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<ul><li>The US aerospace and defence major <keyword id="141076" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Northrop-Grumman">Northrop Grumman</keyword> has named its newest spaceship the <keyword id="9909530" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="s-s-kalpana-chawla">S.S. Kalpana Chawla</keyword> after the first woman of Indian-origin to travel through space. </li><li>The S.S. <keyword id="363662" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kalpana-Chawla">Kalpana Chawla</keyword> will tentatively launch on September 29 and carry 3,629 kilos of cargo to the <keyword id="6382020" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="international-space-station">International Space Station</keyword> (ISS).</li><li>According to Northrop Grumman, it is the company’s tradition to name its Cygnus spacecrafts after individuals who have made notable contributions to human spaceflight. </li></ul>The US-based aerospace and defence company, Northrop Grumman, is naming its next spaceship after the first woman of Indian-origin to travel through space — Kalpana Chawla.<br /><br />  <div type="image" title="columbia-crew-browse_edited" msid="78018635" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The Space Shuttle Columbia crew from left to right: David M. Brown, Rick D. Husband, Laurel B. Clark, Kalpana Chawla, Michael P. Anderson, William C. McCool, Ilan Ramon&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />The S.S. Kalpana Chawla will be the company’s next Cygnus spacecraft to make its way to the International Space Station (ISS). “It is the company’s tradition to name each Cygnus after an individual who has played a pivotal role in human spaceflight,” Northrop Grumman said in a statement. <br /><br />The spacecraft is tentatively scheduled to launch from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Wallop Flight Facility in Virginia on September 29. The S.S. Kalpana Chawla will deliver 3,629 kilos of cargo to the ISS that will be loaded onto the spacecraft 24 hours before liftoff.<br /><br /><div type="image" title="kalpana1_edited" msid="78018755" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Astronaut Kalpana Chawla, STS-107 mission specialist, prepares to simulate a parachute drop into water during an emergency bailout training session in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) near the Johnson Space Center (JSC)&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />The spacecraft is not the first time that Chawla has been honoured for her contribution to space. In 2003, shortly after Chawla’s death, India’s Prime Minister at the time — Atal Bihari Vajpayee — renamed the MetSat-1 to Kalpana-1 in her honour. <br /><br />NASA has also named a supercomputer after Chawla. It was the world’s first single-system image (SSI) Linus supercomputer. In 2004, it was integrated, as the first node, into the 20-node Columbia supercomputer. <br /><br /><div type="image" title="Columbiahills_edited" msid="78018945" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;NASA&amp;#39;s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit spots Columbia Hills&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />On the Red Planet, a chain of seven peaks dubbed the Columbia Hills are each named after the astronauts that perished in the Columbia disaster — one of which is Chawla’s namesake. <br /><br /><strong>Who was Kalpana Chawla?<br /></strong>Kalpana Chawla was born and brought up in Karnal. She moved to the US after getting her bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from India’s Punjab Engineering College in 1982.<br /><br />Two years down the line, she received her master’s degree in aerospace engineering and continued to pursue her doctorate.<br /><br />Chawla embarked on her career with NASA at the Ames Research Centre in California in 1988, but left for a brief period, before returning as an astronaut candidate in 1994.<br /><br />  <div type="image" title="kalpana3_edited" msid="78018690" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;STS-87 Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla sits in her launch and entry suit in the Operations and Checkout Building before she and the five other crew members of STS-87 depart for Launch Pad 39B. This was Chawla&amp;#39;s first mission for NASA.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />Her first space flight was the STS-87 on Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 as a mission specialist and primary robotic arm operator. She returned to space again in 2003 aboard the Columbia for a 16-day research flight during which the crew of the STS-107 performed nearly 80 experiments studying Earth and space science.<br /><br /><div type="image" title="kalpana4_edited" msid="78018725" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;STS-107 Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla scans paperwork for equipment at SPACEHAB at Cape Canaveral in Florida during crew training&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />However, during her second stint through space, Chawla and her six crew members on the STS-107 perished on 1 February 2003 as the spacecraft was reentering the Earth’s atmosphere. <br /><br /><strong>Why did Kalpana Chawla’s spacecraft crash?<br /></strong>During the launch of the STS-107, a piece of the foam insulation from the space shuttle’s external tank broke off and hit the left wing on the orbiter. <br /><br /><div type="image" title="STS107_edited" msid="78018844" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Space Shuttle Columbia takes off on mission STS 107 on 16 January 2003 with Kalpana Chawla and six other crew members on board&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />When the spacecraft re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, the damage allowed hot atmospheric gases to get inside and destroy the internal wing structure. This left the spacecraft unstable, and as it came down towards Earth — it broke apart. <br /><br />After the disaster, space shuttle flight operations were suspended for more than two years. <br /><br /><div type="image" title="debirs_edited" msid="78018888" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Columbia main engine powerhead recovered from Fort Polk in Louisiana&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/musks-spacex-completes-first-polar-orbit-in-off-shore-landing-by-falcon-9-booster/articleshow/77845337.cms">Elon Musk owned SpaceX completes its first polar orbit mission as Falcon 9’s booster nails off-shore landing</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/isro-chandrayaan-1-and-nasa-spot-rust-on-moon-earth-atmosphere-could-be-the-reason-why/articleshow/77926459.cms">ISRO's Chandrayaan 1 spots rusting on the Moon — NASA scientists believe Earth's atmosphere could be the reason why</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/nasa-congratulates-indian-scientists-for-discovering-one-of-the-farthest-galaxies-in-the-universe/articleshow/77883347.cms">NASA congratulates Indian scientists for discovering one of the farthest galaxies in the universe</a></strong>

