India plans to build a moon-orbiting space station by 2040 that will support crewed missions to the moon and serve as a hub for scientific research. Space Magazine reports: If all goes according to plan, the lunar space station will be completed around the same time the nation's astronauts land on the moon, with construction of a permanent base on the surface before 2050. The lunar space station appears to be the third and final phase of India's moon exploration efforts. [...] The lunar space station may be similar to the one India plans to build in Earth orbit, known as the Bharatiya Antariksh Station, or BAS. The development of this station's first module, BAS-1, was greenlit by the Indian government in September. Officials have said the first module will be launched to low Earth orbit by 2028, and the entire station will be operational by 2035.

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"NASA has emphasized the ISS crew is in no immediate danger," reports Space.com. "The leaking area in the Russian segment of the orbital complex has been ongoing for five years," and "there was a temporary increase in the leak rate that was patched earlier this year..." Former astronaut Bob Cabana emphasized that troubleshooting is ongoing during a brief livestreamed meeting on Wednesday. But NASA and Roscosmos "don't have a common understanding of what the likely root causes or the severity of the consequences of these leaks." "The Russian position is that the most probable cause of the cracks is high cycling caused by micro-vibrations," Cabana said, referring to flexing of metal and similar components that heat and cool as the ISS orbits in and out of sunlight. "NASA believes the PrK cracks are likely multi-causal — including pressure and mechanical stress, residual stress, material properties and environmental exposures," Cabana continued. NASA and Russia disagree about whether "continued operations are safe", he added, but the remedy for now is to keep the hatch closed between the U.S. and Russian side as investigations continue. The two agencies will continue meeting to seek "common understanding of the structural integrity", Cabana pledged, but he did not provide a timeline. Academic and industry experts will also be consulted.

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L'astronaute américain Don Pettit, en mission dans l'espace, photographie régulièrement la Terre. Son dernier cliché immortalise un bout de notre planète dans un ballet de lumière venant du ciel et des villes.

L'élection présidentielle américaine se joue début novembre 2024 entre Kamala Harris et Donald Trump. Des millions d'Américains ont été appelés aux urnes pour choisir. C'est aussi le cas des astronautes actuellement dans l'espace. Ils ont dû toutefois suivre une procédure spéciale pour pouvoir voter depuis l'ISS.

L'élection présidentielle américaine se joue début novembre 2024 entre Kamala Harris et Donald Trump. Des millions d'Américains ont été appelés aux urnes pour choisir. C'est aussi le cas des astronautes actuellement dans l'espace. Ils ont dû toutefois suivre une procédure spéciale pour pouvoir voter depuis l'ISS.

SpaceX et la Nasa supervisent ce dimanche 3 novembre une relocalisation de la capsule Crew Dragon liée à la mission Crew-9. L'évènement peut être suivi en direct.

SpaceX va déplacer sa capsule Crew Dragon qui ramènera la mission Crew-9 sur Terre. Elle est considérée comme une sorte de canot de sauvetage, car elle servira à récupérer les deux « naufragés » coincés dans l'ISS.

SpaceX va déplacer sa capsule Crew Dragon qui ramènera la mission Crew-9 sur Terre. Elle est considérée comme une sorte de canot de sauvetage, car elle servira à récupérer les deux « naufragés » coincés dans l'ISS.

SpaceX va déplacer sa capsule Crew Dragon qui ramènera la mission Crew-9 sur Terre. Elle est considérée comme une sorte de canot de sauvetage, car elle servira à récupérer les deux « naufragés » coincés dans l'ISS.

Four astronauts splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday after their record ISS mission stretched to eight months due to Boeing capsule malfunctions and hurricane disruptions. The SpaceX Dragon capsule landed off Florida's coast before dawn, carrying NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin. Technical issues with Boeing's Starliner capsule in September, followed by Hurricane Milton and persistent rough seas, delayed their planned return by two months. The crew launched in March as part of NASA's commercial crew program. Their replacements include Boeing Starliner test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, whose mission expanded from eight days to eight months, alongside two SpaceX-launched astronauts. The new crew will remain aboard the station until February.

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Voilà plusieurs jours que SpaceX et la Nasa guettent une ouverture pour faire revenir les astronautes de la mission Crew-8. Une ouverture qui tarde à se manifester, en raison de la météo très défavorable au large de la Floride.

