Russia's Soyuz spacecraft brings in three astronauts to ISS for a four-month mission

Russia's Soyuz spacecraft has ferried in three astronauts arrived at the International Space Station orbiting outpost for a four-month mission - they are a European, a Russian and an American astronaut. The three are Frenchman Thomas Pesquet, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and American astronaut Peggy Whitson.
They had been launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
This has been reported in deccanherald.com dated 20 November 2016.

Thomas Pesquet is a rookie astronaut and an amateur saxophone player. He is the first French national to be sent to the ISS by the European Space Agency since 2008.
Peggy Whitson (56) is an experienced veteran and biochemistry expert.She will break records with this space mission which will give her the title of the most days in space by a US astronaut. She is expected to surpass NASA astronaut Jeff Williams' 534 days on April 24.
In addition, she will become the first woman to command the space station twice. Dhe had previously commanded the International Space Station in 2007, when she became the first woman to hold this post.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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European space probe Schiaparelli to land on red planet Mars

Schiaparelli, a European space probe, is on its way to land on Mars using a heat-shield, parachute and rocket boosters to slow it from 13,000mph before finally belly-flopping onto the surface of the red planet. If Schiaparelli survives the six-minute descent, it will be the first time that a European spacecraft has successfully made it to the red planet.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 19 October 2016.

Schiaparelli has already traversed a distance of 500 million km (310 million miles) on its seven-month journey from Earth and the main objective of the ExoMars mission is to search for tell-tale signs of life on the remote planet. However, coming to terms with the notoriously tricky Martian atmosphere will be a problem. It is too thin to rely on a parachute alone and too thick to reliably use thrusters and dust storms and other environmental factors can change the characteristics of the atmosphere on a daily basis.
The European Space Agency is, of course, on a roll because it had brought to an end the hugely successful Rosetta mission last month by bringing the spacecraft to rest on the surface of the comet it had been shadowing. ExoMars is another big test for ESA. The British-built Beagle 2 had failed to call home in 2003 in spite of making it to the surface of the planet. Europe is hoping for better luck this time round.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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