NASA Television will air the launch of the next two residents of the International Space Station, a spaceflight participant and the return of two members of the current station crew. Coverage begins with a broadcast of prelaunch activities Sept. 17 and continues through the landing on Oct. 11.

Soyuz Commander Max Suraev, NASA Flight Engineer Jeff Williams and spaceflight participant Guy Laliberte are scheduled to launch aboard the Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2:14 a.m. CDT on Wednesday, Sept. 30. Laliberte, a Canadian citizen and founder of Cirque du Soleil, will fly to the station under an agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

WASHINGTON -- NASA is inviting eligible educational institutions, museums and other organizations to begin registering to screen potential space shuttle artifacts.

The artifacts represent significant human spaceflight technologies, processes and accomplishments of the shuttle program. More information about the types of artifacts that may be available is included in a brochure, "Space Shuttle Program Artifacts," located at: http://www.nasa.gov/transition

To ensure broad access to potential shuttle artifacts, NASA partnered with the General Services Administration to provide a first of its kind, Web-based electronic artifacts prescreening capability. The Web-based artifacts prescreening module may be accessed at: http://gsaxcess.gov/NASAWel.htm

BEIJING, August 31 (RIA Novosti) - China will begin the construction of its own orbital space station in 2020, the Sina news service said on Monday, citing a top official with the country's manned spaceflight program.

Gu Yidong said that China would sent two or three space labs into orbit in 2010-2015, while the basic module of the space station is to be orbited by 2020.

The spacecrafts will "form the basic orbital complex of the Chinese space station" when docked together, he said.

According to earlier Chinese media reports, China plans to send a manned mission to the Moon by 2030 and subsequently build a lunar base to send missions to other planets in the Solar System, such as Mars. By 2050, China plans to develop and launch a research probe to space bodies outside the Solar System.

http://www.southgatearc.org/news/august2009/amsat_colloquium_videos.htm

The videos of the presentations at this year's successful AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium in Guildford are now available to watch on the British Amateur Television Club (BATC) website
Among the fascinating video presentations are:

FUNcube, the new AMSAT-UK linear transponder satellite project ByGraham Shirville G3VZV
AMSAT-NA Update By Drew Glasbrenner KO4MA
AMSAT-DL Update By Peter Guelzow DB2OS
Electronics and Teddy Bears: A Near-Space Adventure" By Ed Moore M0TEK and Fergus Noble M0NBL, Cambridge University Spaceflight

He may be a bit wobbly for a bit, but Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata is feeling fine after returning to Earth for the first time in more than four months to complete his country's first long-duration spaceflight.

"I feel great," Wakata told reporters after landing in Florida aboard NASA's space shuttle Endeavour. "When the hatch opened, I could smell the grass and the ground and I'm glad to be back home."

Wakata and six other astronauts landed at 10:48 a.m. EDT (1448 GMT) Friday when Endeavour touched down at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The shuttle astronauts wrapped up a long, 16-day mission to the International Space Station, but Wakata returned home after living in weightlessness for 138 days.

NASA astronaut Pam Melroy is leaving the agency to take a job in the private sector. Melroy, a retired Air Force colonel, is a veteran of three space shuttle flights and the second woman to command one.

"Pam has performed superbly as an astronaut," said Steve Lindsey, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "She has flown three highly successful space shuttle missions and contributed in several other technical areas during her 14 years of service with the Astronaut Office. Her leadership as the commander of the STS-120 space shuttle mission paved the way to six-person crew operations on the International Space Station."

The Apollo 11 astronauts returned from the moon 40 years ago today, but they left behind more than footprints. An experiment they placed on the moon's surface is still running to this day.
The Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment is the only moon investigation to continuously operate since the Apollo 11 mission. The experiment studies the Earth-Moon system and beams the data to labs around the world, including NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.
"Yes, we are still going," said James Williams, a JPL scientist involved with the experiment, in an e-mail interview.
Data from the ranging experiment has been used to learn â€" among other things â€" that the moon has a fluid core and is moving away from the Earth, and that Einstein's Theory of Relativity is accurate.

Veteran television news anchorman Walter Cronkite, who chronicled the rise of American spaceflight and NASA's historic Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, died on Friday at age 92, according to wire reports.

Cronkite, a former CBS anchor once named "the most trusted man in America," died at his home in New York while surrounded by family after a long illness, according to the Associated Press.

Cronkite was already a veteran journalist before anchoring the "CBS Evening News" from NASA's initial Mercury launches in the early 1960s through the space shuttle era.

"It is with great sadness that the NASA family learned of Walter Cronkite's passing," said newly confirmed NASA chief Charles Bolden, a former astronaut and shuttle commander, in a statement. "He led the transition from print and radio reporting to the juggernaut that became television journalism. His insight and integrity were unparalleled, and his compassion helped America make it through some of the most tragic and trying times of the 20th century."

The special call sign K5E will go active on AO-7 at 13:32 UTC on July 16, 2009, and will remain active on the FM and CW/SSB satellites (and the ISS in packet or voice, if either system is active) through 16:50 UTC on July 24, 2009.

Those dates and times coincide with the duration of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon, which began 40 years ago next Thursday (July 16). K5E seemed the perfect choice for a special event call sign to celebrate the 40th anniversary of "one small step for man … one giant leap for mankind."

K - the 11th letter of the alphabet.
5 - the call district of Houston, location of Apollo 11 Mission Control.

After reviewing more than 3,500 applications, NASA has selected nine people for the 2009 astronaut candidate class. They will begin training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston this August.

"This is a very talented and diverse group we've selected," said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "They will join our current astronauts and play very important roles for NASA in the future. In addition to flying in space, astronauts participate in every aspect of human spaceflight, sharing their expertise with engineers and managers across the country. We look forward to working with them as we transcend from the shuttle to our future exploration of space, and continue the important engineering and scientific discoveries aboard the International Space Station."