Voilà plusieurs jours que SpaceX et la Nasa guettent une ouverture pour faire revenir les astronautes de la mission Crew-8. Une ouverture qui tarde à se manifester, en raison de la météo très défavorable au large de la Floride.

NASA will rely on SpaceX's Crew Dragon for two crewed missions to the ISS in 2025 while evaluating whether Boeing's Starliner requires another test flight for certification. SpaceNews reports: In an Oct. 15 statement, NASA said it will use Crew Dragon for both the Crew-10 mission to the ISS, scheduled for no earlier than February 2025, and the Crew-11 mission scheduled for no earlier than July. Crew-10 will fly NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers along with astronaut Takuya Onishi from the Japanese space agency JAXA and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. NASA has not yet announced the crew for the Crew-11 mission. Earlier this year, NASA had hoped that Boeing's CST-100 Starliner would be certified in time to fly the early 2025 mission. Problems with the Crew Flight Test mission, which launched in June with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on board, led NASA to conclude in July that the spacecraft would not be certified in time. It delayed that Starliner-1 mission from February to August 2025, moving up Crew-10 to February. NASA also announced then that it would prepare Crew-11 in parallel with Starliner-1 for launch in that August 2025 slot. "The timing and configuration of Starliner's next flight will be determined once a better understanding of Boeing's path to system certification is established," NASA said in its statement about the 2025 missions. "NASA is keeping options on the table for how best to achieve system certification, including windows of opportunity for a potential Starliner flight in 2025."

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Ars Technica reports NASA officials operating the International Space Station "are seriously concerned about a small Russian part of the station" — because it's leaking. The "PrK" tunnel connecting a larger module to a docking port "has been leaking since September 2019... In February of this year NASA identified an increase in the leak rate from less than 1 pound of atmosphere a day to 2.4 pounds a day, and in April this rate increased to 3.7 pounds a day." A new report, published Thursday by NASA's inspector general, provides details not previously released by the space agency that underline the severity of the problem... Despite years of investigation, neither Russian nor US officials have identified the underlying cause of the leak. "Although the root cause of the leak remains unknown, both agencies have narrowed their focus to internal and external welds," the report, signed by Deputy Inspector General George A. Scott, states. The plan to mitigate the risk is to keep the hatch on the Zvezda module leading to the PrK tunnel closed. Eventually, if the leak worsens further, this hatch might need to be closed permanently, reducing the number of Russian docking ports on the space station from four to three. Publicly, NASA has sought to minimize concerns about the cracking issue because it remains, to date, confined to the PrK tunnel and has not spread to other parts of the station. Nevertheless, Ars reported in June that the cracking issue has reached the highest level of concern on the space agency's 5x5 "risk matrix" to classify the likelihood and consequence of risks to spaceflight activities. The Russian leaks are now classified as a "5" both in terms of high likelihood and high consequence. "According to NASA, Roscosmos is confident they will be able to monitor and close the hatch to the Service Module prior to the leak rate reaching an untenable level. However, NASA and Roscosmos have not reached an agreement on the point at which the leak rate is untenable." The article adds that the Space Station should reach its end of life by either 2028 or 2030, and NASA "intends to transition its activities in low-Earth orbit onto private space stations," and has funded Axiom Space, Blue Origin, and Voyager Space for initial development. "There is general uncertainty as to whether any of the private space station operators will be ready in 2030."

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La mission Crew 9, prévue ce 28 septembre, ressemble à un véritable sauvetage. En raison des problèmes rencontrés avec la capsule Starliner, deux astronautes n'ont pas pu regagner la Terre cet été. Il a donc été décidé de faire appel à SpaceX pour assurer leur retour. Le lancement de la capsule est prévu aujourd'hui et sera diffusé en direct.

La mission Crew 9, prévue ce 28 septembre, ressemble à un véritable sauvetage. En raison des problèmes rencontrés avec la capsule Starliner, deux astronautes n'ont pas pu regagner la Terre cet été. Il a donc été décidé de faire appel à SpaceX pour assurer leur retour. Le lancement de la capsule est prévu aujourd'hui et sera diffusé en direct.