Northrop Grumman names its next space ship after Kalpana Chawla — the first woman of Indian-origin to go to space

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-fires-russias-space-chief-dmitry-rogozin-who-trolled-elon-musk-2022-7">Russia's top space official</a> said <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-pull-iss-2024-build-own-space-station-roscosmos-putin-2022-7">Roscosmos is pulling out of the International Space Station</a> after 2024.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-spacex-contract-roman-space-telescope-falcon-rocket-2022-7">NASA</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-fly-russian-cosmonauts-iss-nasa-deal-roscosmos-space-agency-2022-7">Roscosmos</a> plan to split after the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/8-unforgettable-moments-on-the-international-space-station-2022-7">ISS</a>, but it's unclear when and how the partnership will end.</li></ul><p>Russia is talking about <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-pull-iss-2024-build-own-space-station-roscosmos-putin-2022-7">abandoning NASA</a> on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/international-space-station-swerved-to-avoid-collision-with-russian-debris-2022-6">International Space Station</a>. Though the news shocked many and inspired a flurry of headlines, the threat is neither new nor particularly threatening.</p><p>NASA and Russia's agreement on the ISS is up for renewal in 2024. NASA has already committed to maintaining the station through 2030, but Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, has been dubious about the partnership for years. On Tuesday, the agency's leader made an official-sounding declaration on the matter to President Vladimir Putin.</p><p>"Of course, we will fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision about withdrawing from the station after 2024 has been made," Yuri Borisov, the new director general of Roscosmos, told Putin in a meeting, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/26/science/russia-space-station.html">The New York Times</a>.</p><p>"I think that by this time we will begin to form the Russian orbital station," he added. "Good," Putin said.</p><div type="image" title="vladimir puting and yuri borisov wearing suits sit at table in office room with wood panels" height="1666" width="2222" msid="93236003" hostid="261"></div><p>While space enthusiasts wrung their hands, the exchange didn't shock space-policy wonks. Borisov's predecessor, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-fires-russias-space-chief-dmitry-rogozin-who-trolled-elon-musk-2022-7">Dmitry Rogozin</a>, who <a href="http://en.kremlin.ru/acts/news/68946">Putin fired</a> earlier this month, repeatedly made similar threats.</p><p>"This has been seen as coming for the past two or three years," John Logsdon, the founder of George Washington University's Space Policy Institute, told Insider, adding, "It's nothing new."</p><p>NASA officials told reporters that Russia had not notified them of any new decisions.</p><p>"We've seen this story many times before. Color me skeptical of any immediate changes," Casey Dreier, senior space-policy advisor at The Planetary Society, <a href="https://twitter.com/CaseyDreier/status/1551963172558385152">said</a> on Twitter on Tuesday. </p><div type="image" title="International Space Station astronauts" height="1402" width="1869" msid="93236006" hostid="261"></div><p>On Wednesday, Kathy Leuders, NASA's head of human spaceflight, told <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/russia-nasa-sticking-with-space-station-until-least-2028-2022-07-27/">Reuters</a> she'd received word from Russian officials that they intended to keep collaborating on the ISS until completing their own space station. In a Friday <a href="https://www.roscosmos.ru/38035/">statement</a>, translated by Google, Borisov predicted an "avalanche" of technical failures on the Russian segment of the ISS after 2024. At that point, it would be more economical to invest in a new Russian space station, he added.</p><p>"Whether it will be in the middle of 2024 or in 2025 — it all depends," Borisov said.</p><p>When Russia does leave the ISS, it won't necessarily be a disaster for NASA. The agency has been preparing to operate the station without Russia for nearly a decade, as relations between the two space powers frayed.</p><p>"The Russian announcement is not a surprise, and reiterating their current commitment through 2024 is helpful for planning," Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute, said in a written statement shared with Insider. "What comes after 2024 is still very unknown, however, and the real question is when do in-depth technical discussions begin for *how* the transition will be managed (rather then whether there will be a transition)."</p><h2>NASA's been preparing for a break from Roscosmos for almost a decade</h2><div type="image" title="spacewalk international space station cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy" height="1275" width="1701" msid="93236008" hostid="261"></div><p>Roscosmos and NASA had a tense partnership from the beginning. Even as the two agencies were building the first parts of the ISS, NASA was making contingency plans. In the late '90s, Russia was behind schedule building the Zvezda Service Module that would be a core component of the station. NASA built a backup module in case Zvezda never came.</p><p>A decade later, NASA became reliant on Russian hardware. When the Space Shuttle Program ended in 2011, the US could only fly its astronauts to and from the ISS aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft.</p><p>To dial back that dependence, the Obama administration started funding private development of human-rated spacecraft. The result, SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship, now regularly ferries astronauts to and from the ISS.