Category Archives: Space Station

Virgin Galactic successfully flew its first paying customers to the final frontier Thursday, a long-awaited achievement that puts it back on track in the emerging private spaceflight sector.

Italian Air Force officers unfurled their nation's flag and peered out windows at the curve of Earth while enjoying a few minutes of weightlessness at 52.9 miles (85.1 kilometers) above sea level.

"It was a beautiful ride," Colonel Walter Villadei told reporters at a press conference, adding that his favorite moment was seeing the contrast between the black of space and the planet beneath.

The mission dubbed Galactic 01 began when a giant, twin-fuselage "mothership" aircraft took off from a runway at Spaceport America, New Mexico, around 8:30am local time (1430 GMT).

The carrier plane gained high altitude, then around 40 minutes later released a rocket-powered plane, called VSS Unity, which soared into space at nearly Mach 3.

Fifty miles is considered the border of space by NASA and the US Air Force, though the internationally recognized boundary, known as the Karman Line, is 62 miles high.

Villadei was joined in the cabin by Lieutenant Colonel Angelo Landolfi of the Italian Air Force, Pantaleone Carlucci of the National Research Council of Italy, and Colin Bennett of Virgin Galactic.

There were also two pilots on the spaceplane, and two on the carrier plane.

Unity later glided back safely to Earth, a livestream showed.

The flight came almost two years after Virgin Galactic's founder Richard Branson flew to space in a test flight meant to usher in a new era of lucrative space tourism.

But the company subsequently faced setbacks, including a brief grounding by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which found the Branson flight deviated from its assigned airspace and Virgin Galactic did not communicate the "mishap" as required.

Later, lab testing revealed certain materials used in its vehicles had fallen below required strength margins, necessitating upgrades to the fleet.

The company ended its spaceflight pause with a successful test in May, paving the way for Thursday's mission. In total, it ran five test flights before Thursday's commercial flight.

AFP

This still image from a Virgin Galactic video shows Galactic 01 mission crew members from the Italian Air Force display the Italian flag as they reach space during the first commercial flight from Spaceport City in New Mexico on June 29

Monthly flights

The Galactic 01 crew were tasked with conducting 13 supervised and autonomous experiments, and collecting data on their suits and sensors in the cabin.

Experiments included measuring radiation levels in the under-studied mesosphere, and how certain liquids and solids mix in microgravity.

Villadei explained that researchers wanting to work in microgravity currently only have two options: parabolic airplane flights, where passengers experience a few seconds of weightlessness, and missions to the International Space Station, which last six months.

Virgin Galactic thus offers a "gap filler," he said, and the size of the spaceplane allowed for larger experiments than could be fit in a rocket.

Founded in 2004, Virgin Galactic has sold around 800 tickets for seats on future commercial flights 600 between 2005 and 2014 for US$200,000 to US$250,000, and 200 since then for $450,000 each.

Movie stars and celebrities were among the first to snap up seats, but the company's program suffered a disaster in 2014 when a spaceplane on a test flight broke apart midair, killing the copilot and seriously injuring the pilot.

The company is now looking to the future. The next mission, Galactic 02, is set for August, and then it hopes to make monthly space hops after that.

AFP

This still image from a Virgin Galactic video shows the Galactic 01 mission spacecraft launching the first commercial flight from Spaceport City in New Mexico on June 29.

Branson, Bezos and Musk

Virgin Galactic competes in the "suborbital" space tourism sector with billionaire Jeff Bezos's company, Blue Origin, which has already sent 32 people into space using a vertical lift-off rocket.

But since an accident in September 2022 during an unmanned flight, Blue Origin's rocket has been grounded. The company promised in March to resume spaceflight soon.

Elon Musk's SpaceX meanwhile has collaborated with partner companies to send paying customers higher up, into Earth orbit or to the International Space Station.

But chartering a SpaceX rocket is a much more costly affair. Tickets for the ISS in joint SpaceX-Axiom Space missions are reported to run into tens of millions of dollars.

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Virgin Galactic finally takes its first paying customers to space - SHINE News

Virgin Galactic completed its first commercial mission following the successful sub-orbital journey of VSS Unity. The spacecraft reached an altitude of around 53 miles carrying two Italian air force colonels and an aerospace engineer plus crew.

The 'Galactic 01' mission took off from Spaceport America in New Mexico at 08:30 on June 29th carrying its first paying customers. The craft's VMS Eve mothership reached an altitude of 45,000ft before VSS Unity separated and engaged its rocket systems to exit the Earth's atmosphere.

The three customers - Walter Villadei, Angelo Landolfi, and Pantaleone Carlucci - were all members of the Italian Air Force on a research mission. The craft was piloted by Michael Masucci and Nicola Pecile, accompanied by Virgin Galactic instructor Colin Bennett.

Crew commander Col. Walter Villadei announced upon completion of the roughly 90-minute filght,

"Mission accomplished. We accomplished all our experiments. Its a very important achievement for us."

Virgin Galactic can now consider itself an official player in the lucrative sub-orbital tourism industry, something almost two decades in the making since its launch in 2004. Its only direct competitor at the moment is Blue Origin - founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos - which has already carried over 30 paying customers into space. However, following an accident last September during an unmanned mission, Blue Origin has suspended flights but plans to resume operations soon.

Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said in a statement,

"This historic flight was our first commercial flight and our first dedicated commercial research mission ushering in a new era of repeatable and reliable access to space for private passengers and researchers."

During the journey, researchers conducted various data-gathering experiments - of particular importance was Unity's extended window of microgravity conditions, over three minutes to be exact. As explained by Virgin Galactic, the research will "examine the biomedicine thermo-fluid dynamics, and the development of innovative and sustainable materials in microgravity conditions."

As reported by Albuquerque Journal, Villadei added,

"International opportunities for microgravity research are limited to only 20 to 30 seconds on rockets, or six months on the International Space Station. Theres nothing in between. [VSS Unity] expands the possibilities for the research community."

One of the researchers wore a 'Spacewear Smart Flight Suit 1', an advanced flight suit that can withstand over 6G of acceleration and is fitted with a device to measure biometric data.

The spacecraft carried a total of 13 research payloads onboard with various objectives, including:

The company's next commercial spaceflight - Galactic 02 - is scheduled for August and will be the first spaceflight carrying private paying customers. As with Galactic 01, the second August mission can be watched via live stream on the Virgin Galactic website.

Should Galactic 02 prove a success, Virgin Galactic aims to operate a commercial spaceflight every month thereafter. This week's successful spaceflight is good news for Virgin Group, which suffered a setback in January when now-defunct Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne mission failed.

Are you happy to see Virgin Galactic complete its first revenue spaceflight? Do you think the company will manage to operate one spaceflight a month by the end of this year? Let us know in the comments.

Source: Albuquerque Journal

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Virgin Galactic's Galactic 01 Reaches Space With First Scientific ... - Simple Flying

A spider web-like network of earthquake stations is aiming for the moon.

