Humans visitors would have increased cancer risk over their lifetimes

An external cooling system pump module aboard the International Space Station shut down on Wednesday, prompting a round of troubleshooting by NASA's Mission Control team and a decision to power down non critical solar powered systems in three U. S. segment modules.

While there is plenty to debate about where U.S. defense budgets could settle in 2014-15, there is no debate about the Pentagon's desire to continue to compete with cutting-edge technology. It expects defense advantages to be sustained through investment in new weapons and support systems that provide a generational lead over those fielded by adversaries.

China is on its way to the first controlled lunar landing in almost four decades—a planned touchdown in the poetically named Bay of Rainbows (Sinus Iridium) to unleash a robotic rover called Yutu (see illustration), an equally poetic reference to the jade rabbit the goddess Chang'e took with her when she flew to the Moon. China's Chang'e-3 mission made it out of low Earth orbit Dec. 1 into a translunar trajectory that sets up Yutu for a landing on Dec. 14.

In an unprecedented move, the United Launch Alliance (ULA) is planning to resource its industrial base at a level beyond the number of rocket orders placed by the Pentagon.

Recent launches of two converted Soviet-era ballistic missiles have reaffirmed the vehicles' presence in the market for lofting small satellites, a sector once reserved for research and technology demonstrations that is seeing increased demand for commercial applications, including optical and radar imagery and communications.