Three new crew members from US, Russia and Japan on their way to the International Space Station

Three new crew members from US, Russia and Japan were on their way to the International Space Station (ISS). One of them is a NASA biologist. They were successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The three are Kate Rubins of NASA, Soyuz Commander Anatoly Ivanishin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. They are traveling in an upgraded Soyuz spacecraft.
This has been reported in thestatesman.com dated 7 July 2016.

The three of them will spend two days along with 34 Earth orbits in the course of testing modified systems before docking to the space station's Rassvet module on Saturday. With their arrival, the station's crew complement will come back to six.
Kate Rubins, Anatoly Ivanishin and Takuya Onishi will join Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams of NASA and Flight Engineers Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos. The plan for the Expedition 48 crew members is to spend four months conducting more than 250 science investigations in fields ranging from biology, Earth science, human research, physical sciences and technology development. Rubins holds a bachelor's degree in molecular biology and is also a doctorate in cancer biology.
Ivanishin and Onishi would remain aboard ISS till late October while Williams, Skripochka and Ovchinin will return to Earth in September.
One of the assignments for Expedition 48 crew members is to receive and install the station's first international docking adapter which will accommodate future arrivals of US commercial crew spacecraft. Among the various experiments are capabilities for sequencing DNA in space, regulating temperatures aboard spacecraft, understanding bone loss and tracking ships around the world and studying how to protect computers from radiation in space and also test out an efficient, three-dimensional solar cell.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Japan to continue to be a member of the International Space Station

Japan to strengthen its association with the United States by continuing to be a part of the International Space Station ISS - Japan is the only Asian country in ISS at present. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made the announcement that Japan will remain part of the International Space Station project when it is extended until 2024.
The four-year extension had been was proposed by the US in January 2014 to extend the ISS project beyond 2020 in the hope of using the facility as a foothold for an eventual manned mission to Mars.
Out of the 15 countries involved in the ISS, Russia and Canada have already expressed their intent to remain in the project, while European members are yet to decide. This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 8 December 2015.

Prime Minister Abe has said that his country would implement the schedule for the basic space program and work on an aggressive space strategy.
Being the only Asian member of the ISS project, Japan plans to stick with the extended project. It has outlined a condition that other Asian countries should get a chance to use the Japanese laboratory unit Kibo, which is currently shared with the US.
Moreover, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is also considering providing a next-generation life-support system to the ISS. So far, Japan has invested $7.3 billion toward the ISS project which had been constructed between 1998 and 2011 in an orbit some 400 km above Earth. It is a massive facility that consists of laboratories, living quarters, solar panels and other sections.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Japan’s unmanned cargo vessel HTV-5 on its way to ISS with supplies and 12 mice

It is now the turn of Japan to transport cargo meant for the International Space Station ISS and its robotic cargo vessel is on its way to ISS – it would be a five-day journey to the orbiting lab and its mission is to deliver tons of supplies and experiment gear, including a rodent crew of 12 mice.
This has been reported in foxnews.com dated 19 August 2015.

It was Japan's fifth H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-5) and it blasted off atop an HII-B rocket from Tanegashima Space Center. The vehicle was built and launched by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Once it arrives at ISS, the astronauts aboard the orbiting lab would begin to offload HTV-5's 6 tons of food, water, scientific gear and other supplies. The mice are a part of experiments that would help researchers understand the effects of microgravity on the bodies of mammals.
HTV-5 was originally supposed to launch on Aug. 16, but had to be postponed due to weather problems. This is not the first delivery mission for HTV spacecraft – they have earlier supplied the space station in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013.
(Image courtesy wikimediaommons.org)

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Japan launches its Hayabusa 2 on its asteroid capture mission

Japan has launched its Hayabusa 2 space module successfully - it blasted off on an H-IIA rocket from the Tanegashima Space Centre in southern Japan after being delayed by bad weather. This space module is on a six-year return trip which has a specific mission of blowing a hole in a remote asteroid. The broad objective is to find clues to how our planet the Earth evolved.
The space explorer separated once the rocket had climbed out of the Earth's gravitational pull and would make use of the Earth's gravity as a slingshot to propel it towards its target.
The target is an asteroid identified as 1999JU3 – this is in deep space and this carbonaceous asteroid is believed to contain organic matter and water, the basic ingredients of life.
It is expected that Hayabusa 2 would reach the destination in mid-2018 and spend around 18 months in the area to be able to collect materials that have remained unexposed to millions of years of wind and radiation and bring them back to Earth by 2020. Hopefully, the answers could provide valuable clues about life and the universe.
Incidentally, this Japanese mission has come after the European Space Agency had succeeded in making the first-ever landing on a comet and images sent back from robot lab Philae, after its release from its mothership Rosetta, has revealed traces of organic molecules and a surface much harder than imagined.