The spacecraft is being assembled at the Indian Space Research Organisation’s facility in Bangalore. Officials report that five instruments from the United States and Europe have been successfully tested.

The launch has slipped a couple of months. ISRO officials have said they expect to send the orbiter off on its mission sometime in the third quarter of the year.

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“I’m still wearing a brace, and my doctor said that I must not run, yet. That’s really hard because I love running,” Yi said at a press conference on Friday. She will leave South Korea on Sunday for a mission debriefing in Moscow.

Meanwhile, the man she replaced on the flight, Ko San, denied an earlier report that he was booted from the International Space Station mission for attempting to send classified documents about the Russian space program home to Korea.

“I’m not that stupid to try to steal important documents that way. There were really subtle incidents and Russian officials later agreed they did not matter,” Ko told The Korea Times. “The replacement of astronauts was a very complicated matter because intelligence agencies were involved in it.”

Ko said he was trying to understand how Soyuz’s systems worked so he could participate in the mission safely.

“Strictly speaking, it was against regulations. But the boundary of legitimate and illegitimate was very vague in the training,” he said at the press conference. “I was allowed to ask questions and see flight manuals when I wanted to, because I had to understand the systems and I had to know how to operate the spacecraft to some degree. Even my Russian colleagues Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko understood this very well, so they requested our instructors to teach me those things.”

This may have caused problems higher up. The news weekly Sisain reports that First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov blamed space officials for letting foreigners learn too much about Russian technology.

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A Russian Progress vehicle was launched from Kazakhstan on Wednesday with fresh supplies for astronauts aboard the International Space Station. And what will the fastest men alive be receiving in additional to their regular shipment of clothes, oxygen and fuel? Snails. Ninety of them. (No, they’re not going to eat them; it’s all part of a biology experiment. Really.)

In other news, SpaceX’s Elon Musk is saying that he could launch astronauts to ISS aboard his Dragon spacecraft by 2011 if NASA gives the OK to develop a human-rated version of the vehicle this summer. This date is at least two years (or four or five) before NASA would be able to launch its Orion vehicle.

This is an ambitious goal given that SpaceX has yet to successfully launch anything into space. It failed in both attempts to launch its small Falcon I rocket; a third attempt is scheduled for next month. Dragon will be launched atop the company’s larger Falcon 9 rocket, which has yet to fly.

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European officials confirmed that such a plan was being considered, but said that nothing had been decided yet. ESA’s space ministers will meet late this year at The Hague to map out the agency’s future direction.

“This is factually correct in the sense that indeed this is the outline of the system,” ESA spokesman Franco Bonacina told Reuters. “But we haven’t decided upon anything yet. … It’s too premature. It’s still at the level of studies. In November, at a ministerial meeting, it’s not taken for granted this option will be the one that finally takes shape.”

There are several plans being considered in Europe, including building a human-rated capsule for use on ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle, which currently is used to ferry supplies to the International Space Station.

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“The ATV, which ferried just under five tonnes of supplies to the orbiting platform in April, is packed with sophisticated navigation, rendezvous and docking technologies. It also has a pressurised section that is ‘human rated’ in the sense that, once docked to the 340km-high station, astronauts can move around inside it safely in just T-shirts.

“But the ATV was not built with the intention of transporting humans across space, and a fit-for-purpose capsule would have to be developed to take the place of the current cargo section.”

If the project is approved, EADS and DLR officials believe they could conduct test flight beginning in 2013, with human flights coming four or five years later. The project will likely be considered by European space ministers at a meeting in November.

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REDMOND, Wash. — May 12, 2008 — The final frontier got a bit closer today as Microsoft Corp. officially launched the public beta of its WorldWide Telescope, which is now available at http://www.worldwidetelescope.org.

WorldWide Telescope is a rich Web application that brings together imagery from the best ground- and space-based observatories across the world to allow people to easily explore the night sky through their computers. WorldWide Telescope has been eagerly anticipated by the astronomical and educational communities as a compelling astronomical resource for students and lifelong learners, and as a way to make science fun for children.

“The WorldWide Telescope is a powerful tool for science and education that makes it possible for everyone to explore the universe,” said Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. “By combining terabytes of incredible imagery and data with easy-to-use software for viewing and moving through all that information, the WorldWide Telescope opens the door to new ways to see and experience the wonders of space. Our hope is that it will inspire young people to explore astronomy and science, and help researchers in their quest to better understand the universe.”

The application itself is a blend of software and Web 2.0 services created with the Microsoft high-performance Visual Experience Engine, which allows seamless panning and zooming around the heavens with rich image environments. WorldWide Telescope stitches together terabytes of high-resolution images of celestial bodies and displays them in a way that relates to their actual position in the sky. People can freely browse through the solar system, galaxy and beyond, or take advantage of a growing number of guided tours of the sky hosted by astronomers and educators at major universities and planetariums.

