* Astronomy

A flag that has flown over the Scottish Parliament building is to be carried into space by British born NASA astronaut Nick Patrick.

The flag was presented to the astronaut by Alex Blackwood yesterday (5 September), on behalf of the Scottish Parliament. Alex is in Houston leading the Careers Scotland Space School which is enjoying its eighth mission to NASA's SpaceCenter in Houston.
Careers Scotland Space School is a world-leading programme supported by the Scottish Executive and the International Space Community. There are currently 26 young people participating in the SpaceSchool in Houston, which aims to inspire young people and help them understand how science and technology can lead to exciting career choices.

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According to a Russian Space Agency official, the International Space Station will be dismantled after 2015 to be replaced with a new orbital station.

"It is necessary because at present we can monitor less than 10 percent of Russian territory, but with a new station the coverage will be increased tenfold" - Vitaly Davydov, deputy head of the Russian Space Agency .

The new space station would be used to produce materials that are impossible to manufacture on Earth and to improve the methods of remote monitoring of the Earth.
Davydov also said Russia would test technologies for space travel to the Moon and Mars in 2015-2025.

Russia has corrected orbit of the International Space Station by about 4 kilometres in preparation for the docking of the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis and the Russian Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft.

The Soyuz-FG carrier rocket is scheduled to lift off from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan on September 14 to put the Soyuz TMA-9 in orbit.
The spacecraft will carry the 14th ISS crew, consisting of Russia's Mikhail Tyurin, U.S. Michael Lopez-Alegria, an a space tourist, Anousheh Ansari.

The second of four pairs of massive solar arrays and a Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ), built by Lockheed Martin at its Space Systems facility in Sunnyvale, will be launched aboard the space shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station (ISS) as early as August 27, 2006. Atlantis' launch window extends through September 13, 2006. During the 11-day STS-115 mission, astronauts will connect the package of giant solar arrays and the rotary joint -- incorporated into an integrated truss segment -- to the Station. A second rotary joint and a third pair of solar arrays will be delivered to ISS on STS-117.

"The second pair of solar arrays will nearly double the power available to the Space Station, and we're very proud to play a role in this vitally important international mission. The first arrays have performed superbly, and beyond expectation, and we're confident that this addition to ISS will further harness the Sun's energy for the Space Station and provide the power required for many years to come" - Brad Haddock, Lockheed Martin ISS program director.

The Space Systems ISS solar arrays are the largest deployable space structure ever built and are by far, the most powerful electricity-producing arrays ever put into orbit. When the Station is completed a total of eight flexible, deployable solar array wings will generate the reliable, continuous power for the on-orbit operation of the ISS systems. The eight array wings were designed and built under a $450 million contract from the Boeing- Rocketdyne Division in Canoga Park, Calif., for delivery to the Boeing Company and NASA.
Each of the eight wings consists of a mast assembly and two solar array blankets. Each blanket has 84 panels, of which 82 are populated with solar cells. Each panel contains 200 solar cells. The eight photovoltaic arrays thus accommodate a total of 262,400 solar cells. When fully deployed in space, the active area of the eight wings, each 107 by 38-feet, will encompass an area of 32,528-sq. ft., and will provide power to the ISS for 15 years.
The SARJ, 10.5 ft in diameter and 40 inches long, will maintain the solar arrays in an optimal orientation to the sun while the entire space station orbits the Earth once every 90 minutes. Drive motors in the SARJ will move the arrays through 360 degrees of motion at four degrees per minute. The joints must rotate the arrays smoothly without imparting vibrations to the laboratories and habitation modules on the station that would impact microgravity-processing activities. At the same time, 60 kW of power at 160 volts and multiple data channels are carried across each joint by copper "roll rings" contained within.
In addition to the arrays and SARJ, Space Systems in Sunnyvale designed and built other elements for the Space Station. The Thermal Radiator Rotary Joints (TRRJ) -- each five and a half feet long and three feet in diameter -- were launched in 2002. The two joints maintain Space Station thermal radiators in an edge-on orientation to the Sun that maximises the dissipation of heat from the radiators into space.

Source PRNewswire