The ‘human problem’ with traveling to another star 

The largest obstacle in manned interstellar travel may not actually technological, but human.

Fifty years after the first man in space, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, and the first orbital spaceflight, US astronaut John Glenn, many are asking: “What’s next for mankind in space?” In five decades of incredible discovery, we’ve sent man to the Moon and now have a handful of spacemen living on the International Space Station, orbiting 200 miles over our heads. Our technological prowess seems to know no bounds and we have the ability to mount a deep-space manned mission right now.

But for many, the advances aren’t happening fast enough - shouldn’t we have a base on the moon by now? That was, after all, the logical step after the Kennedy administration set the task to race the Soviets to the lunar surface in the 1960’s. Why haven’t we sent a man to Mars yet? It seems puzzling that the majority of robotic missions we send to the Red Planet have a component intended to reconnoiter for a “future” manned mission that never seems to come.

It may seem a shame, then, that we know we can live in space, we know that we send robotic probes to any corner of our Solar System, and yet since the trailblazing Apollo Era of the late 60s and early 70s, no human has ventured beyond low-Earth orbit. Perhaps our evolution into a true space faring species will take longer than a few decades; or even centuries? Let’s just hope we don’t destroy ourselves through war or ecological decimation before our stellar dreams become a reality.

(via Aljazeera)

Astronomical delights

Machine translated: “English photographer Vincent Fournier ( Vincent Fournier ) during the last 5 years, removes [let’s say ‘uncovers’ here, okay translation-bot?] everything connected with space exploration.”

This is a beautiful and inspiring set of images dealing with the Russian Space Programme.

(via Esquire Magazine)

(Source: operationkino, via monstermadeofeyes)

The love I have for this show and this piece of music is indescribable. 

cowboy-bebop:

Song: Tank!

Album: Cowboy Bebop OST

(via koolikeplastiic)

Fledgling space firm will use old Soviet gear

It is a second chance for two relics of the cold war. Shipped from Russia, a pair of Soviet space station modules arrived in the Isle of Man last week, home to the fledgling private space firm Excalibur Almaz. The firm eventually plans to use the modules to provide extra room and supplies for the tourists and researchers it hopes to ferry into space. Using decades-old equipment may seem like an odd move for a brand new space company but former astronaut Leroy Chiao, who oversees technical operations for the firm, says the spacecraft are more valuable than new vehicles because they have been extensively tested. “It’s not the nice shiny stuff, but as much as possible we want to use things that have been tested and proven,” he says. 

SpaceX Dragon reaches orbit atop a Falcon with a fiery tail

Until recently, there have been two classes of people playing with rockets: those of us who enjoy playing with small (and not so small) toy models in our backyards and open fields, and the governments, who get the big boy toys to do some serious rocketry. Recently, private companies have been getting into the act and showing what can be done.

A few years ago, Scaled Composites’ SpaceShipOne completed the unprecedented act of putting a human into space (the edge of space, mind you) and returning him safely to Earth. Yesterday, the Space Exploration Technologies corporation one-upped them by becoming the first nongovernmental entity to put a vehicle into low Earth orbit.

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Secret Space Plane Finally Lands; Twin Preps for Launch

After 225 days in orbit the Air Force’s mysterious X-37B space plane touched down today at 1:16 am local time at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. It was only the second fully-automated re-entry and runway landing in the history of space flight. The Soviets achieved the first in 1988 with the robotic prototype of their Buran Space Shuttle clone.