“WorldWide Telescope brings to life a dream that many of us in Microsoft Research have pursued for years, and we are proud to release this as a free service to anyone who wants to explore the universe,” said Curtis Wong, manager of Microsoft’s Next Media Research Group. “Where is Saturn in the sky, in relation to the moon? Does the Milky Way really have a supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy? With the universe at your fingertips, you can discover the answers for yourself.”

The service goes well beyond the simple browsing of images. Users can choose which telescope they want to look through, including the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center, the Spitzer Space Telescope or others. They can view the locations of planets in the night sky — in the past, present or future. They can view the universe through different wavelengths of light to reveal hidden structures in other parts of the galaxy. Taken as a whole, the application provides a top-to-bottom view of the science of astronomy.

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• $14.5 million to upgrade a launch complex for commercial flights;
• $1.25 million for space workforce retention and training programs;
• tax refunds for companies that retain workers; and,
• a measure limiting the liability of space tourism companies.

Ironically, the Legislature passed a budget that severely cuts funding for Space Florida, the organization that develops and promotes the state’s aerospace industry. Space Florida will receive $4 million this year, a reduction from its current $7 million budget. Gov. Charlie Crist had requested an increase to $8.5 million.

The cutback was apparently part of a general belt tightening effort in the midst of an economic downturn. A spokeswoman said Space Florida would cut back on trade shows and other promotional activities but does not anticipate any staff cutbacks.

Florida Today also reports that Space Florida is in negotiations with the U.S. Air Force over the use of Launch Complex 36, a deactivated Atlas rocket launch facility at the Cape Canaveral Air Station. The story does not indicate how the state would use the complex, but it could be related to efforts by Florida to lure Orbital Sciences Corporation to the state. The company is expected to make a decision soon on whether it will launch its new NASA-funded rocket from Virginia or Florida.

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Las Vegas, NV - Genesis I, the first test module launched by commercial space habitat developer Bigelow Aerospace, has completed its 10,000th orbit around the Earth. The unmanned module is about to start its third year in space since it ushered in a new era of private space development following its July 12, 2006 launch.

Since it was lifted into orbit, Genesis I has continued to perform its main mission to test and verify systems to be used in future manned space habitats. A one-third scale model of the future BA 330 space complex modules, Genesis I performed the first successful test of expandable space habitat technology in orbit.

In its 660 days in orbit, Genesis I has traveled the equivalent of more than 270 million miles, which would take it to the Moon and back 1,154 times.

During its perpetual trip around the Earth, Genesis I has seen every corner of the globe. The spacecraft’s on-board camera system has recorded approximately 14,000 images including images of all seven continents. Many of the images can be seen in the Genesis I Archive.

While people back on Earth take care to turn off the light when they leave a room, the lights have stayed on inside Genesis I. Electrical equipment on board have been churning away for 15,840 consecutive hours.

Bigelow Aerospace, based in Las Vegas, followed up Genesis I by launching sister spacecraft Genesis II on June 28, 2007, and is currently at work on Sundancer, its first module designed to support a human crew.

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• Part II of Taylor Dinerman’s look at the reusable launch vehicle industry (if you missed it, here’s Part I);
• Eric R. Hedman says space advocates need to stress long-term benefits in selling NASA’s lunar plans to reluctant politicians in “Why the Moon?“;
• Jeff Brooks explains why Congressional Democrats from Massachusetts don’t follow in the footsteps of John F. Kennedy when it comes to space;
• Jeff Foust looks at orbiting propellant depots, whose time he believes is not too far off.

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In an odd bit of timing, scientists are asking the public for help with finding a polar lander that disappeared at Mars eight years ago just as NASA is attempting to land a similar spacecraft on the planet’s pole.

Scientists at the University of Arizona have released high-resolution images of the landing area where the Mars Polar Lander was to have touched down on December 3, 1999. NASA lost contact with the spacecraft after it entered the atmosphere; officials believe the lander smashed into the planet at high speed because of a design flaw in its landing system.

The loss of the spacecraft was the low-point of NASA’s otherwise highly successful effort to explore the Red Planet. Ten weeks earlier, the agency had lost the Mars Climate Orbiter as it was attempting a tricky aerobraking maneuver in the planet’s upper atmosphere. Investigators found that both metric and Imperial units were used in control software, causing the orbiter  to burn up in the atmosphere.

The search for the missing lander comes as NASA is preparing to place its Mars Phoenix Lander at the north pole on May 25. The spacecraft, which was proposed by the University of Arizona, makes use of several backup instruments built for the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander program. The main lander was originally built for a 2001 mission that NASA canceled in the wake of its twin failures in 1999.

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