</p><div type="image" title="nasa astronaut doug hurley spacex crew dragon spaceship capsule demo2 demo 2 mission landing splashdown stretcher thumbs up ok august 2 2020 50186691872_3d34f9f15a_o edit" height="2229" width="2972" msid="93236011" hostid="261"></div><p>NASA's remaining reliance on Russia is aboard the ISS itself. The station was constructed for interdependence: Russia's side relies on solar arrays in the Western section for power, and the station can't maintain altitude without regular boosts from Russian Progress spaceships, which fire their boosters to push the station a little higher about once a month.</p><p>NASA is learning how to do those "orbital reboost" maneuvers with the Cygnus spacecraft developed by its contractor Northrop Grumman. It conducted a successful test of the maneuver in June, a week after an initial test attempt failed.</p><div type="image" title="cygnus spacecraft silver cylinder with two orange and black circular solar arrays below a long robotic arm high above brown earth with lakes" height="1531" width="2042" msid="93236013" hostid="261"></div><p>It's unclear what a transition to a Russia-free ISS might look like. According to Pace, the chief challenges would be orbital reboosts, replacing Moscow ground support, and figuring out what to do with Russia's modules and other ISS hardware.</p><p>"I am confident, without having any specific information, that the US and its partners have thought through what might be done," Logsdon said. Otherwise, they would be "derelict of their duty," he added.</p><h2>The US-Russia space alliance has become increasingly strained</h2><div type="image" title="rocket launches past people watching and taking photos" height="1776" width="2000" msid="93236015" hostid="261"></div><p>Over the years, the NASA-Roscosmos partnership has involved public spats. In 2014, Russia announced that it would <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/5/13/5714650/russia-just-evicted-nasa-from-the-international-space-station">kick NASA off the ISS</a> by 2020 in retaliation for US sanctions over its invasion of Crimea. The threat never came to fruition.</p><p>Last year, a Roscosmos official <a href="https://www.space.com/russia-blames-nasa-astronaut-soyuz-leak">accused</a> a NASA astronaut of having a mental breakdown and drilling holes into a Soyuz spacecraft in 2018. NASA firmly denied the accusations.</p><div type="image" title="spaceships docked to the space station above nighttime earth" height="1666" width="2222" msid="93236018" hostid="261"></div><p>In November, Russia <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-added-1500-space-junk-in-orbit-satelite-test-missile-2021-11">launched a missile</a> at one of its defunct satellites as a weapons test. The explosion scattered thousands of bits of high-speed debris through Earth's orbit, forcing the ISS crew to retreat to their spaceships in case they had to make an emergency exit, and drawing <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-administrator-statement-on-russian-asat-test">condemnation</a> from NASA.</p><p>Tensions escalated when Russia invaded Ukraine. Rogozin, then leading Roscosmos and known for his <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/01/nasa-roscosmos-russia-bridenstine-rogozin/579973/">inflammatory tweets</a>, got into strongly worded <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronaut-scott-kelly-and-russia-space-chief-trade-twitter-insults-2022-3">Twitter arguments with former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly</a> and Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, a NASA contractor. Rogozin even <a href="https://twitter.com/Rogozin/status/1496934100363587587">suggested</a> that Russia might abandon the ISS to crash into Earth.</p><div type="image" title="three cosmonauts pose with blue and red striped flag inside space station" height="1533" width="2044" msid="93236020" hostid="261"></div><p>Cosmonauts have displayed flags and imagery on the ISS supporting the Russian invasion and occupation of Ukraine, invoking a rebuke from NASA officials.</p><h2>The US and Russia plan to go their own ways after the ISS</h2><div type="image" title="bright moon rises in dark blue sky behind the top of an orange nasa rocket" height="1451" width="1935" msid="93236022" hostid="261"></div><p>Beyond the ISS, US and Russian paths diverge. NASA is funding the development of commercial space stations by three companies — Blue Origin, Nanoracks, and Northrop Grumman. Its plan is to become a customer, renting room and lab space on an orbiting station operated by a private company.</p><p>Roscosmos says it's planning its own space station, but hasn't shared much detail.</p><p>"You could take that with a grain of salt, given their overall economic situation," Logsdon said.</p><div type="image" title="base camp" height="735" width="981" msid="93236025" hostid="261"></div><p>Both NASA and Roscosmos aim to build new space stations on the moon, but not together.</p><p>NASA has established a set of agreements for the new era of lunar exploration, called the Artemis Accords, which 20 other countries signed. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-artemis-accords-deep-space-exploration-moon-mars-asteroids-comets-2020-10">Russia and China</a> have not signed the accords. Instead, they've said they plan to build their own base, together, on the lunar surface.</p><p>"I think there will be international cooperation among like-minded countries, and the addition of Russia to the International Space Station will be seen as an artifact of the politics of a particular time, and not setting a pattern for the future," Logsdon said.</p>

