In the first test of planetary protection technology, astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) swabbed their space-walking gear for microbes, using the "Lab-On-A-Chip Application Development Portable Test System" (LOCAD-PTS), a compact biological laboratory designed for use in space. Such tools will be further developed and refined to prevent humanity from contaminating other planets.

Space Shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station this week, bringing with it the final American-made components: a $300 million set of solar arrays.

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A poetry magazine launched by Vanna Bonta gets an award from space professionals proving beauty is part of equations and efficiency is pointless without humanity.

FORMER NASA astronaut and moon walker Dr. Edgar Mitchell - a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission - has stunningly claimed aliens do exist. And he says extra-terrestrials have visited Earth on several occasions - but the alien contact has been repeatedly covered up by governments for six decades. Dr Mitchell, 77, said during a radio interview that sources at the space agency who had had contact with aliens described the beings as 'little people who look strange to us.'

ESA astronaut Christer Fuglesang from Sweden has been assigned as a Mission Specialist on board the 11-day STS-128 mission, currently scheduled for launch with Space Shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station (ISS) on 30 July 2009.

Rotating astronauts for a lengthy period provided researcher Suzanne Nooij with better insight into how 'space sickness' develops, the nausea and disorientation experienced by many astronauts. Nooij will receive her PhD from TU Delft on this subject on Tuesday 20 May.

Lunar dust could be more than a housekeeping issue for astronauts who visit the moon. Their good health may depend on the amount of exposure they have to the tiny particles.

South Korean officials says they are replacing the male astronaut they intended to send on a space voyage with a woman. The shift in plans, coming just weeks before the scheduled launch, is due to an apparent violation of security protocols by the male astronaut.

European scientists have developed the most accurate method yet for predicting the doses of radiation that astronauts will receive aboard the orbiting European laboratory module, Columbus, attached to the ISS this week.

Astronaut Pamela Melroy (S.M. 1984) is set to become the first MIT alumna to command a space mission this week when the space shuttle Discovery lifts off Oct. 23 from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

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