space roundup
Here’s a week’s worth of news from space:
Population in Space at Historic High: 13
Here’s the baker’s dozen breakdown of the three spaceships in orbit today [last Thursday, in fact- jfb]:
* Soyuz TMA-14: Three people aboard, including space tourist Charles Simonyi and the new Expedition 19 crew for the station which numbers two, a Russian and an American. Launched Thursday and will arrive at the station Saturday morning.
* Space Shuttle Discovery: Seven people aboard, returning from the space station after delivering the last pair of U.S. solar wings to the orbiting laboratory, boosting it to full power during their STS-119 mission. The shuttle is due to land Saturday in Florida to end a 13-day spaceflight.
* International Space Station: Currently home to three astronauts, one each from the United States, Russia and Japan. Two will return home April 7 with Simonyi to end their Expedition 18 mission.
Half an hour after Prometheus tore into this region of Saturn’s F ring, the Cassini spacecraft snapped this image just as the moon was creating a new streamer in the ring.The dark pattern shaped like an upside down check mark in the lower left of the image is Prometheus and its shadow. The potato shaped moon can just be seen coming back out of the ring.
- Spider May Have Survived Months in Space
- NASA Astronauts Perform Space Station’s First ‘Spacewalk Swab’ to Test Planetary Protection Concept
- Astronomers catch a shooting star for 1st time
