Human spaceflight

The Apollo space missions have long captured the imaginations of anyone interested in mankind’s relationship with space. Started in 1961 by President Kennedy, with the stated goal of “landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth,” the program is a symbol of America’s Cold War interest in building up its space program.

76-year-old Bulgarian cosmonaut Georgi Ivanov was taken to hospital this morning, reported BNR.

The Military Medical Academy has announced that he has most probably suffered a brain stroke.

On 10 April, 1979 Ivanov took part in flight in space on board the Soyuz 33 spaceship together with Russian Cosmonaut Nikolai Rukavishnikov.

NASA has been streaming on a 24-hour basis from space since September 30, via its ISS HDEV cameras aboard the International Space Station. Watch the earth roll by courtesy of the ISS cameras (2016). The ISS passes into the dark side of the earth for roughly half of each of its 90 minute orbits.

Lab mice that spent just two weeks in orbit showed early signs of liver damage upon returning to Earth, raising concern about what long-duration spaceflight might do to humans, researchers said April 20.
 

U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko returned to Earth March 2 after spending almost a year in space in a ground-breaking experiment foreshadowing a potential manned mission to Mars.

NASA astronaut Terry Virts had a wonderful trip over the eastern Med.  Cairo, Beirut, Cyprus and Turkey were seen by the astronaut, who didn’t forget to tweet it.

The Japanese Space Agency “JAXA” announced the first steps in planning to visit Mars. Said plans include an unmanned mission to the Moon.

According to PhysOrg, these plans were announced during the Japanese cabinet meeting.

Two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut on Thursday returned to Earth aboard a Soyuz space capsule after spending six months at the International Space Station.
      
Yelena Serova -- the first female Russian cosmonaut to have spent time on the ISS -- landed along with Alexander Samokutyaev and Barry Wilmore in snowy Kazakhstan just after sunrise.
      

Two US astronauts on March 1 stepped out on the third spacewalk to prepare the International Space Station for the arrival of more commercial spacecraft in the coming years.
      
Barry Wilmore and Terry Virts began the spacewalk at 6:52 am (1152 GMT).
      

Two American astronauts on Feb. 25 stepped out on the second of three spacewalks to prepare the International Space Station for the arrival of commercial capsules ferrying astronauts in the coming years.