A little while ago the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft blasted off on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in its CRS-4 (Cargo Resupply Service 4) mission, also referred to as SPX-4. This is the fourth of 12 missions that for the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station with a cargo and its return to Earth, again with a cargo.
Space Adventures, Ltd., a company specializing in space tourism, returned to the spotlight for its plan to offer a touristic circumlunar journey. It would allow two tourists to orbit around the Moon coming to less than 100 km from its surface. The trip could take place in 2017 or 2018 but obviously the ticket isn’t exactly cheap as it’s rumored to cost $150 million.
The Chinese tennis player Na Li (or Li Na if you prefer Chinese conventions for names) has announced her retirement from professional activity. Her knee problems have become too much and wouldn’t allow her to return to play at 100%. She had already undergone three surgeries on her right knee and missed this summer tournaments to undergo left knee surgery but she felt that her body was asking her to stop.
At the 27th congress of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) held in Beijing, China, in recent days, one of the topics was the space station that China wants to build in the coming years. The Chinese representatives have stated that their government is interested in cooperating with other nations in scientific research as well as hosting foreign astronauts in their space station.
NASA has announced the selection of Boeing and SpaceX projects for the new manned spacecraft development phase. About two years ago, the two companies were among those which received funding in the Commercial Crew Program (CCP), the NASA program that aims to help the development of commercial space transportation. Now the contract called Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) is designed to complete the spacecraft with the idea of getting to the transport of astronauts in 2017.