Australian company Fleet Space received funding to develop its Seismic Payload for Interplanetary Discovery, Exploration and Research, or SPIDER, to detect seismic quakes on the moon in the future. The early-stage $4 million AUS ($2.65 million USD) contract is not for an imminent landing mission, but for technology development. The eventual goal is to bring a trio of seismic monitors to the moon for one lunar "day" (14 days on Earth) to help locate valuable resources below the lunar surface.

SPIDER aims to record moonquakes continuously for up to 14 days and will launch "aboard a commercial lander" that has not been selected yet. The test of compact geophysical equipment will be useful not only for the moon, but also for remote environments on Earth or Mars "We are explorers with a mission to revolutionize mineral exploration from Earth to the moon and Mars," the company wrote in a statement.

Related: Moonquakes rattle the moon as it shrinks like a raisin

Fleet Space CEO Matthew Pearson stated that the Australian Space Agency funding will be key to helping his country support the NASA-led Artemis Accords moon program.

"We are poised to be the first Australian technology to touch down on the surface of the moon, supporting humanity's efforts towards [lunar exploration] and aligning with NASA's Artemis program, with a future vision of Martian exploration supporting the hunt for life beyond our planet," Pearson said in a statement.

Australia was one of the first signatories of the Artemis Accords, a NASA framework for moon exploration as well as an effort to establish international peaceful norms for space exploration. (The addition of India and Ecuador in recent weeks brought the number of participating nations to 27.)

NASA aims to bring humans to the moon's south pole in 2025 or 2026 with the Artemis 3 mission, and has funded numerous robotic payloads under its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program that may see its first mission touch down as soon as this year. The moon-circling Artemis 2 has a crew in training, and a launch date of November 2024.

Fleet is funded under the Australian government's $40 million AUS ($26.45 million USD) "moon to Mars initiative" aiming to help countries get ready for moon exploration. It's similar to NASA's CLPS or Canada's Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program (LEAP), to name a couple of Artemis signatories.

Other recent news by Fleet includes raising $50 million AUS ($33 million USD) in a Series C fundraising round, building out an ExoSphere set of satellites to scan for minerals in Earth orbit, and signing with Australia's Defense Space Command for a demonstrator satellite communications system.

The first lunar seismometers were deployed by the Apollo program astronauts between 1969 and 1972 during several of the program's six successful landing missions. All remaining functional seismometers were turned off in 1977 to save money, despite having a modest yearly cost of $1 million ($5 million in 2023 dollars), according to the New York Times.

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Moonquake-hunting 'SPIDER' probes could detect lunar temblors on ... - Space.com

Astronaut Peggy Whitson is set to extend her record-breaking space streak  Houston Public Media

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Astronaut Peggy Whitson is set to extend her record-breaking space streak - Houston Public Media

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SpaceX's Crew-6 astronaut mission arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) early Friday morning (March 3), but not without a little drama.

Crew-6'sDragoncapsule, named Endeavour, docked with the ISS's Harmony module at 1:40 a.m. EST (0640 GMT) on Friday, while the two spacecraft were flying off the coast of Somalia at an altitude of 261 miles (420 kilometers).

Crew-6 was positioned to dock about an hour earlier than that, but Endeavour stood down whileSpaceXtroubleshot a faulty sensor with one of the 12 hooks that helps the capsule connect to the ISS. Eventually, ground teams beamed up a software override that fixed the sensor problem, and Endeavour pulled off a successful rendezvous.

Read more: SpaceX's Crew-6 astronauts arrive at space station after hour-long delay

The astronauts of Crew-6 are undertaking their first day in space after launching on a SpaceX Falcon 9 early this morning (12:34 a.m. EST, 0634 GMT) towards the International Space Station.

Docking coverage will begin at 11:30 p.m. EST tonight (0430 GMT Saturday, March 3). Coverage is available here at Space.com, via NASA Television. Assuming the docking goes on time, these are the milestones to look for:

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will officially reattempt launch of the Crew-6 mission Thursday (March 2) at 12:34 a.m. EST (0534 GMT) and you can watch the event here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA Television. Weather conditions are 95% favorable for launch at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in coastal Florida.

"NASA's SpaceX Crew-6 mission is 'Go' for launch to the International Space Station following completion of a launch readiness review, weather briefing, and mission management meeting," agency officials wrote in a blog post Wednesday (March 1).

A launch attempt Monday (Feb. 27) to the International Space Station (ISS) had been called off 2.5 minutes before T-0 due to a ground-system issue, but NASA said the issue has been addressed.

SpaceX and NASA found a problem with ignition fluid, called triethylaluminum triethylboron or TEA-TEB, that sparks the oxidizer for the engines to turn on.

"During prelaunch, the TEA-TEB fluidwhich originates in a ground supply tank flows to the rocket's interface and back to a catch tank to remove gas from the ground plumbing," NASA officials wrote."During engine start, the fluid then flows to the engines for ignition.Flow into the catch tank is one of several parameters used to determine that the fluid has been properly bled into the system."

A clogged ground filter reducing the flow to a TEA-TEB catch tank caused the issue and that filter has been replaced. The TEA-TEB nitrogen line was also purged with nitrogen and everything has been cleared for launch.

Following launch, Crew-6 and its four astronauts are scheduled to dock with the Harmony module at the ISS at 1:17 a.m. EST (0617 GMT) on Friday (March 3). Hatch opening is expected at 3:27 a.m. EST and the welcome ceremony at 3:40 a.m. EST. Space.com will also carry these events, courtesy of NASA.

After a lengthy flight readiness review (FRR) on Tuesday (Feb. 21), NASA andSpaceXwill delay the Crew-6 liftoff by 24 hours.

Now a SpaceXFalcon 9rocket will launch Crew-6'sDragoncapsule Endeavour on Monday (Feb. 27) at 1:45 a.m. EST (0645 GMT). You can watch it live here at Space.com when the time comes.

Read more: SpaceX, NASA delay Crew-6 astronaut launch to Feb. 27

Russia has wrapped up its investigation of two leaky spacecraft and will launch its next Soyuz spacecraft in February after all. That mission is bound for the International Space Station(ISS) on Thursday (Feb. 23) from the Russia-runBaikonur Cosmodromein Kazakhstan Thursday at 7:24 p.m. EST (0024 GMT or 3:34 a.m. local time Friday, Feb. 24). NASA will start carrying coverage liveon NASA Television (opens in new tab)roughly 24 minutes beforehand, which we will run here at Space.com.

Roscosmos, Russia's federal space agency, determined Monday (Feb. 21) that it could launch Soyuz MS-23 after all in February, after announcing just days before that it would make the liftoff in March. You can read our story about the schedule changes and twin Soyuz and uncrewed Progress craft leak investigations at the ISS.

Meanwhile, the SpaceX Crew-6 crew of four astronauts will arrive at NASA's Kennedy Space Center today (Feb. 21) ahead of their expected launch on Sunday (Feb. 26). Learn how to watch live here and to stay connected to all the activities and news conferences, which we will run live here at Space.com through the week.

NASA astronaut Nicole Mann and Japan's Koichi Wakata completed the second International Space Station spacewalk of 2023 on Thursday (Feb. 2) at 2:26 p.m. EST (1926 GMT), according to a NASA update (opens in new tab).

