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The International Space Station (ISS)

Did I mention that Tim Peake went to the same school as I did? :D
 
"Piers Sellers, a Sussex-born scientist who moved to the US and flew three missions as a Nasa astronaut, said: “It’s wonderful to finally see an official UK astronaut go into space – something that all the rest of us have hoped for for years. I sure that Tim Peake will do a great job on station and that thousands of British kids will follow his adventure and be inspired by it. The Apollo programme did that for me.”"

http://www.theguardian.com/science/...sts-off-on-six-month-mission-to-space-station
Ahh yes...I forgot about him...
I somehow confuse him with Peter Sellers...
 
Tim Peake: life on space station 'spectacular' says astronaut
The biggest challenge Tim Peake faced during a press conference full of non-controversial questions was doing a back-flip in orbit
Tim Radford
Friday 18 December 2015 16.45 GMT

His first day in space was way beyond all his expectations. No, he hadn’t seen the new Star Wars film yet but all of them up there were looking forward to seeing it. He was looking forward to training – on a treadmill, harnessed to the spot – for the London Marathon.

He was absolutely blown away to get a tweet from Her Majesty the Queen. And he was looking forward to calling home on Christmas Day from this “wonderfully unique place to call friends and family from.”

Major Tim Peake, Britain’s first European Space Agency astronaut, was ready with a set of non-controversial answers to a procession of non-challenging questions during his first ever press conference from orbit. Seemingly upright in the Columbus science module of the International Space Station - until asked to do a back flip while crossing the surface of the globe at 27,000 kilometers an hour - Peake faced the challenge of the media.

There was always a pause between question and the launch of an answer and at the close of each answer, he carefully let go of his microphone – it bobbed more or less exactly where he released it – and clasped it again for each answer. He looked forward a lot. He used telltale delaying phrases like “That’s a great question …” and telltale pause-words such as “absolutely” while he prepared his responses, but the smile barely faltered.

“It’s way better than I imagined. It is really hard to describe,” he said, and then listed those things way beyond his expectations, including the view from the space station cupola. “The first 24 hours is pretty rough,” he admitted. Yes, he found some aspects of life in space a little difficult: the vestibular system that controlled his balance and his visual system hadn’t quite caught up with each other, so every time he went round a corner or moved his head he felt disoriented and dizzy.

Yes, he had a good night’s sleep; on his second morning he woke up fresh and had had no problems since. He hadn’t needed to tether his sleeping bag and enjoyed floating gently around the dormitory. And yes, he had experienced one retinal flash as a cosmic ray passed through his eyes, but otherwise, no problems.

Oh, and the thing that most surprised him was how black space really was. And how small the world seemed. “It’s the blackest black and you realize just how small the Earth is in that blackness, and that was a real surprise to me.”

etc...

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/dec/18/tim-peake-life-on-space-station-spectacular-iss
 
This is Ground Control
to Major Tim
You've really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear
 
Tim Peake set for first spacewalk by British astronaut
By Paul Rincon Science editor, BBC News website

Tim Peake is to carry out the first ever spacewalk by a British astronaut, Nasa has confirmed.
Mr Peake and Nasa astronaut Tim Kopra will venture outside the International Space Station (ISS) on 15 January to replace a failed voltage regulator.

Mr Peake launched on a Russian rocket on 15 December to begin a six-month stay on the orbiting outpost.
This will be the second spacewalk in under three weeks for Mr Kopra, who has flown into space once before, in 2009.

The two Tims will don their spacesuits and exit the US Quest airlock to replace an electrical box known as a Sequential Shunt Unit (SSU), which regulates voltage from the station's solar arrays.
Its failure on 13 November last year compromised one of the station's eight power channels.
The unit is relatively easy to replace and can be removed by undoing one bolt. Once this task is complete, the spacewalkers will deploy cables in advance of new docking ports for US commercial crew vehicles and reinstall a valve that was removed for the relocation of the station's Leonardo module last year.

Mr Peake supported a spacewalk on 21 December last year, in which Mr Kopra and station commander Scott Kelly moved a stalled component known as the "mobile transporter" on the outside of the ISS.
The Briton stayed inside the ISS, helping the Americans don their spacesuits and monitoring their progress for mission control.
This time, he will be the one to get inside the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) - the spacesuit used by US and European astronauts on the station.
The spacewalk is scheduled to start at 12:55 GMT and last for six-and-a-half hours.

Mr Peake and Mr Kopra were both crew members on the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) Soyuz flight that arrived at the ISS on 15 December. As such, they have trained closely with each other.

Mr Peake was selected by the European Space Agency in 2009, and is the first British astronaut to fly into space since Helen Sharman spent a week on the Soviet space station Mir in May 1991. Her flight was privately funded, under a venture known as Project Juno.

The UK government has traditionally been opposed to human spaceflight, which has led other Britons to fly into space with Nasa - wearing the American, rather than UK flag on their uniforms.

Michael Foale, who hails from Louth in Lincolnshire, became the first British-born person to carry out a spacewalk when he stepped outside the shuttle Discovery on 9 February 1995.
Mr Foale flew on six Nasa shuttle missions, with extended stays on both Mir and the ISS. He has dual citizenship on account of his American-born mother.

Piers Sellers, who was born in Crowborough, flew on three space shuttle missions between 2002 and 2010. Over the course of six spacewalks, he accumulated 41 hours and 10 minutes of "extra-vehicular activity" time - the most of any UK-born astronaut.

