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A NASA astronaut who just returned from the International Space Station says his Russian counterparts who boarded the ISS wearing yellow and blue spacesuits were not doing so to support Ukraine. Mark Vande Hei, who returned to Earth on March 30 after nearly a year in space, said the yellow and blue colors represent the university the Russian cosmonauts attended. "I think the folks that wore them had no idea that people would perceive that as anything to do with Ukraine," Vande Hei said in a press conference Tuesday. "All three of them happen to be associated with the same...

There have been a lot of people protesting the war in Russia, and in a time where such protest can get you locked up–facing a lot of punishment–that’s a brave thing to do. They’ve been protesting since the first day of the invasion. But perhaps it’s even more dangerous an effort to protest when you have a very high-profile position. It’s hard to think of people with a “higher” position than cosmonauts being sent into space, to the International Space Station.Three Russian cosmonauts arrived at the Station on Saturday, as the first Russian group sent into space since the Russian...

The influence of the Russian Orthodox Church in the country's political and social life has grown markedly in the 15 years since President Vladimir Putin came to power. But the church's intrusion into the realm of space exploration has particularly raised eyebrows.After spending nearly nine decades forgotten in a Moscow storeroom during the Soviet era, some relics of Russian Orthodox St. Serafim of Sarov should soon be circling the globe aboard the International Space Station (ISS). When the next mission to the ISS blasts off, a box containing a tiny relic of Serafim's body will be strapped to the chest...

In fact, Moscow’s latest diplomatic offensive to get a treaty banning weapons in space may be shot down by one of the proposed pact's little-noticed provisions: Nobody else should get to put weapons in space, but Russia gets to keep the ones it already has. Cosmonauts regularly carry handguns on their Soyuz spacecraft — and actually, that's not unreasonable. There are practical and historical justifications.

With Obama sparring with Vladimir Putin over the recent annexation of Crimea, his administration is playing big footsie with Russia now that NASA is paying a whopping $424 million to get Obama-grounded astronauts back into space.

Our country and the world marked a great moment: 50 years since the flight of the first woman in space: June 16th, 1963, by Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova. At the time of her space flight she was only 26. The first woman cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union Tereshkova graduated from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy with honors, and received a PhD in technical sciences. She was a professor and the author of over 50 scientific papers. She holds the rank of air force major general and was a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Valentina Tereshkova has...

NASA is blaming Congress for the need to pay $424 million more to Russia to get U.S. astronauts into space. NASA announced its latest contract with the Russian Space Agency on Tuesday. The $424 million represents flights to and from the International Space Station aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft, as well as training, for six astronauts in 2016 and 2017. That’s $70.6 million per seat—well above the previous price tag of about $63 million. …

As 40 years have passed since Gagarin’s flight, new sensational details of this event were disclosed: Gagarin was not the first man to fly to space. Three Soviet pilots died in attempts to conquer space before Gagarin's famous space flight, Mikhail Rudenko, senior engineer-experimenter with Experimental Design Office 456 (located in Khimki, in the Moscow region) said on Thursday. According to Rudenko, spacecraft with pilots Ledovskikh, Shaborin and Mitkov at the controls were launched from the Kapustin Yar cosmodrome (in the Astrakhan region) in 1957, 1958 and 1959. "All three pilots died during the flights, and their names were never...

Xinhua - SHENZHOU-6 RE-ENTRY MODULE TOUCHES DOWN AT 4:32 MONDAY MORNING 17/10 - TAIKONAUTS REPORT FEELING GOOD, MAIN PARACHUTE WORKING WELL 17/10 - PRIMARY LANDING SITE REPORTS NORMAL RETRIEVAL OPERATIONS 17/10 - GROUND STATION RECEIVES SIGNAL FROM SHENZHOU-6 17/10 - HELICOPTER POLITS REPORT RE-ENTRY MODULE IN SIGHT 17/10 - TAIKONAUTS UNFURL MAIN PARACHUTE 17/10 - SHENZHOU-6 10 KM ABOVE GROUND, MAIN PARACHUTE TO BE UNFURLED 17/10 - RETURNING SHENZHOU-6 BREAKS THROUGH BLACKOUT AREA 17/10 - SHENZHOU-6 RE-ENTRY CAPSULE CAUGHT BY RADAR 17/10 - SHENZHOU-6 RE-ENTRY CAPSULE ENTERS BLACKOUT AREA 17/10

She Wants To Be A Pioneer In Space. That is Maryam from Kuwait and the Excellent So I Want To Be An Astronaut Blog which details her Hopes, Dreams, Studies, and Desires of becoming the First Arab Female Astronaut or Cosmonaut, as well as her Admiration for another Space Pioneer, Famed Russian Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalov. Excerpts: MG: When did your dreams start of becoming an Astronaut? Maryam: I always have such passion for space since I was little kid but I don't remember that I ever wished to be an astronaut. However, I remember the exact moment when it pops...