Their televised spacewalk took six hours and 41 minutes and the spacewalkers finished their major task, "which was to complete the construction of a mounting platform," NASA officials wrote in a blog post. The duo also moved a foot restraint to get ahead on another spacewalk and put out cables to install a new set of International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays (iROSAs) to boost power.

Our preview story has more details about their plans for the day and how it fits into space station operations, and our wrap talks about how the spacewalk went.

NASA astronaut Nicole Mann and Japan's Koichi Wakata are starting the second spacewalk of 2023 today (Thursday, Feb. 2), and you can watch coverage live here.

The twoInternational Space Station(ISS) astronauts have switched theirspacesuitsto battery power and the station hatch is open, according to a NASA update (opens in new tab) at 8 a.m. EST (1300 GMT). They'll exit the station's Quest airlock shortly thereafter, starting a roughly seven-hourspacewalk.

Watch the extravehicular activity live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, ordirectly via the agency (opens in new tab).

Read more: Watch 2 astronauts perform 2nd spacewalk of 2023 today

Expedition 68 crewmates Nicole Mann of NASA and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) completed their 7 hour and 21 minute extravehicular activity (EVA) on Friday (Jan. 20).

It was the latest in a series of EVAs to augment the orbiting complex's power channels with newInternational Space StationRoll-Out Solar Arrays (iROSAs), but a "sticky" foothold and a stubborn strut held up operations. A few of the tasks will be ported on to a later spacewalk, NASA determined.

Full story: Spacewalking astronauts hit snags installing new solar array mount outside space station

NASA's Nicole Mann and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agencyare outside theInternational Space Station(ISS) for an expected 6.5-hour-longspacewalk. Watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, ordirectly via the agency (opens in new tab).

Mann and Wakata "will work on the far end of the station'sstarboard truss structurein their EMUs [extravehicular mobility units, or spacesuits] and install a modification kit enabling the future installation of a roll-out solar array," NASA officials wrote in ablog post on Thursday (opens in new tab).

Preview story: Watch 2 astronauts perform 1st spacewalk of 2023 at space station today

NASA's live NASA TV coverage of the Soyuz spacecraft coolant leak on the International Space Station has ended, with NASA sharing updates via its website and social channels throughout the night.

Meanwhile, Russian flight controllers at Roscosmos's Mission Control Center continue to study telemetry and data from the Soyuz MS-22 to understand the health of the spacecraft.

"Experts in Moscow are going to be taking a look at their systems and responding to the leak according to their procedures and polices," NASA space station flight director Emily Nelson said during live NASA TV commentary. "Once they have a good understanding of the final status of the Soyuz tonight, we will then jointly make a decision about where to go forward from here."

NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said NASA will provide an update Thursday morning on the latest news from Roscosmos over the leak.

Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina is using the space station's European Robotic Arm to inspect the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft as flight controllers on Earth study telemetry and other data from the spacecraft.

Flight controllers with Russia's Roscosmos and NASA are weighing options on what to do about the Soyuz spacecraft, which serves as a return ship and lifeboat for three members of the station's 7-person crew.

Russia's space agency Roscosmos has called off a spacewalk by two cosmonauts at the International Space Station today after an apparent coolant leak on a Soyuz MS-22 crew capsule spewed coolant around its docking port on the orbiting lab.

The leak was first detected at 7:45 p.m. EST (0045 Dec. 15 GMT) as cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin were preparing to exit the space station for a 7-hour spacewalk outside the station. The Soyuz spacecraft launched to the space station on Sept. 21 to deliver the two cosmonauts and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio to the space station and was due to return to Earth size months later.

"The cause of this leak [is] not known at this time," NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said during live commentary. "Russian specialists are continuing to look at the data and discussing what may have triggered the leak."

This is a developing story and we'll share updates as they are available.

SpaceX-delivered science is being unloaded right now in space. The roboticDragon spacecraftdocked with the International Space Station Sunday (Nov. 27) around 7:39 a.m. EST (1239 GMT) over the Pacific Ocean.

"We're excited to unpack and get to work," NASA astronaut Josh Cassada radioed Mission Control from the station after the successful docking.

Dragon has about 7,700 pounds(3,500 kilograms) of cargo. The manifest includes two newInternational Space StationRoll Out Solar Arrays (iROSAs) to boost power on the solar wings. Scientific experiments were also prominent, including a study to grow dwarf cherry tomatoes and another to do microgravity research with 3D-cultured heart tissue (opens in new tab).

Read more: SpaceX Dragon cargo ship docks at space station to deliver solar arrays, seeds and more

Astronauts and cosmonauts at the International Space Station completed two spacewalks this week amid a lot of other station activities in November.

On Thursday (Nov. 17), Expedition 68 commander Sergey Prokopyev and flight engineer Dmitry Petelin, from Russian federal space corporationRoscosmos, finished a 6 hour, 25 minute EVA (extravehicular activity) to prepare an airlock and radiator to transfer between space station modules.

On Tuesday (Nov. 15), Expedition 68 NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio worked together on Tuesday (Nov. 15) added hardware to support two more upgraded solar arrays during a 7 hour and 11 minute EVA.

It's been a busy few weeks for the space station, as the crew also received a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft on Nov. 9, which reached the ISS safely despite a solar array problem. And at least one U.S. astronaut, Josh Cassada, voted from space during the 2022 midterm election.

NASA and Houston-based companyAxiom Spacewill send Saudi astronauts aboard Ax-2, fully filling out the four seats for theSpaceXmission,according to SpaceNews (opens in new tab). The group will fly to the International Space Station following the first-ever private effort,Ax-1, that launched and landed in April.

Read more: SpaceX will fly 2 Saudi astronauts to space station on private Axiom Space mission

It's been nearly a year since a Russian anti-satellite test took place on Nov. 15, 2021, which has caused swarms of debris to threaten the International Space Station numerous times already. That happened once again earlier this week.

On Monday (Oct. 24) at 8:25 p.m. EDT (0025 GMT on Oct. 25), the ISS team fired thrusters on Progress 81, a Russian cargo ship attached to the station, to boost the station's orbit and avoid the debris fragment, NASA officials stated (opens in new tab).

Read more: International Space Station dodges space debris from Russian anti-satellite test

Expedition 67 commander Samantha Cristoforetti had a cosplay strategy in orbit. The Italian astronaut, despite having seen "about 15 movies", is a fan of the classic 1968 space opera film "2001: A Space Odyssey."

A visit to a thrift store, and consultations with SpaceX and fellow space station residents,, helped on her long-standing quest to build up teamwork in orbit, while replicating an iconic scene from the film during which a flight attendant hangs upside down in a hatch.

"That is not something that I would buy for myself, normally," the European Space Agency astronaut told Space.com of her costume during a post-flight press conference with other SpaceX Crew-4 members on Thursday (Oct. 20). "But it seemed to fit perfectly for that need."

Read more: This space station astronaut's '2001' cosplay in orbit began with Velcro and thrift store duds (video)

The Crew-4 astronauts are all out of their SpaceX spacecraft as they start recovery back on Earth: NASA's Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins along with the European Space Agency's Samantha Cristoforetti. You can read more about the successful International Space Station mission, which lasted 5.5 months, in our wrap story on the mission.