Russia and NASA have been on edge for years. Threats to leave the International Space Station are no surprise.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Former <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-satellite-images-show-tonga-volcano-eruption-reached-mesosphere-2022-2">NASA</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-female-astronaut-jessica-meir-oversized-spacesuit-space-gravity-1970s-2021-11">astronaut</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronaut-scott-kelly-how-to-survive-isolation-future-space-travel-2020-5">Scott Kelly</a> got into a <keyword id="11892744" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="twitter" source="Orion">Twitter</keyword> spat with <keyword id="11894337" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="russia" source="Orion">Russia</keyword>'s top <keyword id="11895441" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="space" source="Orion">space</keyword> official, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-international-space-station-crash-us-europe-sanctions-2022-2">Dmitry Rogozin</a>.</li><li>Kelly suggested Rogozin find a job at McDonald's, and Rogozin invited Kelly to get a brain exam.</li></ul><p>Former <keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nasa" source="Orion">NASA</keyword> <keyword id="12153790" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="astronaut" source="Orion">astronaut</keyword> <keyword id="13338775" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="scott-kelly" source="Orion">Scott Kelly</keyword> has gotten himself into a Twitter spat with Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia's space agency <keyword id="11985276" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="roscosmos" source="Orion">Roscosmos</keyword>.</p><p>Kelly holds the record for longest US spaceflight after spending nearly a full year on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2015 and 2016. Now he's retired, and he's using his public platform to criticize Russia's invasion of <keyword id="11985141" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ukraine" source="Orion">Ukraine</keyword>, publishing tweets in Russian about the war daily since February 27. He's also changed his profile picture to an image of a yellow-and-blue fist, the colors of Ukraine's flag.</p><p>On Sunday, he <a href="https://twitter.com/StationCDRKelly/status/1500535435168149504">tweeted</a> directly to Rogozin, who had shared a video of workers pasting over US and Japanese flags on a Russian rocket.</p><p>"If it weren't for these flags and foreign currency that they bring, your space program would not be worth one single egg," Kelly wrote in Russian. "Maybe you could find yourself a job working at McDonalds if McDonalds still exists in Russia."</p><p>Another former NASA astronaut, Garrett Reisman, also <a href="https://twitter.com/astro_g_dogg/status/1500632262429196290">weighed in</a> in Russian to say that Rogozin "has always been a fool."</p><p>The following day, Kelly shared a screenshot of a Rogozin tweet directed at him, which read "Get off, you moron! Otherwise, the death of the #ISS will be on your conscience." </p><p>Insider was unable to confirm the validity of the screenshot, since the tweet has been deleted and does not appear in the Wayback Machine internet archive.</p><p>"Dimon, why did you delete this tweet? You don't want everyone to see how you are really just a child?" Kelly wrote in Russian, calling Rogozin by a nickname for Dmitry.</p><p>Rogozin's response didn't address the screenshot.</p><p>"Mr Scott Kelly! You needlessly provoke me," he wrote in English. "I will not allow you to behave like that with me. You are being defiant and destructive."</p><p>He pointed out that Kelly had used the casual Russian pronoun for "you," "ты," rather than the formal pronoun that usually indicates respect or unfamiliarity. The nickname "Dimon" also invokes a casual, and possibly demeaning, tone.