China’s Spaceflight Success Sets Stage for Big Space Station

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The successful landing of China's latest manned space mission this week cast a spotlight on the country's growing human spaceflight skills as it hones the capabilities needed to build a huge, permanently crewed space station.

During the 15-day Shenzhou 10 spaceflight, three Chinese astronauts accomplished both automatic and manual dockings to China's Tiangong 1 space laboratory, where they lived and worked during the mission. The crew also achieved a two-hour-long fly-around of the module, a first in space for China seen an effort to sharpen rendezvous expertise useful for future space station construction.

Aboard the Tiangong 1, the Shenzhou 10 crew tested space medicine and conducted various technology experiments. The astronauts held China's first public space lesson, a televised view of life inside Tiangong 1, and also replaced the lab module's soft flooring with hard flooring, which was deemed necessary for the crew to better maintain their microgravity footing. [See photos from China's Shenzhou 10 space mission]

The Shenzhou 10 crew made a parachute landing early Wednesday morning (June 26) local time, setting down within a target zone in the central Inner Mongolia, with the three astronauts commander Nie Haisheng, Wang Yaping (the second Chinese woman to fly in space) and Zhang Xiaoguang leaving the landed module safe and sound.

China's next steps in space

In a post-landing press conference, Wang Zhaoyao, Director General of the China Manned Space Agency, said, "With a complete success of this spaceflight mission as a milestone, China's manned space program will enter into a new phase of manned space station construction."

According to a report from the Asia News Network, Wang said the country would loft the Tiangong 2 space lab around 2015. Three years later, an experimental core space station module would be lofted, he said, with the focus on constructing a 60-ton, multi-module space station for China by 2020.

Wang said that between 2015 and 2020, a series of cargo and piloted spacecraft would deliver supplies and transport astronauts to the space lab and space station.

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China's Spaceflight Success Sets Stage for Big Space Station

That Time an Astronaut Bought a Pie to the International Space Station

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Would you like pie with that? (NASA)

Peggy Whitson was the first female commander of the International Space Station. When she arrived on the Station, she took part in a long NASA tradition: she brought gifts from Earth for her fellow crew members.

One of those gifts? A pie.

In a talk about Station life at the Aspen Ideas Festival yesterday, astronaut Jeffrey Ashby told the pie-in-the-sky story. Traditional gifts that astronauts bring up from Earth tend to be things like books and movies and DVDs, he said -- things to help astronauts living on the Station keep connected to the people and cultures back on Earth.

In Whitson's case, though, the gift was a pecan pie, provided by her husband."I don't know how they got it past the food people," Ashby said.

The problem, of course, was that in order to make it up to the Space Station, the pie had to be launched into space. Even stored in a locker aboard the shuttle that delivered Whitson and her payload, the piece was subject to g-forces. So by the time it arrived, Ashby said, "the pie was in about half the shell."

That was okay, though. Fortunately, Whitson had also brought up with her a food product that is both hardier and, in space, even more valuable than baked goods: hot sauce.

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That Time an Astronaut Bought a Pie to the International Space Station

That Time an Astronaut Got a Pie Sent to the International Space Station

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Would you like pie with that? (NASA)

Peggy Whitson was the first female commander of the International Space Station. In October 2002, she was living on the Station. And during STS-112, the shuttle mission that sent astronauts to help build out the Station's infrastructure, her husband took part in a time-honored tradition: he sent her a care package.

One of his gifts? A pie.

In a talk about Station life at the Aspen Ideas Festival yesterday, astronaut Jeffrey Ashby told the pie-in-the-sky story. Traditional gifts that shuttles delivered to Station-bound astronauts tended to be things like books and movies and DVDs, he said -- things to help astronauts living on the Station keep connected to the people and cultures back on Earth.

In Whitson's case, though, the gift was a pecan pie-- a gesture from her husband."I don't know how he got it past the food people," Ashby said.

There was a problem, though: in order to make it up to the Space Station, the pie had to be, you know,launched into space. Even stored in a locker aboard the shuttle -- and even being pecan, one of the hardier types of pie -- the baked good was subject to g-forces. So by the time it arrived, Ashby said, "the pie was in about half the shell."

That was okay, though. In this, as with most gifts, it was the thought that counted. And, fortunately, Whitson's husband had also included in his care package a foodstuff that is less delicate and, in tastebud-challenging space,even more valuablethan pie: hot sauce.

More From The Atlantic

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That Time an Astronaut Got a Pie Sent to the International Space Station

That Time an Astronaut Brought a Pie to the International Space Station

Posted on by

Would you like pie with that? (NASA)

Peggy Whitson was the first female commander of the International Space Station. When she arrived on the Station, she took part in a long NASA tradition: she brought gifts from Earth for her fellow crew members.

One of those gifts? A pie.

In a talk about Station life at the Aspen Ideas Festival yesterday, astronaut Jeffrey Ashby told the pie-in-the-sky story. Traditional gifts that astronauts bring up from Earth tend to be things like books and movies and DVDs, he said -- things to help astronauts living on the Station keep connected to the people and cultures back on Earth.

In Whitson's case, though, the gift was a pecan pie, provided by her husband."I don't know how they got it past the food people," Ashby said.

The problem, of course, was that in order to make it up to the Space Station, the pie had to be launched into space. Even stored in a locker aboard the shuttle that delivered Whitson and her payload, the piece was subject to g-forces. So by the time it arrived, Ashby said, "the pie was in about half the shell."

That was okay, though. Fortunately, Whitson had also brought up with her a food product that is both hardier and, in space, even more valuable than baked goods: hot sauce.

More From The Atlantic

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That Time an Astronaut Brought a Pie to the International Space Station

Jody Singer named manager of Flight Programs and Partnerships Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

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HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - Joan A. "Jody" Singer, a native of Hartselle, AL., and a veteran of the NASA space program, has been named manager of the Flight Programs and Partnerships Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. In that position, which was announced Wednesday June 26, she will oversee work at Marshall in human exploration, flight missions and International Space Station hardware and operations.

The office Singer will head has an annual budget of $108 million this year and a workforce of 500 civil servants and contractors. It also has the job of creating and maintaining partnerships between Marshall and other government agencies as well as commercial companies.

Singer comes to the job from the post of deputy program manager for the Space Launch System Office at Marshall. In that office from 2011 until 2013, she helped direct a workforce of nearly 3,000 government and contractor employees developing America's next big deep-space rocket. Earlier, she was deputy manager of Marshall's Space Shuttle Propulsion Office. She is a member of the government's Senior Executive Service, a personnel category of the government's top managers.

Singer earned her bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 1983 and has completed numerous additional training courses and university fellowships. She is married to Christopher Singer, director of Marshall's Engineering Directorate. The Singers have three children and live in Huntsville.

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Jody Singer named manager of Flight Programs and Partnerships Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center