.

China plans to launch its first orbiting Space Station by 2023, officials announced at the 64th International Astronautical Congress that began Sept. 23 in Beijing.

The station itself will consist of three capsules. One capsule contains a core module while the other two contain laboratories. The space station will also be equipped with a cargo craft to ferry supplies to and from the station. The core module alone is expected to weigh at least 20 metric tons.

[READ: Voyager 1 Enters Inrerstellar Space]

The space station is expected to hold six individuals for short-term missions and three for lengthier ones.

Xu Dazhe, general manager of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, told the BBC that his company's primary effort will be to research and develop improved orbit refueling technologies and sustainable life support.

Xu told reporters that China will launch Tiangong-2 in two years, in preparation for the launch of the space station. Tiangong-2 will act as a trial capsule allowing China's team to adjust and experiment with the technologies the space station will require.

[MORE: Astronaut Describes Nearly Drowning In Space ]

Once the space station is functioning and ready for orbit, the Chinese plan to use it to collect data on technical tests that require long-term orbits into space.

China's first female astronaut, Liu Yang, told the IAF that China would welcome foreign astronauts for possible missions in the future. Some say this is a huge step toward partnership and unity in an industry that has sustained considerable competition on a global scale.

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China Plans to Launch First Orbiting Space Station in 2023

Future of U.S. Human Space Flight, Senate Science Committee, May 12, 2010 – Video

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Future of U.S. Human Space Flight, Senate Science Committee, May 12, 2010
On May 12, 2010, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation held a hearing titled, "The Future of U.S. Human Space Flight." Invited witness...

By: SpaceKSCBlog

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Future of U.S. Human Space Flight, Senate Science Committee, May 12, 2010 - Video

Cut of the Day: "Every Mile," the Parson Red Heads

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Orb Weaverswas the album I always knew the Parson Red Heads had in them. Not to knock the band's previous two full-lengths, but they always struck me as being a little over-prepared, as if the band was holding a little something back for its live show. Thanks to the sure hand of producer Scott McCaughey, and the Red Heads' insistence on staying a lot looser in the studio, the new disc (out this coming Tuesday) has the ratcheted-up energy of the concert hall mixed just so with the lush support of the studio setting.

The first release off this new album "Every Mile" is a perfect country pop gem, hitting the three minute mark and not wasting a second to get there. The mood is triumphal and laidback, the joyous glow that makes you want to hold on to the summer just a little bit longer so you can blast this in your backyard with the grill smoking nearby and the cold beverage of your choice in your hand.

If you're a Parson Red Heads fan, or are new to the group, it would be in your best interest to head to the White Eagle tonight where the group will be wrapping up its "Summer Concert Series" with a performance of its last album Yearlingfrom start to finish. Oh, and check out the little teaser video, filmed while the band was recording Orb Weavers, and get up close and personal with Evan Way like you always wanted to.

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Cut of the Day: "Every Mile," the Parson Red Heads