</p><p>In a follow-up tweet, Rogozin added: "Perhaps the dementia and aggression that you have developed is a consequence of the overload and stress of four flights into space. I invite you to undergo an examination at the Brain Institute of our Federal Medical and Biological Agency."</p><p>The space-celebrity spat, and other likes it, are just one manifestation of deteriorating US-Russia space relations since Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized the Ukraine invasion.</p><h2>Rogozin is beefing with everyone from Elon Musk to a prominent astronomer</h2><div type="image" title="SpaceX founder Elon Musk addresses members of the media during a press conference announcing new developments of the Crew Dragon reusable spacecraft, at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California on October 10, 2019." height="2000" width="2666" msid="90089519" hostid="261"></div><p>Rogozin has gotten into several Twitter spats with prominent US space personalities, including SpaceX CEO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-mocks-russia-space-chief-broomsticks-suggestion-spacex-launch-2022-3">Elon Musk</a> and astronomer <a href="https://twitter.com/Rogozin/status/1501291188850208768">Jonathan McDowell</a>.</p><p>Both exchanges stemmed from Rogozin's <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1497370602075734021?s=21">claim</a> that the ISS would lose orbit and begin an uncontrolled fall to Earth if Russia withdrew its spaceships.</p><p>Russian spaceships regularly fire their engines to push the ISS higher, a maneuver called a "reboost," after the station loses altitude. That's part of normal operations. However, NASA currently has a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft on the ISS that is set to perform a routine orbital reboost for the first time.</p><p>It's not clear when the maneuver will happen, but if it succeeds NASA may have the capability to reboost the station without Russia's help.</p><h2>US-Russia space relations are crumbling</h2><div type="image" title="soyuz spaceship above earth" height="1280" width="1706" msid="90089520" hostid="261"></div><p>In a statement on February 24, US President Joe Biden said that sanctions would "degrade" Russia's space program. Then Russia announced it would <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-stopping-rocket-engine-sales-to-us-due-to-sanctions-2022-3">stop selling rocket parts to the US</a>.</p><p>Both Roscosmos and NASA have stated that operations on the International Space Station (ISS) are continuing as normal. Four NASA astronauts, two Russian cosmonauts, and one European astronaut are currently living on the station.</p><p>"Anything that caused the relationship to fall apart is mainly symbolic. We weren't going to work together in the future anyway," John Logsdon, the founder of George Washington University's Space Policy Institute and a former member of the NASA Advisory Council, told Insider the day after the invasion began.</p><p>Russia has partnered with China for its plans to advance astronaut exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and to the moon, including plans to build a lunar space station together. A congressional mandate prohibits NASA from collaborating with China.</p><p>Russia's contract commitment on the ISS ends after 2024, and Russian officials have previously <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/russia-mulls-withdrawing-international-space-station-after-2024">suggested</a> that Roscosmos might back out to build its own space station.</p><p>"The hope was that cooperation, bringing Russia into the space station, would have a lasting positive impact on overall US-Russia relations," Logsdon said, adding, "It obviously did not have that impact."</p><p><em>Translations by Nikita Ilyich Angarski.</em></p>