The SpaceX Crew-4 splashed down successfully near Jacksonville, Florida at 4:55 p.m. EDT (2055 GMT).

The SpaceX Crew-4 has jettisoned the "trunk", an unpressurized cargo hold that also supports Crew Dragon during space operations. The International Space Station crew of four remains on track for splashdown near Jacksonville, Florida at 4:55 p.m. EDT (2055 GMT). You can watch live at Space.com, courtesy of NASA Television.

SpaceX's Crew-4 successfully finished a normal "prop waste" burn on the journey home to get rid of excess propellant ahead of re-entry. They finished the seven-minute engine burn at 2:44 p.m. EDT (1844 GMT) and remain on track to splash down near Jacksonville, Florida at 4:55 p.m. EDT (2055 GMT).

The SpaceX Crew-4 undocked from the International Space Station at 12:05 p.m. EDT (1605 GMT) and prepared for a set of departure burns ahead of splashdown. Nominal splashdown is expected later today around 4:55 p.m. EDT (2055 GMT) near Jacksonville, Florida. You can watch live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA Television.

Crew-4 will delay their undocking from the International Space Station about 30 minutes to 12:05 p.m. EDT (1605 GMT) to "check the hatch alignment" on their SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, according to NASA Television.

NASA has not yet disclosed if the splashdown time will change, except to say there is a one-hour window for undocking and the timing now falls in the middle of that window. Splashdown is expected at roughly 4:55 p.m. EDT (2055 GMT). Live coverage is ongoing here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA Television.

SpaceX Crew-4 has closed the hatch to the International Space Station ahead of an expected undocking at 11:35 a.m. EDT (1535 GMT) for splashdown later today. Watch live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA Television.

The astronauts of Crew-4 are scheduled to close the hatch to their SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT) as they prepare to depart the International Space Station for a splashdown later today. You can watch live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA Television.

Crew-4's undocking will be delayed to no earlier than Friday (Oct. 14) at 11:35 a.m. EDT (1535 GMT), officials announced on NASA Television today (Oct. 13) due to poor weather conditions in Florida. Splashdown is also delayed from an expected timing of today. You can watch the events live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA Television.

Tricky weather conditions at the splashdown site forced a delay in Crew-4's departure from the International Space Station. Crew-4'sDragoncapsule,named Freedom, is scheduled to undock from the orbiting lab Thursday at 10:05 a.m. EDT (1405 GMT), NASA officials said in ablog post (opens in new tab)Wednesday (Oct. 13). This is a delay from Wednesday evening due to weather. You can watch coverage live at Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV and SpaceX.

During departure remarks and the change-of-command ceremony earlier today, Expedition 68 commander Samantha Cristoforetti thanked her "space ninja" crew for support during the two weeks she commanded the orbiting complex. "I just want to say what a privilege it's been to serve as a commander for this short period of time short but intense," Cristoforetti, the first European female to command ISS, said during the broadcast.

At10:05 a.m. EDT (1405 GMT), the four Crew-4 astronauts will give some farewell remarks. And one of them European Space Agency astronautSamantha Cristoforetti, the current ISS commander will hand the reins of the orbiting lab over to Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev during a change-of-command ceremony around that same time.

Crew-4'sDragoncapsule,named Freedom, is scheduled to undock from the orbiting lab Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. EDT (2305 GMT), NASA officials said in an emailed statement on Tuesday evening (Oct. 11). You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, ordirectly via the space agency (opens in new tab).

Read more: Watch SpaceX Crew-4 mission depart space station today (Oct. 12)

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft safely delivered Crew-5 to the International Space Station. The hatches between Endurance and the ISS opened around 6:45 p.m. EDT (2245 GMT) on Thursday (Oct. 7), and the Crew-5 astronauts NASA's Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japan's Koichi Wakata andcosmonaut Anna Kikinacame aboard roughly 10 minutes later.

Read more: SpaceX's Crew-5 astronaut mission arrives at the International Space Station

NASA cameras on theInternational Space Stationshowed live views of Hurricane Ian as the storm surge reached Florida's coast Wednesday (Sept. 28), near Cayo Costa, according to the National Hurricane Center.

"Hurricane Ian has made landfall as an extremely dangerous hurricane near Cayo Costa, Florida with maximum sustained winds at 150 mph,"NHC officials wrote (opens in new tab) in an update on Twitter at 3:05 p.m. EDT (1905 GMT).

Full story: 'Extremely dangerous' Hurricane Ian makes landfall in Florida as NASA watches from space (video)

Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti took command of the International Space Station and Expedition 68 in a ceremony today (Sept. 28) livestreamed from orbit.

The expedition officially begins when previous ISS commander Oleg Artemyev and fellow cosmonauts Denis Matveev and Sergei Korsakov depart the orbiting lab early Thursday (Sept. 29) aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Cristoforetti is thefifth European commander (opens in new tab) of the ISS, following Frank De Winne, Alexander Gerst, Luca Parmitano and Thomas Pesquet, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).

Artemyev struck notes of peace during the changeover ceremony, closing an expedition that had taken place in its entirety during the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine that started in February. "War will end everywhere," he said at one point.

"In spite of everything, in spite of all the storms on Earth, we continue our international cooperation, and thank God that there are smart people who do not stop such a thread of peace," Artemyev added in Russian. (This translation was provided by Google from an automated transcript of his speech.)

Full story: European woman takes command of International Space Station for 1st time

SpaceXand NASA will push back theCrew-5flight to the International Space Station to Oct. 4 at the least, a day later than planned.

The mission is scheduled to launch from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. But Hurricane Ian, which may be 'catastrophic' to Florida as some officials termed it, has delayed the launch; the new target date is uncertain.

"Mission teams will continue to monitor the impacts of Ian on the Space Coast and NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and could adjust the launch date again, as necessary," NASA officialswrote in an update (opens in new tab) Tuesday (Sept. 27).

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International Space Station: Live updates | Space

International Space Station (ISS), space station assembled in low Earth orbit largely by the United States and Russia, with assistance and components from a multinational consortium.

The project, which began as an American effort, was long delayed by funding and technical problems. Originally called Freedom in the 1980s by U.S. Pres. Ronald Reagan, who authorized the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to build it within 10 years, it was redesigned in the 1990s to reduce costs and expand international involvement, at which time it was renamed. In 1993 the United States and Russia agreed to merge their separate space station plans into a single facility, integrating their respective modules and incorporating contributions from the European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan.

