Capt. James T. Kirk, prematurely aged in "The Deadly Years." He was eventually cured; today's astronauts aren't quite as lucky.

The zero-gravity guide to aging well
The Globe and Mail

Fit and robust people blast into space and return six months later a much frailer version of their Earth-bound selves. They are prone to dizziness. Their muscles are thinner and weaker. Their bone density has decreased by up to 12 per cent – around eight times faster than it would on Earth.

Scientists say it’s like aging at warp speed.

(more…)

NASA ready for Japan’s HTV via Flight Readiness Review
NASASpaceFlight.com

After a wait of nearly a decade, the International Space Station is just a matter of weeks away from welcoming another new visitor, in the form of the Japanese HTV (H-II Transfer Vehicle). NASA recently held a Flight Readiness Review (FRR) for their role in aiding the cargo vehicle’s debut stay at the orbital outpost, revealing many fascinating details about the mission.

(more…)

S. Korea reschedules first rocket launch for Aug. 25
Yonhap News

South Korea has rescheduled its first space rocket launch from its own territory for Aug. 25 after a technical glitch halted the countdown minutes before blastoff, the government said Friday.

(more…)

ISRO-NASA in joint experiment with lunar probes news
Domain-b.com

A few minutes before midnight, India’s lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 would have crossed another milestone conducting an extremely complicated joint experiment with NASA’s recently launched Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The experiment is intended to look at the possibility of water ice existing at the bottom of a massive crater on the moon’s surface.

(more…)

An editorial writer says that the deal with Russia to build the KSLV-1 (Naro-1) rocket is a bad deal that leaves South Korea dependent upon Russian technology.

I found this on YouTube from the old SCTV comedy show. One of the funniest NASA parodies outside of The Simpson’s “Deep Space Homer” episode.

JAA Looking Toward Space
Financial News and Daily Record

By the end of the year, the Aviation Authority expects to get word from the Federal Aviation Administration that it’s time to look beyond the boundaries of gravity. The FAA is currently in the final stages of reviewing the JAA’s application for Cecil Field to become a Certified Space Port.

“We are not there, but we are close,” said Michael Stewart, director of external affairs for JAA.

(more…)

NASA PRESS RELEASE

NASA Television has been honored with a Primetime Emmy Award by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The 2009 Philo T. Farnsworth Award recognizes the agency for engineering excellence and commemorates the 40th anniversary of the technological innovations that made possible the first live TV broadcast from the moon by the Apollo 11 crew on July 20, 1969.

(more…)

Students perform an experiment in microgravity aboard the Airbus A300 Zero-G plane.

Matthew Isakowitz of the Commercial Space Federation has posted this report about the Suborbital Applications Research Group’s first session:

This week, the Suborbital Applications Researchers Group (SARG), an advisory committee of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, met at the Boulder, Colorado campus of the Southwest Research Institute to discuss the research and education potential of the new generation of commercial suborbital vehicles. The multi-disciplinary committee discussed a variety of possible missions, ranging from fluid-mechanics experiments and atmospheric sampling to life sciences research and low-cost student-built payloads.

After the meeting, SARG member Dr. Daniel Durda, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, said, “Hearing my colleagues from other research disciplines describe the new investigations they’re excitedly looking forward to, it’s clear that this next generation of suborbital vehicles has the potential to fundamentally transform the way we think about doing space science.”

(more…)

AFP reports on the terms of a deal on Mars exploration signed this week by Roskosmos and ESA: Under the deal, the ESA will use Russia’s Proton rocket as part of its Exomars project to send a robotic rover to the Mars surface and buy Russian parts for the rover’s power supply system. The deal will also see Russia’s Phobos-Grunt project — to send a probe to Mars’ Phobos moon […]

Artists conception of SpaceX

NASA Opportunities Abound for Commercial Space Efforts
Space.com

Despite bleak budget forecasts and the uncertainty surrounding NASA’s human exploration program, opportunities for commercial space firms are better than they have been in decades, according to government and industry officials.

(more…)

SPACE FOUNDATION PRESS RELEASE

A new aerospace-themed middle school created through a partnership between the Space Foundation and Colorado Springs (Colo.) School District 11 (D-11) opened Aug. 18 with more than 500 students, 42 teachers, and onsite support from the Space Foundation.

The Jack Swigert Aerospace Academy is named in honor of Colorado native and astronaut John L. “Jack” Swigert, who served on NASA’s Apollo 7 and Apollo 13 missions. Swigert died of bone cancer in 1982 shortly after being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

(more…)