Russian space chief and former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly attack each other on Twitter — calling each other 'moron' and 'child'

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Northrop Grumman launched a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station at 9:16 p.m. ET on October 2.</li><li>An enterprising photographer from Philadelphia managed to record the 14-story rocket flying in front of a nearly full moon.</li><li>Professional launch photographers believe it's one of the first such moon-transiting rocket-launch photos in two decades.</li></ul><p>Minutes before liftoff of a NASA rocket mission on October 2, Steve Rice realized he was in the wrong place for a photographic fantasy he'd waited years to make real.</p><p>Rice, a 33-year-old Texas native who calls Philadelphia home, had documented about half a dozen space launches up-close. But to challenge himself and record a unique perspective of spaceflight, Rice committed to, one day, taking photos and video of a rocket flying in front of the moon.</p><p>"It's been in my mind for a long time as a fantasy, because — living up here — I don't get too many launches" near home, Rice told Business Insider. "One of my favorite things to shoot is the space station transiting the moon or the sun through my telescope. So the thought of the rocket going across the moon has been on my mind. But I never thought there'd be an opportunity to do that."</p><p>Yet Rice saw his chance when Northrop Grumman announced it'd fly the Cygnus NG-14 cargo resupply spaceship, dubbed the "S.S. Kalpana Chawla," from NASA's launch facility at Wallops Island, Virginia, a three-and-a-half-hour drive away. The mission was to fly 5,000 pounds of air, food, water, spacesuit parts, and scientific experiments — including a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/toilet-nasa-orion-spaceship-moon-mission-odor-control-problem-2020-9">$23 million titanium space-toilet prototype</a> — to the International Space Station.</p><p>Photographing anything fast <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-eclipse-space-station-nasa-photos-video-2017-8">flying past the moon</a> requires a combination of luck, planning, and skill, due to the heavenly body's small relative size (roughly that of a thumbnail on an outstretched arm) and constant motion. Doing so with rockets require an excess of all three virtues, though, due to additional challenges of geography, weather, curved flight paths, and fickleness.</p><p>In September, for example, nearly all orbital-class launch attempts from US soil were scrubbed. The Cygnus spacecraft launch on an Antares rocket was no different: Eighteen seconds before planned liftoff on October 1, the mission was postponed due to a ground control equipment problem, NASA said.</p><p>Rice had driven out for that attempt, losing most of a day and a lot of gas money in the process. He said he wasn't sure he'd try again for the next attempt, the following day at 9:18 p.m. ET.</p><p>"My brother and his girlfriend were visiting from Atlanta for the week, and I'm the crazy guy who wants to abandon them at night, and go drive three hours down to maybe see a launch," Rice said.</p><p>But he got in the car.</p><p>He was too committed to the idea, having studied weather forecasts, researched shooting alignments and settings with specialized apps (like <a href="https://www.photoephemeris.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Photographer's Ephemeris</a> and <a href="https://flightclub.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Flight Club</a>), and pored over maps to stake out the perfect spot: the shoulder of a road near a corn field 3.4 miles from NASA's launch pad. From there, he calculated, the moon would be rising above the eastern horizon, to align perfectly with the rocket's path to orbit about 22 seconds after liftoff.