SpaceX’s historic space station mission delayed again:

The private spaceflight company SpaceX was targeting the launch for Monday, May 7, but now will likely shift to a later date, possibly May 10. The unmanned Dragon spacecraft is due to lift off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/05/03/spacex-says-delay-likely-for-1st-private-launch-to-space-station/

NASA has released more videos of the mesmerising northern lights, captured from the International Space Station. Some of the videos show bright city lights of the northern United States and Canada.

Astronauts’ eyeballs deformed by long missions in space, study finds:

They were alerted to the issue when astronauts who had flown on the space shuttle and International Space Station reported changes to their eyesight, with some seeing worse and others better than they had before.

Brain scans revealed that seven of the 27 astronauts had a flattening of the back of one or both eyes. By making the eyeball shorter, this made the astronauts more long-sighted, which in some cases had the effect of reducing or correcting their short-sightedness.

This could impact the nascent space tourism industry.

A spectacular video of the space station flying above the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis).

Auroras are caused when charged particles ejected from the sun slam into Earth’s atmosphere. These particles are usually guided along Earth’s magnetic field lines to the polar regions, which is why skywatchers in higher latitudes see them much more often than folks in more temperate climes do.

Virgin readies space ship test flight:

Virgin Galactic, an offshoot of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, expects to test-fly its first spaceship beyond the Earth’s atmosphere this year, with commercial suborbital passenger service to follow in 2013 or 2014, company officials said.

Nearly 500 customers have signed up for rides on SpaceShipTwo, a six-passenger, two-pilot spaceship being built and tested by Scaled Composites, an aerospace company founded by aircraft designer Burt Rutan and now owned by Northrop Grumman.

http://www.news24.com/SciTech/News/Virgin-readies-space-ship-test-flight-20120228

China’s next space mission to be manned, will attempt to dock with space station module:

The Shenzhou 9 spacecraft will be launched aboard its Long March 2F rocket sometime between June and August. The astronauts will manually dock with the Tiangong 1 module that was launched last year and conduct scientific experiments while aboard, Xinhua said. It didn’t say how long the mission was supposed to last.

China completed its first such space rendezvous last year when the unmanned Shenzhou 8 docked with the Tiangong 1 by remote control. That was considered something of a breakthrough since early U.S. astronauts did so manually.

Swiss aim to launch first space cleaner:

Swiss scientists announced Wednesday plans to develop a machine that acts almost like a vacuum cleaner to scoop up thousands of abandoned satellite and rocket parts, cleaning up outer space. Thank you Switzerland!

http://www.hindustantimes.com/technology/IndustryTrends/Swiss-aim-to-launch-first-space-cleaner/SP-Article1-812798.aspx

International Space Station experiment explores fire in micro-gravity:

http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-pick/international-space-station-experiment-explores-fire-in-micro-gravity-2012025/

Say what you will about the International Space Station (ISS), but it seems like it’s being put to good use. One of the currently running experiments is taking a look at how fire burns in micro-gravity, and how to create extinguishing substances to create a safer environment for future space voyages.

Stephen Colbert Makes a PSA for NASA reminding us that space research provides extensive benefits to our daily lives!

Indian teacher chosen for US space program

A teacher from India, Vandana Suryawanshi of Vidya Valley School in Maharashtra state, has become the first foreigner to be chosen for the US Space Foundation’s elite 2012 Flight of Teacher Liaisons programme in its 10-year history.