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Assembly of the International Space Station (ISS) began with the launches of the Russian control module Zarya on November 20, 1998, and the U.S.-built Unity connecting node the following month, which were linked in orbit by U.S. space shuttle astronauts. In mid-2000 the Russian-built module Zvezda, a habitat and control centre, was added, and on November 2 of that year the ISS received its first resident crew, comprising Russian cosmonauts Sergey Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko and American astronaut William Shepherd, who flew up in a Soyuz spacecraft. The ISS has been continuously occupied since then. A NASA microgravity laboratory called Destiny and other elements were subsequently joined to the station, with the overall plan calling for the assembly, over a period of several years, of a complex of laboratories and habitats crossed by a long truss supporting four units that held large solar-power arrays and thermal radiators. Aside from the United States and Russia, station construction involved Canada, Japan, and 11 ESA members. Russian modules were carried into space by Russian expendable launch vehicles, after which they automatically rendezvoused with and docked to the ISS. Other elements were ferried up by space shuttle and assembled in orbit during space walks. During ISS construction, both shuttles and Russian Soyuz spacecraft transported people to and from the station, and a Soyuz remained docked to the ISS at all times as a lifeboat.

Much of the early research work by ISS astronauts was to focus on long-term life-sciences and material-sciences investigations in the weightless environment. After the breakup of the space shuttle orbiter Columbia in February 2003, the shuttle fleet was grounded, which effectively halted expansion of the station. Meanwhile, the crew was reduced from three to two, and their role was restricted mainly to caretaker status, limiting the amount of science that could be done. Crews flew up to and returned from the ISS in Soyuz spacecraft, and the station was serviced by automated Progress ferries.

After the shuttle resumed regular flights in 2006, the ISS crew size was increased to three. Construction resumed in September of that year, with the addition of a pair of solar wings and a thermal radiator. The European-built American node, Harmony, was placed on the end of Destiny in October 2007. Harmony has a docking port for the space shuttle and connecting ports for a European laboratory, Columbus, and a Japanese laboratory, Kibo. In February 2008 Columbus was mounted on Harmonys starboard side. Columbus was Europes first long-duration crewed space laboratory and contained experiments in such fields as biology and fluid dynamics. In the following month an improved variant of the Ariane V rocket launched Europes heaviest spacecraft, the Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), which carried 7,700 kg (17,000 pounds) of supplies to the ISS. Also in March shuttle astronauts brought the Canadian robot, Dextre, which was so sophisticated that it would be able to perform tasks that previously would have required astronauts to make space walks, and the first part of Kibo. In June 2008 the main part of Kibo was installed.

The ISS became fully operational in May 2009 when it began hosting a six-person crew; this required two Soyuz lifeboats to be docked with the ISS at all times. The six-person crew typically consisted of three Russians, two Americans, and one astronaut from either Japan, Canada, or the ESA. An external platform was attached to the far end of Kibo in July, and a Russian docking port and airlock, Poisk, was attached to the Zvezda module in November. A third node, Tranquility, was installed in 2010, and mounted on this was a cupola, whose robotic workstation and many windows enabled astronauts to supervise external operations.

After completion of the ISS, the shuttle was retired from service in 2011. Thereafter the ISS was serviced by Russias Progress, Europes ATV, Japans H-II Transfer Vehicle, and two commercial cargo vehicles, SpaceXs Dragon and Orbital Sciences Corporations Cygnus. A new American crew capsule, SpaceXs Crew Dragon, had its first flight to the ISS in 2020, and the Boeing Companys CST-100 Starliner was scheduled to have its first crewed test flight in 2023. Prior to Crew Dragon, all astronauts used Soyuz spacecraft to reach the ISS. Crew Dragon carried four astronauts to the station, and the ISS was then able to accommodate a crew of seven. A Russian science module, Nauka, was added to the station in 2021.

More than 200 astronauts from 20 different countries have visited the ISS. Astronauts typically stay on the ISS for about six months. The return of a Soyuz to Earth marks the end of an ISS Expedition, and the command of the ISS is transferred to another astronaut.

However, a few astronauts have spent much longer times on the ISS. On a special mission called A Year in Space, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Korniyenko and American astronaut Scott Kelly spent 340 days in orbit from March 2015 to March 2016. Kellys flight was the longest by an American. (Since Kellys brother, Mark, was his identical twin, as well as a former astronaut himself, scientists were able to use Mark as a baseline for how the long spaceflight had changed Scott.) In 2017 Russia temporarily cut the number of its ISS crew from three to two, and American astronaut Peggy Whitson extended her mission to 289 days so the station would have a full crew of six. Whitson had been to the ISS on two previous flights and in total spent nearly 666 days in space, a record for an American and a woman. Whitsons record was surpassed by American astronaut Christina Koch, who spent 328 days, the longest spaceflight by a woman, on the ISS from March 2019 to February 2020. During that time Koch and American astronaut Jessica Meir performed the first all-female space walk. Russian cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov and American astronaut Mark Vande Hei stayed on the station for 355 days from April 2021 to March 2022. Vande Hei broke Kellys record for longest American spaceflight.

The United States, ESA, Japan, and Canada have not definitively decided when the program will end, but in 2021 the Joe Biden administration indicated that the program would receive U.S. support through 2030. Russia announced that it would withdraw from the project at the end of 2024 and begin work on its own orbital space station.

Link:
International Space Station | Facts, Missions, & History

Stunning Pic Shows Two Orbital Sunrises From Opposite Sides Of The World On The Same Day  NDTV

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Stunning Pic Shows Two Orbital Sunrises From Opposite Sides Of The World On The Same Day - NDTV

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Universe | NASA Space Place NASA Science for Kids

We often refer to our expanding universe with one simple word: space. But where does space begin and, more importantly, what is it?

Space is an almost perfect vacuum, nearly void of matter and with extremely low pressure. In space, sound doesn't carry because there aren't molecules close enough together to transmit sound between them. Not quite empty, bits of gas, dust and other matter floats around "emptier" areas of the universe, while more crowded regions can host planets, stars and galaxies.

From our Earth-bound perspective, outer space is most often thought to begin about 62 miles (100 kilometers) above sea level at what is known as the Krmn line. This is an imaginary boundary at an altitude where there is no appreciable air to breathe or scatter light. Passing this altitude, blue starts to give way to black because oxygen molecules are not in enough abundance to make the sky blue.

Related: Where DOES Space Begin? Virgin Galactic Flies Right into the Debate

No one knows exactly how big space is. It's difficult to determine because of what we can see in our detectors. We measure long distances in space in "light-years," representing the distance it takes for light to travel in a year (roughly 5.8 trillion miles (9.3 trillion kilometers)).

From the light that is visible in our telescopes, we have charted galaxies reaching almost as far back as the Big Bang, which is thought to have started our universe about 13.8 billion years ago. This means we can "see" into space at a distance of almost 13.8 billion light-years. But the universe continues to expand, making "measuring space," even more challenging.

Additionally, astronomers are not totally sure if our universe is the only one that exists. This means that space could be a whole lot bigger than we even think.

The majority of space is relatively empty, with just stray bits of dust and gas floating around. This means that when humans send a probe to a distant planet or asteroid, the craft will not encounter "drag" in the same way that an airplane does as it sails through space.

In fact, the vacuum environment in space and on the moon, is one reason why the lunar lander of the Apollo program was designed to have an almost spider-like appearance, as it was described by the Apollo 9 crew. Because the spacecraft was designed to work in a zone with no atmosphere, it didn't need to have smooth edges or an aerodynamic shape.

