The crew of the International Space Station Saturday launched a discarded spacesuit, which would function as a student satellite broadcasting messages in six languages.
After a 13-day long successful mission that enabled it to deliver the final US components of the International Space Station, the space shuttle Discovery was due to touch down at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida for the final time on Wednesday.
"I am so excited. I can't really wait to go," Indian American astronaut Sunita Williams told Suman Guha Mozumder in a brief telephone interview from Star City last week before being quarantined for the flight preparation
Bob Curbeam and Christer Fuglesang began their spacewalk, the second of their 12-day space shuttle mission, at 1.41 pm CST, and finished a full hour earlier than scheduled.
Record-setting Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams has completed 100 days in space and is not missing gravity as she loves floating around, an experience she calls "priceless".
As the space shuttle Endeavour raced toward the International Space Station on Sunday, nothing did more for crew bonding than a water-recycling device that will process the astronaut's urine for communal consumption.Delivery of the $ 250 million wastewater recycling gear is among the primary goals of National Aeronautics and Space Administration's 124th shuttle mission that thundered off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida today with a 32,000-pound payload.
The shuttle is expected to undock from the International Space Station sometime Tuesday and land at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Thursday.
The ISS is expecting heavy traffic, something similar to rush hour.\n\n
About 800 people already have paid or put down deposits for rides on SpaceShipTwo, a six-passenger, two-pilot suborbital spaceship owned by Virgin Galactic.
A National Aeronautics and Space Administration astronaut has taken an incredible selfie from space with Earth in the background while performing repairs on the International Space Station on Christmas Eve.
Sunita replaced German astronaut Thomas Reiter on the ISS, who will return to earth after a five-month sojourn in space.
ISRO hopes to put a crew on the moon, but it has to learn how to keep people alive and healthy in space first.
Williams, 41, is also set to break astronaut Shannon Lucid's record for the longest stay in space ever by a woman -- 188 days and 4 hours -- on June 16, three days before Atlantis brings her back to Earth.
"The first lesson from the Indian ASAT is just the simple question of why did they do that. And the answer should be, I think to all the committee looking at it, is that they did that because they are concerned about threats to their nation from space," US Strategic Command Commander General John E Hyten told members of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.
As the shuttle, scheduled to dock at 3:38 pm (0108 IST on Monday), closes in on the ISS, the stage is set for changes at the station and for its crew members.
India has sought the help of Russia to join the orbital International Space Station project in the face of "objection by some other project partners," a top Russian space agency official has said.
Based in the Cochin Special Economic Zone, Nikasu has managed to become the largest supplier of spring rolls and samosas to the US where it retails under the popular Laxmi brand (belonging to distributor House of Spices). In the UK, its products are sold as 'Taj' by Solanki Foods and are available at the supermarket chain Tesco. Another young but doughty exporter, Aakriti Foods, that makes Indian curries is also keen to launch its brand Mom's Pride in India.
"It is beautiful to see the countryside. There are so many colours. I think I have mentioned that before how colourful it is being in India. From the space, it is the same," she said.
Discovery carries enough supplies to stay in orbit till Saturday, but NASA flight rules call for reserving that day in case of an unanticipated orbiter systems glitch or malfunction.
'The touchstone is reciprocity which will be applied to friends and foes alike.' 'It will be a bitter pill to swallow.'
The International Space Station orbits the earth 16 times in a day.
Despite doubts about the take-off due to poor weather forecast and a two-hour delay before tanking operations, Discovery and its crew of seven lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Houston at 7:17 am IST.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron have called for enhancing trade and investment ties between their countries and committed to further deepening their engagement in the Indo-Pacific. They discussed a full spectrum of bilateral relations, including key global and regional issues, and stressed the urgent need for reform in the United Nations Security Council. The leaders also underscored their commitment to ensuring the global AI sector can drive positive social, economic, and environmental outcomes.
Williams, who had carried a packet of samosas with her when she shot into space on December 11, 2006, said she would like to have more of the spicy snacks.
Williams has been kept up to date on the developments since the February 26 hail storm and is taking the uncertainty over her return to Earth in stride.
Samosas from back home are remembered with longing.
Trained to remain aboard the space station until July, Williams will also join space station commander Mike Lopez-Alegria for three spacewalks early in 2007.
Only seven other US women and a single Russian woman have participated in the 281 spacewalks taken since 1965.
Atlantis astronauts are gearing up to check the tail section of their spacecraft for a minor tear in the heat shield while they prepare for a spacewalk that was postponed by 24 hours because of a German crew member's illness.
'A wrinkle in the dress,' is what the Himalayas looked like for Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams as she looked down on Earth during her six-month-long stay in the International Space Station.
Christina Rindiki's all-women team on the India-Myanmar border in Champhai, Mizoram, delivers 300 plus Amazon packets daily. The women handle all aspects of the operation and made around 450 deliveries per day this month alone. This is their story.
Why has the shift from ICE to electric slowed down despite initial enthusiasm?
Total spacewalking time for Sunday's walk was 7 hours, 11 minutes. And, now they are all set to enjoy the spectacular Super Bowl football game between the Chicago Bears and the Indianapolis Colts.
The first of a record four spacewalks planned during the next month is scheduled to begin 0900 hours CST (2030 hours IST) on Wednesday.
Russian cosmonaut Yury Malenchenko, orbiting the Earth, will marry his earthbound American sweetheart on Sunday.
Williams said her long stay in space would definitely help her face the rigours of the long journey to Mars.
The day she returns is being christened Sunita Williams Day at NASA.
Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams, who plans to run the 26.2 mile Boston Marathon on board the International Space Station on April 16, finds it a challenging exercise.
