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Medical experts face a significant challenge in their search for the causes, ultimate effects and remedies for the vision problems reported by astronauts assigned to long-duration missions aboard the International Space Station, according to a National Academies’ Institute of Medicine (IOM) review. The review urges NASA-guided scientists to expand their search for contributing factors, pre- and post-flight evaluation techniques and appropriate ground-based analog studies.

This week could see a surge of news on fresh fiscal 2014 appropriations, as House and Senate appropriators are working feverishly to put together a so-called omnibus spending bill by Jan. 15, when the stopgap continuing resolution (CR) of 2013 funds runs out.

NEW DELHI — India has entered the multibillion dollar commercial launcher market with the successful liftoff of the GSAT-14 satellite aboard its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D5) heavy-lift rocket fitted with an indigenous cryogenic engine.

HOUSTON — The International Space Station (ISS) Mission Management Team has cleared Orbital Sciences Corp. for a Jan. 8 launch attempt of its Antares rocket/Cygnus cargo carrier combination at 1:32 p.m. EST, if weather conditions permit. A mostly favorable launch forecast includes a low probability of cloud cover in the region that could prohibit the launch, NASA space station program spokesman Josh Byerly said. The spacecraft was transported from its hangar to the launch pad at Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Jan. 5.

NEW DELHI — India’s space agency has approved a Jan. 5 launch attempt for the GSAT-14 communications satellite aboard a Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D5). The indigenous, cryogenic engine-fitted GSLV-D5 will launch from the Sriharikota spaceport in India’s southern state of Andhra Pradesh. “A 29-hour countdown for the launch is set to commence around 11 a.m. local time on Jan. 4,” an Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) scientist says.

No people are seemingly more eager and suited than Americans to leave the Earth for a new life on Mars. The notion emerges from the demographics behind the 1,058 men and women selected by Mars One this week to proceed with future rounds of a global selection process by the Dutch non-profit to identify those best suited to settle the red planet. Trips are scheduled to begin in 2025.

“All” sounding and research rockets remain controlled under the U.S. Munitions List (USML) category covering launch vehicles, ballistic and guided missiles, according to final export control reform rules announced Dec. 31.