In addition to the bits of debris that speckle the "emptier" regions of space, research has shown that these areas are also home to different forms of radiation. In our own solar system, the solar wind charged particles that stream from the sun emanate throughout the solar system and occasionally cause auroras near Earth's poles. Cosmic rays also fly through our neighborhood, stemming from supernovas outside of the solar system.

In fact, the universe as a whole is inundated with what is known as the cosmic microwave background (CMB), which is essentially the leftover radiation from the explosion mostly commonly known as the Big Bang. The CMB is the oldest radiation that our instruments can detect.

Infographic: Cosmic Microwave Background Explained

There remain two giant mysteries about space: dark matter and dark energy.

While scientists have provided extensive evidence for the existence of dark matter and dark energy, they are each still poorly understood as, so far, scientists cannot directly observe them and can only observe their effects.

Roughly 80% of all of the mass in the universe is made up of what scientists have dubbed "dark matter," but it's not known what it actually is or if it is even matter by our current definition. However, while dark matter doesn't emit light or energy and cannot, therefore, be directly observed, scientists have found overwhelming evidence that it makes up the vast majority of the matter in the cosmos.

Dark energy might have a similar name to dark matter, but it's a whole different component entirely.

Thought to make up nearly 75% of the universe, dark energy is a mysterious and unknown force or entity that scientists think is responsible for the universe's ongoing expansion.

Smaller black holes can form from the gravitational collapse of a gigantic star, which forms a singularity from which nothing can escape not even light, hence the name of the object. No one is quite sure what lies within a black hole, or what would happen to a person or object who fell into it but research is ongoing.

An example is gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time that come from interactions between black holes. This was first predicted by Albert Einstein at the turn of the last century, when he showed that time and space are linked; time speeds up or slows down when space is distorted.

As of mid-2017, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) Scientific Collaboration has announced three black-hole interactions and mergers detected through gravitational waves, in just two years.

The team found these three events in about two years, indicating that when LIGO is implemented at full sensitivity, the observatory may be able to find these sorts of events frequently, scientists said in May 2017. Should a bunch of these black hole events be detected, it could help scientists learn how black holes of a certain size (several tens of sun masses) are born, and later merge into new black holes.

Stars (like our own sun) are immense balls of gas that produce their own radiation. They can range from red supergiants to cooling white dwarfs that are the leftovers of supernovas, or star explosions that occur when a big one runs out of gas to burn. These explosions spread elements throughout the universe and are the reason that elements such as iron exist. Star explosions can also give rise to incredibly dense objects called neutron stars. If these neutron stars send out pulses of radiation, they are called pulsar stars.

Planets are objects whose definition came under scrutiny in 2006, when astronomers were debating whether Pluto could be considered a planet or not. At the time, the International Astronomical Union (the governing body on Earth for these decisions) ruled that a planet is a celestial body that orbits the sun, is massive enough to have a nearly round shape, and has cleared its orbit of debris. Under this designation, Pluto and similar small objects are considered "dwarf planets," although not everyone agrees with the designation. After the New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto in 2015, principal investigator Alan Stern and others again opened up the debate, saying the diversity of terrain on Pluto makes it more like a planet.

The definition of extrasolar planets, or planets outside the solar system, is still not firmed up by the IAU, but essentially astronomers understand it to mean objects that behave like planets in our neighborhood. The first such planet was found in 1992 (in the constellation Pegasus) and since that time, thousands of alien planets have been confirmed with many more suspected. In solar systems that have planets under formation, these objects are often called "protoplanets" because they aren't quite the maturity of those planets we have in our own solar system.

Asteroids are rocks that are not quite big enough to be dwarf planets. We've even found asteroids with rings around them, such as 10199 Charilko. Their small size often leads to the conclusion that they were remnants from when the solar system was formed. Most asteroids are concentrated in a belt between the planets Mars and Jupiter, but there are also many asteroids that follow behind or ahead of planets, or can even cross in a planet's path. NASA and several other entities have asteroid-searching programs in place to scan for potentially dangerous objects in the sky and monitor their orbits closely.

In our solar system, comets (sometimes called dirty snowballs) are objects believed to originate from a vast collection of icy bodies called the Oort Cloud. As a comet approaches the sun, the heat of our star causes ices to melt and stream away from the comet. The ancients often associated comets with destruction or some sort of immense change on Earth, but the discovery of Halley's Comet and related "periodic" or returning comets showed that they were ordinary solar system phenomena.

Among the biggest cosmic structures we can see are galaxies, which essentially are vast collections of stars. Our own galaxy is called the Milky Way, and is considered a "barred spiral" shape. There are several types of galaxies, ranging from spiral to elliptical to irregular, and they can change as they come close to other objects or as stars within them age.

Often galaxies have supermassive black holes embedded in the center of their galaxies, which are only visible through the radiation that each black hole emanates as well as through its gravitational interactions with other objects. If the black hole is particularly active, with a lot of material falling into it, it produces immense amounts of radiation. This kind of a galactic object is called a quasar (just one of several types of similar objects.)

Large groups of galaxies can form in clusters that are groups as large as hundreds or thousands of galaxies bound together gravitationally. Scientists consider these the largest structures in the universe.

This page was updated in Jan. 2022 by Space.com senior writer Chelsea Gohd.

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What Is Space? - A Definition of Our Universe and Beyond | Space

Framework of distances and directions

Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction.[1] In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless four-dimensional continuum known as spacetime. The concept of space is considered to be of fundamental importance to an understanding of the physical universe. However, disagreement continues between philosophers over whether it is itself an entity, a relationship between entities, or part of a conceptual framework.

Debates concerning the nature, essence and the mode of existence of space date back to antiquity; namely, to treatises like the Timaeus of Plato, or Socrates in his reflections on what the Greeks called khra (i.e. "space"), or in the Physics of Aristotle (Book IV, Delta) in the definition of topos (i.e. place), or in the later "geometrical conception of place" as "space qua extension" in the Discourse on Place (Qawl fi al-Makan) of the 11th-century Arab polymath Alhazen.[2] Many of these classical philosophical questions were discussed in the Renaissance and then reformulated in the 17th century, particularly during the early development of classical mechanics. In Isaac Newton's view, space was absolutein the sense that it existed permanently and independently of whether there was any matter in the space.[3] Other natural philosophers, notably Gottfried Leibniz, thought instead that space was in fact a collection of relations between objects, given by their distance and direction from one another. In the 18th century, the philosopher and theologian George Berkeley attempted to refute the "visibility of spatial depth" in his Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision. Later, the metaphysician Immanuel Kant said that the concepts of space and time are not empirical ones derived from experiences of the outside worldthey are elements of an already given systematic framework that humans possess and use to structure all experiences. Kant referred to the experience of "space" in his Critique of Pure Reason as being a subjective "pure a priori form of intuition".

In the 19th and 20th centuries mathematicians began to examine geometries that are non-Euclidean, in which space is conceived as curved, rather than flat. According to Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, space around gravitational fields deviates from Euclidean space.[4] Experimental tests of general relativity have confirmed that non-Euclidean geometries provide a better model for the shape of space.

