Cucumbers may be out of favour on earth, but a Japanese astronaut said Monday that he plans to harvest the vegetable on board the International Space Station. Satoshi Furukawa is set to blast off early Wednesday for a half-year stint in orbit along with Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov and NASA astronaut Michael Fossum. Read more
The Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft that'll take Mike Fossum and his two Expedition 28 crewmates to the International Space Station is mated to its rocket and rolled out to the launch pad in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
A revamped digital version of the venerable Russian Soyuz spacecraft was winched into place at its launch pad Sunday for its second manned run to the International Space Station. A crew comprised of Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, NASA's Michael Fossum and Satoshi Furukawa of Japan's JAXA space agency is primed to blast off this week for a six-month stint onboard the orbiting laboratory. Read more (52kb, PDF)
Ed ~ Launch is scheduled for 20:12 GMT, 7th June, 2011.