</p><p>With "a big stroke of luck," he said, he could fit the rocket's 139-foot-tall frame inside a barely waned full moon.</p><p>With just 16 minutes left in the countdown, though, Rice triple-checked his location — and found himself setting up his gear thousands of feet from where he was supposed to be.</p><p>"I used a map to count telephone poles from intersections, since there weren't any other discernible details," he said. "But at night, it was difficult to find the right spot, and I was set up at the wrong near the wrong telephone pole ... I had to throw everything back into the car and drive down the road to the right spot and get set up again."</p><p>He pulled off the road near the correct telephone pole, then put up a tripod and camera with a 300-millimeter telephoto lens he'd bought on Ebay for $20. Ten feet away, he erected another tripod with a camera, this one with a small telescope attached to it, hit the video-record button, and jogged back to his still camera.</p><p>Shortly after seeing the light of the launch, he held down the camera's shutter — what he called the "spray and pray" method — in hopes of getting some frames of the rocket's journey toward space. Moments later, the machine thundered across the moon, right where it was supposed to be.</p><h2>Watch a 14-story rocket journey across the moon</h2><p>The nine images Rice <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CF7lRLoJBfH/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shared on Instagram</a>, embedded above with his permission, show the full, stunning sequence of pictures.</p><p>"This was the only time I've actually shouted after getting the shot," Rice said, including some "undisclosed" curse words. "I was out alone on the side of a road next to harvested cornfield."</p><p>But Rice said the video he recorded, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clC0yO3LZGk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">uploaded to YouTube</a> and embedded below with his permission, made him even more giddy than the still photos.</p><p>The footage, shot in 4K ultra-high resolution, shows the explosive shockwaves of two fuel-devouring Russian rocket engines emanating into the air around the rocket. Following it, the engine's exhaust disturbs the moon's light into a chaos of schlieren — when variations in the density of a gas or liquid cause light to refract and bend.</p><p>"It's like a mirage," Rice said.</p><p>Rice said it was "a big stroke of luck" that he managed to record the scene with both photos and video.</p><p>"It's amazing how accurate and more or less lucky you have to be to make sure the alignment is right," he said.</p><p>As an example, he said, a photographer stationed a mile closer to the pad didn't manage to pull it off. Rice also noted that the mission had a five-minute window to launch. If mission controllers had delayed the liftoff to the end of that window, he would have been 250 feet away from where he was supposed to be — not a lot of time to move and precisely set up a bunch of gear alone.</p><p>After Rice posted the photos to Instagram, he saw a tide of congratulations.</p><p>One came from Carleton Bailie, a launch photographer of many decades, who said it took 20 years for someone "to get one" rocket-and-moon shot like it. Bailie added that the last time was likely in 2000, when he took a similar photo during the launch of an Atlas rocket. </p><p>Ben Cooper, SpaceX's go-to launch photographer, also chimed in.</p><p>"Great job! It's been a long time since someone got it," Cooper wrote, confirming that the photos are likely the first of their kind in a couple decades, adding: "I keep pretty good track of photos and have been doing so for 20 years now."</p>