Galilean and Cartesian theories about space, matter, and motion are at the foundation of the Scientific Revolution, which is understood to have culminated with the publication of Newton's Principia in 1687.[5] Newton's theories about space and time helped him explain the movement of objects. While his theory of space is considered the most influential in Physics, it emerged from his predecessors' ideas about the same.[6]

As one of the pioneers of modern science, Galileo revised the established Aristotelian and Ptolemaic ideas about a geocentric cosmos. He backed the Copernican theory that the universe was heliocentric, with a stationary sun at the center and the planetsincluding the Earthrevolving around the sun. If the Earth moved, the Aristotelian belief that its natural tendency was to remain at rest was in question. Galileo wanted to prove instead that the sun moved around its axis, that motion was as natural to an object as the state of rest. In other words, for Galileo, celestial bodies, including the Earth, were naturally inclined to move in circles. This view displaced another Aristotelian ideathat all objects gravitated towards their designated natural place-of-belonging.[7]

Descartes set out to replace the Aristotelian worldview with a theory about space and motion as determined by natural laws. In other words, he sought a metaphysical foundation or a mechanical explanation for his theories about matter and motion. Cartesian space was Euclidean in structureinfinite, uniform and flat.[8] It was defined as that which contained matter; conversely, matter by definition had a spatial extension so that there was no such thing as empty space.[5]

The Cartesian notion of space is closely linked to his theories about the nature of the body, mind and matter. He is famously known for his "cogito ergo sum" (I think therefore I am), or the idea that we can only be certain of the fact that we can doubt, and therefore think and therefore exist. His theories belong to the rationalist tradition, which attributes knowledge about the world to our ability to think rather than to our experiences, as the empiricists believe.[9] He posited a clear distinction between the body and mind, which is referred to as the Cartesian dualism.

Following Galileo and Descartes, during the seventeenth century the philosophy of space and time revolved around the ideas of Gottfried Leibniz, a German philosophermathematician, and Isaac Newton, who set out two opposing theories of what space is. Rather than being an entity that independently exists over and above other matter, Leibniz held that space is no more than the collection of spatial relations between objects in the world: "space is that which results from places taken together".[10] Unoccupied regions are those that could have objects in them, and thus spatial relations with other places. For Leibniz, then, space was an idealised abstraction from the relations between individual entities or their possible locations and therefore could not be continuous but must be discrete.[11]Space could be thought of in a similar way to the relations between family members. Although people in the family are related to one another, the relations do not exist independently of the people.[12]Leibniz argued that space could not exist independently of objects in the world because that implies a difference between two universes exactly alike except for the location of the material world in each universe. But since there would be no observational way of telling these universes apart then, according to the identity of indiscernibles, there would be no real difference between them. According to the principle of sufficient reason, any theory of space that implied that there could be these two possible universes must therefore be wrong.[13]

Newton took space to be more than relations between material objects and based his position on observation and experimentation. For a relationist there can be no real difference between inertial motion, in which the object travels with constant velocity, and non-inertial motion, in which the velocity changes with time, since all spatial measurements are relative to other objects and their motions. But Newton argued that since non-inertial motion generates forces, it must be absolute.[14] He used the example of water in a spinning bucket to demonstrate his argument. Water in a bucket is hung from a rope and set to spin, starts with a flat surface. After a while, as the bucket continues to spin, the surface of the water becomes concave. If the bucket's spinning is stopped then the surface of the water remains concave as it continues to spin. The concave surface is therefore apparently not the result of relative motion between the bucket and the water.[15] Instead, Newton argued, it must be a result of non-inertial motion relative to space itself. For several centuries the bucket argument was considered decisive in showing that space must exist independently of matter.

In the eighteenth century the German philosopher Immanuel Kant developed a theory of knowledge in which knowledge about space can be both a priori and synthetic.[16] According to Kant, knowledge about space is synthetic, in that statements about space are not simply true by virtue of the meaning of the words in the statement. In his work, Kant rejected the view that space must be either a substance or relation. Instead he came to the conclusion that space and time are not discovered by humans to be objective features of the world, but imposed by us as part of a framework for organizing experience.[17]

Euclid's Elements contained five postulates that form the basis for Euclidean geometry. One of these, the parallel postulate, has been the subject of debate among mathematicians for many centuries. It states that on any plane on which there is a straight line L1 and a point P not on L1, there is exactly one straight line L2 on the plane that passes through the point P and is parallel to the straight line L1. Until the 19th century, few doubted the truth of the postulate; instead debate centered over whether it was necessary as an axiom, or whether it was a theory that could be derived from the other axioms.[18] Around 1830 though, the Hungarian Jnos Bolyai and the Russian Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky separately published treatises on a type of geometry that does not include the parallel postulate, called hyperbolic geometry. In this geometry, an infinite number of parallel lines pass through the point P. Consequently, the sum of angles in a triangle is less than 180 and the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter is greater than pi. In the 1850s, Bernhard Riemann developed an equivalent theory of elliptical geometry, in which no parallel lines pass through P. In this geometry, triangles have more than 180 and circles have a ratio of circumference-to-diameter that is less than pi.

Although there was a prevailing Kantian consensus at the time, once non-Euclidean geometries had been formalised, some began to wonder whether or not physical space is curved. Carl Friedrich Gauss, a German mathematician, was the first to consider an empirical investigation of the geometrical structure of space. He thought of making a test of the sum of the angles of an enormous stellar triangle, and there are reports that he actually carried out a test, on a small scale, by triangulating mountain tops in Germany.[19]

Henri Poincar, a French mathematician and physicist of the late 19th century, introduced an important insight in which he attempted to demonstrate the futility of any attempt to discover which geometry applies to space by experiment.[20] He considered the predicament that would face scientists if they were confined to the surface of an imaginary large sphere with particular properties, known as a sphere-world. In this world, the temperature is taken to vary in such a way that all objects expand and contract in similar proportions in different places on the sphere. With a suitable falloff in temperature, if the scientists try to use measuring rods to determine the sum of the angles in a triangle, they can be deceived into thinking that they inhabit a plane, rather than a spherical surface.[21] In fact, the scientists cannot in principle determine whether they inhabit a plane or sphere and, Poincar argued, the same is true for the debate over whether real space is Euclidean or not. For him, which geometry was used to describe space was a matter of convention.[22] Since Euclidean geometry is simpler than non-Euclidean geometry, he assumed the former would always be used to describe the 'true' geometry of the world.[23]

In 1905, Albert Einstein published his special theory of relativity, which led to the concept that space and time can be viewed as a single construct known as spacetime. In this theory, the speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all observerswhich has the result that two events that appear simultaneous to one particular observer will not be simultaneous to another observer if the observers are moving with respect to one another. Moreover, an observer will measure a moving clock to tick more slowly than one that is stationary with respect to them; and objects are measured to be shortened in the direction that they are moving with respect to the observer.

Subsequently, Einstein worked on a general theory of relativity, which is a theory of how gravity interacts with spacetime. Instead of viewing gravity as a force field acting in spacetime, Einstein suggested that it modifies the geometric structure of spacetime itself.[24] According to the general theory, time goes more slowly at places with lower gravitational potentials and rays of light bend in the presence of a gravitational field. Scientists have studied the behaviour of binary pulsars, confirming the predictions of Einstein's theories, and non-Euclidean geometry is usually used to describe spacetime.

