KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (NASA PR) — NASA will provide coverage of the upcoming prelaunch and launch activities for the agency’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission with astronauts to the International Space Station. This is the second crew rotation flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon and the first with two international partners. The flight follows certification by NASA for regular flights to the space station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.
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HOUSTON (NASA PR) — Three space travelers, including NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, are poised to launch Friday, April 9, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station. NASA Television, the agency’s website, and the NASA app will provide comprehensive prelaunch and launch-to-docking coverage.
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HOUSTON (NASA PR) — Crew Dragon Resilience with NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, have re-docked to the International Space Station, another first for a commercial crew spacecraft.
Crew Dragon autonomously undocked from the forward port of the station’s Harmony module at 6:30 a.m. and relocated to the space-facing port at 7:08 a.m.
This is the start of a process that will enable extraction of new solar arrays from the SpaceX CRS-22 cargo mission’s trunk when it arrives to dock at the Node 2 zenith port following Crew-1 departure.
NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, JAXA astronaut Aki Hoshide, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet are scheduled to launch to the station Thursday, April 22, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Following a short handover, Crew-1 NASA astronauts Hopkins, Glover and Walker, along with JAXA astronaut Noguchi, plan to return home off the coast of Florida about five days after the Crew-2 arrival to the space station as long as mission priorities and weather cooperate.
By Emily McLeod Sulkes
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
NASA invites the public to take part in virtual activities and events ahead of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission. Liftoff of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket with astronauts is targeted for no earlier than 6:11 a.m. EDT Thursday, April 22, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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TOKYO (JAXA PR) — In the space-based business idea contest “S-Booster 2021”, space business ideas will be solicited on the following dedicated website from March 23 to May 20.
Website dedicated to “S-Booster 2021”: https://s-booster.jp/2021/ (External link)
We will collect a wide range of business ideas from working people, students, individuals, different industries, etc. who are aiming to start a business or commercialize not only in Japan but also in Asia and Oceania, and support the commercialization through mentoring by experts.
In addition, excellent ideas will be commended and the following supplementary prizes will be awarded (*1) for commercialization .
| Grand Prize | 10 million yen [$90,983] |
|---|---|
| Jury Special Award | 1 million yen [$9,098] |
| Asia / Oceania Award | 1 million yen [$9,098] |
| Sponsor Award | 500,000 yen each [$4,549] |
| Sponsor companies (in alphabetical order) | NTT DoCoMo, Inc., SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation, Sony Corporation (*2) , Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co., Ltd., Honda R & D Corporation |
| JAXA Award | JAXA’s hands-on and other support |
* 1 All of them may not be applicable as a result of the examination.
* 2 After April 1, 2021 Sony Group Corporation
HOUSTON (NASA PR) — NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts aboard the International Space Station will mark another first for commercial spaceflight Monday, April 5, when the four astronauts will relocate the Crew Dragon spacecraft to prepare for the arrival of new crew members in late April and the upcoming delivery of new solar arrays this summer.
Live coverage will begin at 6 a.m. EDT on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.
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TOKYO (JAXA PR) – Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Japanese national aerospace and space agency, and NTT DATA Corporation, a leading digital business and IT services provider, will jointly conduct research to enhance the precision of three-dimensional mapping using laser altimeters (LIDAR1) mounted on a satellite or other spacecraft.
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SWINDON, UK (UK Space Agency PR) — Five new projects have been awarded a share of over £1 million [$1.38 million] of government funding to work with international partners on innovative space technology.
Projects to remotely probe ice on Mars to help explorers find life below the surface, a system to warn of impacts of flood risks to infrastructure based on research in India and a scheme to design UK imaging technology for a space telescope are among the new international initiatives to receive backing from the UK Space Agency’s National Space Innovation Programme (NSIP).
The funding will see UK companies and organisations working with partners such as NASA, and space agencies from Canada, Japan and Italy. NSIP is the first fund dedicated to supporting the UK space sector’s innovation through collaborations with international partners designed to contribute to UK science, security and prosperity.
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TOKYO (JAXA PR) — It has been said that it is difficult to reduce the size and weight of satellite-mounted synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology, which has been a major technical issue.
At JAXA, based on the SAR technology accumulated in the Earth observation projects so far, the results started from the basic research on the miniaturization and weight reduction of this technology are summarized.
We have raised the level of technology to practical application in collaboration with Synspective, the Tokyo Institute of Technology Hirokawa Laboratory, Keio University Shirasaka Laboratory and the University of Tokyo Nakasuka/Funase Laboratory.
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TOKYO (JAXA PR) — Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, President: Keiichi Kobayashi, hereinafter “Furukawa Electric”) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Headquarters: Chofu City, Tokyo, Chairman: Hiroshi Yamakawa, under the “JAXA Space Innovation Partnership (J-SPARC) (*1)”, “JAXA”) have started co-creation activities through the development of power sources for next-generation electric propulsion machines (Hall thrusters) for small satellites.
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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (NASA PR) — Ask International Space Station facility engineers and payload operations teams at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, what makes them proudest as they look back on two decades of developing and testing science hardware and providing real-time support for experiments on orbit. Many will instinctively glance upward, as if the source of that pride might be passing overhead at that moment, 250 miles up.
Just as often though, they look to one another.
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MOSCOW (Roscosmos PR) — Russian ISS-64 long-term expedition crewmembers have completed the repair works in the Zvezda service module of the Russian segment of the International Space Station.
According to RSC Energia press service, “the International Space Station crew has completed the repair works of the Zvezda module hull. In the coming days Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov will close the Zvezda module hatches to perform pressure level checks.”
All the works are conducted under the supervision of the ISS Russian Segment Chief Operation Control Group and RSC Energia specialists.
Currently, the 64th long-term expedition crew is working on board the International Space Station. The crew consists of Roscosmos cosmonauts Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov, as well as NASA astronauts Kathleen Rubins, Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi.
HOUSTON (NASA PR) — NASA astronauts Kate Rubins and Victor Glover concluded their spacewalk on Sunday at 1:16 p.m. EST, after 7 hours and 4 minutes. In the third spacewalk of the year outside the International Space Station, the two NASA astronauts began work to install modification kits required for upcoming solar array upgrades.
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HOUSTON (NASA PR) — NASA and SpaceX are continuing a regular cadence of missions with astronauts launching on an American rocket from American soil to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 is the second crew rotation mission with four astronauts flying on a commercial spacecraft, and the first with two international partner astronauts.
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HOUSTON (NASA PR) — NASA will highlight the second crew rotation flight of a U.S. commercial spacecraft with astronauts to the International Space Station with a pair of news conferences beginning 12:30 p.m. EST Monday, March 1. The briefings, which will take place at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. The full astronaut crew flying on the mission also will be available for interviews.
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