Three astronauts from Japan, Russia and the United States blasted off Monday for a Christmas voyage to the International Space Station. The Soyuz rocket blasted off on schedule from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in the barren Kazakh steppe at 3:52 am (2152 GMT Sunday) carrying Soichi Noguchi of Japan, US astronaut Timothy Creamer and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov. It entered orbit a few minutes after takeoff, Interfax news agency quoted mission control as saying. "The team feels fine," an... Read Full Story
A Russian Soyuz spacecraft brought an international group of holiday visitors to the International Space Station (ISS) Tuesday, expanding the crew to five just ahead of Christmas.
US astronaut TJ Creamer, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi will join American commander Jeff Williams and Russian Maxim Suraev aboard the orbiting space station for six months.
Williams and Suraev have been aboard since October and have been holding down the station alone... Read Full Story
Despite being separated from their families, astronauts heading to the International Space Station next week are excited to be spending Christmas in space, a crew member said Saturday. Invoking a famous cartoon shown in the United States during the holiday season, American astronaut Timothy Creamer said the crew would not let a trip to the cosmos spoil their mood and planned to exchange gifts as usual. "There's a famous cartoon in the United States called 'The Grinch who Stole Christmas... Read Full Story
The Soyuz spacecraft, carrying three astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), was launched here in the early hours of Monday.
The TMA-17 spacecraft was launched at 00:52 hrs from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan and it separated from the Soyuz-FG booster on schedule.
It is scheduled to dock with the ISS in the automated mode Wednesday.
The spacecraft carries Russia's Oleg Kotov, NASA's Timothy Creamer and Japan's Soichi Noguchi, who are to join the current ISS... Read Full Story
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AFP) -- Despite being separated from their families, astronauts heading to the International Space Station next week are excited to be spending Christmas in space, a crew member said Saturday. Invoking a famous cartoon shown in the United States during the holiday season, American astronaut Timothy Creamer said the crew would not let a trip to the cosmos spoil their mood and planned to exchange gifts as usual. "There's a famous cartoon in the United States called 'The... Read Full Story
Whitson: In charge of astronauts who will soon have no spaceship
Fifty years ago, the astronaut corps was exclusively a boys club. Now, the astronaut office is headed by Peggy Whitson , an experienced shuttle astronaut with two ISS missions behind her.
She may not be like “the icy commander”, Alan Shepard, who headed the astronaut office in the 1960s. But Whitson is tough—she was the first woman to command the International Space Station on Expedition 16 in 2007. She’s spent... Read Full Story
US astronaut Timothy Creamer said on Thursday he was impatient to taste "space sushi" courtesy of his Japanese crewmate after they arrive on the International Space Station (ISS) later this month. "We can't wait for when Soichi makes us sushi!" Creamer said, referring to Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, at a press conference at the Star City cosmonaut training centre outside Moscow, the Interfax news agency reported. Noguchi and Creamer -- a US Army colonel making his first flight to space... Read Full Story
WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 (UPI) --
NASA says it's providing a way for the public to send holiday greetings to the crew of the International Space Station.
In addition, season's greetings will be offered by International Space Station Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Max Suraev in a special video message airing this week on NASA Television and the NASA Web site.
The greetings are telecast as part of the daily NASA Video File telecast at noon EST weekdays. NASA TV streaming video... Read Full Story
Astronauts from the US space shuttle Discovery ventured out of the International Space Station for a third spacewalk that will be the last of their mission. NASA astronaut Danny Olivas and European Space Agency astronaut Christer Fuglesang left the ISS on Saturday at 2039 GMT for what is scheduled to be a 6.5 hour spacewalk, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration said. The pair are "working quickly and efficiently moving ahead of their timeline," NASA said. Their tasks include... Read Full Story
Astronauts from the US space shuttle Discovery ventured out of the International Space Station on Saturday for a third spacewalk that will be the last of their mission. NASA astronaut Danny Olivas and European Space Agency astronaut Christer Fuglesang left the ISS at 2039 GMT for what is expected to be a 6.5 hour spacewalk, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration said. The pair are expected to "deploy an attachment system" and "replace a device designed to help the station... Read Full Story