In modern mathematics spaces are defined as sets with some added structure. They are frequently described as different types of manifolds, which are spaces that locally approximate to Euclidean space, and where the properties are defined largely on local connectedness of points that lie on the manifold. There are however, many diverse mathematical objects that are called spaces. For example, vector spaces such as function spaces may have infinite numbers of independent dimensions and a notion of distance very different from Euclidean space, and topological spaces replace the concept of distance with a more abstract idea of nearness.

Space is one of the few fundamental quantities in physics, meaning that it cannot be defined via other quantities because nothing more fundamental is known at the present. On the other hand, it can be related to other fundamental quantities. Thus, similar to other fundamental quantities (like time and mass), space can be explored via measurement and experiment.

Today, our three-dimensional space is viewed as embedded in a four-dimensional spacetime, called Minkowski space (see special relativity). The idea behind spacetime is that time is hyperbolic-orthogonal to each of the three spatial dimensions.

Before Albert Einstein's work on relativistic physics, time and space were viewed as independent dimensions. Einstein's discoveries showed that due to relativity of motion our space and time can be mathematically combined into one objectspacetime. It turns out that distances in space or in time separately are not invariant with respect to Lorentz coordinate transformations, but distances in Minkowski space along spacetime intervals arewhich justifies the name.

In addition, time and space dimensions should not be viewed as exactly equivalent in Minkowski space. One can freely move in space but not in time. Thus, time and space coordinates are treated differently both in special relativity (where time is sometimes considered an imaginary coordinate) and in general relativity (where different signs are assigned to time and space components of spacetime metric).

Furthermore, in Einstein's general theory of relativity, it is postulated that spacetime is geometrically distorted curved near to gravitationally significant masses.[25]

One consequence of this postulate, which follows from the equations of general relativity, is the prediction of moving ripples of spacetime, called gravitational waves. While indirect evidence for these waves has been found (in the motions of the HulseTaylor binary system, for example) experiments attempting to directly measure these waves are ongoing at the LIGO and Virgo collaborations. LIGO scientists reported the first such direct observation of gravitational waves on 14 September 2015.[26][27]

Relativity theory leads to the cosmological question of what shape the universe is, and where space came from. It appears that space was created in the Big Bang, 13.8billion years ago[28] and has been expanding ever since. The overall shape of space is not known, but space is known to be expanding very rapidly due to the cosmic inflation.

The measurement of physical space has long been important. Although earlier societies had developed measuring systems, the International System of Units, (SI), is now the most common system of units used in the measuring of space, and is almost universally used.

Currently, the standard space interval, called a standard meter or simply meter, is defined as the distance traveled by light in a vacuum during a time interval of exactly 1/299,792,458 of a second. This definition coupled with present definition of the second is based on the special theory of relativity in which the speed of light plays the role of a fundamental constant of nature.

Geography is the branch of science concerned with identifying and describing places on Earth, utilizing spatial awareness to try to understand why things exist in specific locations. Cartography is the mapping of spaces to allow better navigation, for visualization purposes and to act as a locational device. Geostatistics apply statistical concepts to collected spatial data of Earth to create an estimate for unobserved phenomena.

Geographical space is often considered as land, and can have a relation to ownership usage (in which space is seen as property or territory). While some cultures assert the rights of the individual in terms of ownership, other cultures will identify with a communal approach to land ownership, while still other cultures such as Australian Aboriginals, rather than asserting ownership rights to land, invert the relationship and consider that they are in fact owned by the land. Spatial planning is a method of regulating the use of space at land-level, with decisions made at regional, national and international levels. Space can also impact on human and cultural behavior, being an important factor in architecture, where it will impact on the design of buildings and structures, and on farming.

Ownership of space is not restricted to land. Ownership of airspace and of waters is decided internationally. Other forms of ownership have been recently asserted to other spacesfor example to the radio bands of the electromagnetic spectrum or to cyberspace.

Public space is a term used to define areas of land as collectively owned by the community, and managed in their name by delegated bodies; such spaces are open to all, while private property is the land culturally owned by an individual or company, for their own use and pleasure.

Abstract space is a term used in geography to refer to a hypothetical space characterized by complete homogeneity. When modeling activity or behavior, it is a conceptual tool used to limit extraneous variables such as terrain.

Psychologists first began to study the way space is perceived in the middle of the 19th century. Those now concerned with such studies regard it as a distinct branch of psychology. Psychologists analyzing the perception of space are concerned with how recognition of an object's physical appearance or its interactions are perceived, see, for example, visual space.

Other, more specialized topics studied include amodal perception and object permanence. The perception of surroundings is important due to its necessary relevance to survival, especially with regards to hunting and self preservation as well as simply one's idea of personal space.

Several space-related phobias have been identified, including agoraphobia (the fear of open spaces), astrophobia (the fear of celestial space) and claustrophobia (the fear of enclosed spaces).

The understanding of three-dimensional space in humans is thought to be learned during infancy using unconscious inference, and is closely related to hand-eye coordination. The visual ability to perceive the world in three dimensions is called depth perception.

Space has been studied in the social sciences from the perspectives of Marxism, feminism, postmodernism, postcolonialism, urban theory and critical geography. These theories account for the effect of the history of colonialism, transatlantic slavery and globalization on our understanding and experience of space and place. The topic has garnered attention since the 1980s, after the publication of Henri Lefebvre's The Production of Space . In this book, Lefebvre applies Marxist ideas about the production of commodities and accumulation of capital to discuss space as a social product. His focus is on the multiple and overlapping social processes that produce space.[29]

In his book The Condition of Postmodernity, David Harvey describes what he terms the "time-space compression." This is the effect of technological advances and capitalism on our perception of time, space and distance.[30] Changes in the modes of production and consumption of capital affect and are affected by developments in transportation and technology. These advances create relationships across time and space, new markets and groups of wealthy elites in urban centers, all of which annihilate distances and affect our perception of linearity and distance.[31]

In his book Thirdspace, Edward Soja describes space and spatiality as an integral and neglected aspect of what he calls the "trialectics of being," the three modes that determine how we inhabit, experience and understand the world. He argues that critical theories in the Humanities and Social Sciences study the historical and social dimensions of our lived experience, neglecting the spatial dimension.[32] He builds on Henri Lefebvre's work to address the dualistic way in which humans understand spaceas either material/physical or as represented/imagined. Lefebvre's "lived space"[33] and Soja's "thirdspace" are terms that account for the complex ways in which humans understand and navigate place, which "firstspace" and "Secondspace" (Soja's terms for material and imagined spaces respectively) do not fully encompass.

Postcolonial theorist Homi Bhabha's concept of Third Space is different from Soja's Thirdspace, even though both terms offer a way to think outside the terms of a binary logic. Bhabha's Third Space is the space in which hybrid cultural forms and identities exist. In his theories, the term hybrid describes new cultural forms that emerge through the interaction between colonizer and colonized.[34]

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Space - Wikipedia