Unbelievable photos caught a NASA rocket mission flying in front of the moon. A photographer explains the crazy steps he took to get the rare images and video

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Estée Lauder is sending skincare products to the <keyword id="6382020" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="international-space-station">International Space Station</keyword> (ISS) in a joint project with <keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword>.</li><li>The <keyword id="6354629" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="beauty">beauty</keyword> company is sending up to 10 bottles of its popular "Advanced Night Repair" serum to the ISS at the end of the month. so that astronauts can film footage </li><li>It has asked NASA astronauts to capture the "imagery and video" of the product in the space station's microgravity environment so the footage can later be used in ad campaigns.</li><li>NASA has pushed to open up the ISS for commercial use over the years but the project with Estée Lauder will become one of the most high-profile commercial projects ever produced on the ISS.</li></ul><p>Makeup company Estée Lauder is teaming up with NASA to launch skincare products into space, one of the most high-profile commercial projects ever produced on the International Space Station (ISS).</p><p>The company hopes to send up to 10 bottles of its popular "Advanced Night Repair" serum to the ISS at the end of this month, according to a report by <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24733002-100-nasa-to-film-an-estee-lauder-ad-in-space-as-the-iss-opens-for-business/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New Scientist magazine</a>.</p><p>The serums will be loaded aboard a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft, which will bring an additional 8,000 pounds of other supplies to the space station.</p><p>As part of the project, the company has asked NASA astronauts to capture the "imagery and video" of the product in the microgravity environment of the space station.</p><p>Estée Lauder then hopes to use that footage in ad campaigns or other promotional material.</p><p>The company's president Stephane de la Faverie told a panel at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' Ascend Summit last month that he was a "risk-taker," <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/09/18/estee-lauder-to-film-ad-campaign-from-space-nasa-confirms/">the New York Post reported.</a></p><p>"That tends to basically come with ideas that are a little bit, you know, outside of the normal, traditional ways of doing marketing," he said, according to the Post.</p><p> In 2001, Pizza Hut became the first restaurant chain to deliver a pizza to space — a publicity stunt that cost around $1 million, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1345139.stm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to the BBC.</a> </p><p>The pizza was sent onboard a resupply rocket to Russian astronaut Yuri Usachov, who was working on the ISS. </p><p>Usachov filmed himself eating the pizza, which, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=98548" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to <em>ABC</em></a>, was "seasoned with extra spices, especially salt since it's known that taste buds become a little dulled in space." </p><p>Watch the clip below:</p><p>In the last few years, NASA has been opening up the ISS to private companies to exploit for marketing and entertainment purposes.</p><p>This week, a media production company called Space Hero Inc. said it <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-first-space-reality-show-send-1-lucky-winner-iss-2020-9?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plans to film the first reality TV show set in space</a>, which will involve selecting one person from a group of contestants to travel to the ISS in 2023. </p><p>NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine also announced earlier this year that actor Tom Cruise had signed on to <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/05/05/nasa-confirms-tom-cruise-is-suiting-up-to-make-movie-in-space/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">produce a film aboard the ISS</a>.</p><ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more:</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-first-space-reality-show-send-1-lucky-winner-iss-2020-9?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">The world's first reality show in space plans to send one winner on a 10-day trip to the space station, filming the whole time</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-travel-new-motor-skills-blurred-vision-study-2020-9?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">Living in space could make people more coordinated but weaken their vision, according to recent brain scans</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronauts-describe-overview-effect-seeing-earth-from-space-emotions-feelings-2020-6?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">Astronauts often describe a powerful 'overview effect' when gazing at Earth. Here's what it is and why it may be essential to space missions.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-perspective-neptune-spaceship-on-balloon-crewed-flight-tourism-startup-2020-6?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">A new spaceship-on-a-balloon startup wants to float you high enough to see Earth's curvature and the darkness of space for roughly $125,000 per ticket</a></li></ul>

You Searched For "northrop grumman cygnus" and got 5 results

Northrop Grumman names its next space ship after Kalpana Chawla — the first woman of Indian-origin to go to space

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Russia and NASA have been on edge for years. Threats to leave the International Space Station are no surprise.

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

Russian space chief and former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly attack each other on Twitter — calling each other 'moron' and 'child'

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Unbelievable photos caught a NASA rocket mission flying in front of the moon. A photographer explains the crazy steps he took to get the rare images and video

Dave Mosher

Ad breaks in space: Estée Lauder's deal with NASA to promote skincare products on the International Space Station

Sophia Ankel

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