Date: 7/10/2014 15:05:12
From: dv
ID: 605671
Subject: space flight minimum

This year, there have been two manned space flights, and there will be no more. Both of these were by Russian Soyuz.

The last year in which there were fewer than three manned space flights was 1979.

The last year in which all the spaceflights were by one country was 1987, following the Challenger disaster.

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Date: 7/10/2014 17:48:37
From: Bubblecar
ID: 605769
Subject: re: space flight minimum

NASA’s latest manned spacecraft, Orion, is apparently making steady progress.

About Orion
NASA’s Orion spacecraft is built to take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before. Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities.

Orion’s first flight test, called Exploration Flight Test-1, will launch this year atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 37. This test will evaluate launch and high speed re-entry systems such as avionics, attitude control, parachutes and the heat shield.

In the future, Orion will launch on NASA’s new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System. More powerful than any rocket ever built, SLS will be capable of sending humans to deep space destinations such as an asteroid and eventually Mars. Exploration Mission-1, scheduled for 2017, will be the first mission to integrate Orion and the Space Launch System.

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/

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Date: 8/10/2014 09:53:26
From: mollwollfumble
ID: 606191
Subject: re: space flight minimum

The USA, Russia and the ESA are still participating in the International Space Station

“As of January 2014, the US-portion of the ISS was funded until 2024, and may operate until 2028.”

Next year there are scheduled to be Chinese manned space flights, according to Wiki.

“The Shenzhou 9 craft took off on 16 June 2012 with a crew of 3. It successfully docked with the Tiangong-1 laboratory on 18 June 2012, at 06:07 UTC, marking China’s first manned spacecraft docking. Another manned mission, Shenzhou 10, launched on 11 June 2013 . The Tiangong 1 target module is then expected to be deorbited. A second space lab, Tiangong 2, is scheduled for launch in 2015. This will be larger than Tiangong 1 at some 20 tons and 14.4 metres length and will be visited by future Shenzhou missions, though exact details are not yet available.”

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