International Space Station

ISS and Commercial Space: Commercial competition finding way onto ISS Aerospace Daily and Defense Report (4/11): Increasingly, commercial competition is making its way to the six-person International Space Station. Competitors Orbital ATK and SpaceX are providing access through their NASA resupply contracts. Made in Space, for instance, recently delivered the Additive Manufacturing Facility, a 3-D printing device that can produce components for hardware and equipment that does not have to be launched. A new habitat, the Bigelow Activities Experiment Module, arrived at the space station last Sunday and could provide a new kind of commercial space habitat for humans after a two-year trial. (See also: A bouncy house heads to the International Space Station and The challenges of commercializing research in low Earth orbit)

Medical Research: Scientists are sending fungi into space in the hope of developing new medicines NASA’s next commercial re-supply mission to the International Space Station will include studies of fungi that may reveal how four strains respond to an absence of gravity as well as radiation. The stress responses may include the production of substances valuable as new medicines

Scott Kelly – My Year in Space: Scott Kelly will take readers along for a year in space in new memoir Scott Kelly, recently returned to Earth from a U.S. record setting 340 days in space aboard the International Space Station, is writing a book about his adventure. Endurance: My Year in Space and Our Journey to Mars, will address the effects of the long mission on the astronaut and how the experience was critical to future human space exploration.

Video of Earth from ISS: Time-lapse video from Space Station shows Earth’s brilliant colors Video from the International Space Station displays the many colors of the Earth and its atmosphere.

Citizens for Space Exploration – a pro-space, taxpayer, grassroots advocacy group (http://www.bayareahouston.com/content/c_s_e/c_s_e) – has traveled to Washington, D.C. the past 24 years to meet face-to-face with Members/staff of Congress to discuss the value of America’s investment in space exploration. In order to sustain that dialogue on a regular basis, Citizens distributes “Space Exploration Update” to Congressional offices on a weekly basis. The intent is to provide an easy, quick way to stay abreast of key human space exploration program and policy developments.