ISS At Full Strength

With the docking of the latest Soyuz last week, the crew size of ISS increased from three to six. Six is planned to be the crew size for the duration of the station.

That is actually quite a number. Maintaining six humans beyond Earth for years has never been done before. With the retirement of the shuttle, that maintenance will be done by unmanned supply ships, Soyuz capsules for crew rotation, and, possibly, privately owned and operated craft. The American Orion would not be ready until 2015.

The rationale behind a six-persn crew is tied to realizing the potential of ISS. It was designed-- and sold to Congress-- as a world-class research lab in space. Scientific breakthroughs were supposed to justify the station's cost. That hasn't happened so far. Doubling the crew is supposed to increase the science coming from ISS. It will also give humanity experience in dealing with fairly large space crews, which will be a plus as we prepare to establish a permanent base on the Moon and move on to Mars.

Virgin Galactic Takes Another Step

Virgin Galactic has successfully test fired the rocket engine that will boost SpaceShipTwo to the edge of space. SpaceShipTwo is designed to carry eight people-- two pilots and six passengers-- on suborbital flights.

VG already has 300 people signed up to fly at $200,000 a ticket, and seems on its way to starting commercial operations in 2011. SpaceShipTwo is essentially complete, and WhiteKnightTwo, the aircraft that will carry SpaceShipTwo to altitude, is well into its test flights.

Planets Aplenty?

The latest exoplanet to be found orbits one of the smallest stars known. In fact, the star, which is 20 light years away, is just barely massive enough to sustain fusion in its core, thus allowing it to shine.

The fact that such small stars can have planets suggests to scientists that planetary systems may be quite common; they may even be a natural part of star formation.

Observing An Exoplanet

Scientists have been able to observe a planet orbiting a star 1,600 light years away in visible light. The planet is roughly the size of Jupiter, so it's a relatively large target, but seeing it directly is still quite an achievement.

Astronomers believe they have confirmed the planet is tidally locked on its parent star, which means the same hemisphere always faces the star, much as the Moon always keeps the same face towards Earth. They came to that conclusion by measuring the temperatures of the two hemispheres of the world. The hemisphere facing the star is a boiling 3,600 degrees F, while the hemisphere turned away from the star is frigidly cold. That dichotomy suggests there is no interaction between the two sides, and that the same side always faces the star.

Opportunity Rolling Along

While NASA's rover, Spirit, is stuck in soft soil on one side of Mars, its twin on the other side of the planet, Opportunity, has just passed the ten miles traversed mark.

For a rover that was designed to cover one kilometer in 90 days, covering ten miles in more than five years is an astonishing achievement. Let's be clear, however-- it is ten miles in over five years. A manned mission could cover that much ground in one day, and do better science along the way.

The debate over manned versus robotic space exploration misses the point. Wherever possible, as on the Moon and on Mars, both should be employed, using the strengths of each.

Atlantis Home

The weather in Florida was still unfriendly to a shuttle landing, so NASA finally brought shuttle Atlantis home to Edwards Air Force Base in California this morning, ending what seems to have been an extremely successful Hubble repair mission.

Ferrying Atlantis back to Florida atop a 747 will cost NASA an extra couple million dollars, but we are approaching the end to that possible expense. It will go away when the shuttle is retired. The planned follow-up to the shuttle, Orion, is a capsule and will be recovered at sea.

NASA Notes

Stormy weather over Florida has delayed the landing of space shuttle Atlantis for another day. NASA makes every effort to land shuttles in Florida to avoid the cost of shipping the orbiter cross country atop a 747, but tomorrow it will likely be either Florida or California.

In other NASA news, the Obama administration has confirmed it will nominate retired Marine major general and former astronaut Charles Bolden to be the next NASA administrator. Bolden is a veteran of four shuttle missions, two of which he commanded. He will also be the frst African-American to lead the space agency.