Another UK-born Nasa astronaut, Nicholas Patrick, travelled into orbit on the Discovery shuttle in 2006.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35236442

To boldly go where several men and women of various nationalities have been before... :twisted:
It's barely news any more: "Technician to repair faulty electrical component..."
 
Penzance photographer captures stunning star trails over St Michael's Mount
By CMtgainey | Posted: January 22, 2016
[Picture gallery]

A photographer has captured this incredible image of the International Space Station orbiting over one of West Cornwall's most iconic beauty spots.
Alan James, 70, from Penzance, visited St Michael's Mount tidal causeway to snap stunning images of the station, carrying British astronaut Tim Peake, soaring through the sky just before dawn on Wednesday January 20.

He said: "I've been into my night photography and doing star trails for quite some time, but with the Tim Peake affair and all plus the fact that the space station was coming through so regularly, I saw the opportunity to dramatically combine the two."

The photographer was able to track the stations movements above the famous landmark by using the same technique of capturing several long exposures to see the motion of the Earth's rotation; known as 'star trails'.
The station travelled a distance of 2,300 kilometres in just five minutes, but the footage was still composed and clear.
"Because the station is 250 miles higher than ourselves it gets the sun that much earlier - normally two hours before sunrise or two hours after sunset - and therefore has a contrast against the dark sky making it visible," he said.

Alan was enabled to work out the best time to photograph the sight by using the NASA website, however he was surprised to see the island's causeway was covered by an outgoing tide despite carefully checking the crossing times.
He said: "I arrived at 5.30am expecting to cross but probably due to atmospheric conditions the causeway wasn't passable.
"With the water still up to my knees forty minutes later the fact of the matter was that the orbit time of the space station and the tide weren't going to wait for me.
"It got to the stage where I either had to get my feet wet or give up on the whole thing and by the time I eventually got my camera gear set up I literally had three minutes to spare."

Alan also recorded the station's flight over a Cornish tin mine using specialist software to merge around eighty different exposures into a single completed image after using a digital SLR camera fixed to a tripod to capture the station's passing and star trails.

He added: "I think at the moment the International Space Station has captured people's imagination, as it has with me and that was the reason why I was quite prepared to get cold and wet to get the picture.

http://www.westbriton.co.uk/Penzanc...ning-space/story-28584561-detail/story.html#1
 
Tim Peake asks for help with space plant experiment
By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News
[Video]

British astronaut Tim Peake has asked schoolchildren to help him with one of his scientific experiments.
He wants pupils to plant rocket seeds that have been in orbit with him, and compare their growth with rocket plants that have stayed on Earth.
Mr Peake has outlined details of the project in a message from the space station which will be sent to schools.
The study will help find ways to grow food in space which will be essential if humans travel to distant planets.

In his message, the European Space Agency (Esa) astronaut explains that he will be sending more than a million seeds back to Earth in a month's time.
"Conditions here on the International Space Station are quite different from on planet Earth, due to us being weightless here in orbit."
In his hands are a bag of seeds which occasionally float away. Unperturbed, he gently pulls them back towards him and continues.
"This experiment will aim to see if microgravity can affect the growth mechanisms in seeds," he adds.

The seeds will be distributed to up to 10,000 schools. Pupils will compare the growth of the space seeds with others that have remained on Earth.
This comparison has never before been made on this scale, according to Dr Alistair Griffiths, the scientific director of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS)
"This will be genuinely useful science," he told BBC News. "There will be impacts from zero gravity and from cosmic radiation and no one really knows what those will be.
"So the results really will contribute to the science of how to grow plants in space".

The massed experiment, called Rocket Science :rolleyes:, could help researchers to develop hardier varieties of crops to be grown in space.
Each astronaut on the ISS requires 5kg of food and water each day, according to Esa. They receive regular supplies from Earth.
But it would be too expensive to do this for a permanent human colony on the Moon and would not be at all realistic for a return trip to Mars, according to Jeremy Curtis of the UK Space Agency.
He said that the proposed seed experiment would be an important contribution to solving one of the main stumbling blocks to living and working in space for prolonged periods.

"There are already a few experiments that have been carried out in the International Space Station to grow food. In order to be sure we can send people on long duration missions, for example to Mars, it's important to be able to grow a range of nutritious foods for the astronauts to supplement their supplies of dried and tinned food.
"With the Rocket Science project, young people across the UK can help us prepare for the next stage of human exploration."

Science Minister Jo Johnson told BBC News that he hoped that the experiment would get more children interested in science.
"Tim's mission is not just an inspiration to young people, it is about important scientific research that can only be carried out in space.
"I'm delighted that this study to help find ways to grow food in extreme conditions is getting thousands of young people involved in studying plants and science."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35422286
 
Seed experiments - It's hardly going to get millions of kids interested in space exploration or science is is it?

They should have given the kids kits to build cyborg space monkeys made out of living monkey tissue and maccano.
 
UK astronaut Tim Peake prepares for return to Earth
By Paul Rincon Science editor, BBC News website

UK astronaut Tim Peake is preparing to return to Earth after an historic six-month mission to the space station.
During his stay, he made the first spacewalk by a UK astronaut, remotely steered a robot on Earth and ran the London Marathon.

A Soyuz capsule carrying Major Peake and two other crew members will land in Kazakhstan at 10:15 BST on Friday.
He is the first person to visit space under the UK banner since Helen Sharman in 1991.

Speaking in his last live link-up from space, Major Peake said: "It's been a fantastic six months up here - [a] really remarkable, incredible experience.
"I'm looking forward to coming home, looking forward to seeing my friends and my family, but I am going to miss this place [the ISS]."

After 03:00 BST on Saturday[?], Major Peake, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and US astronaut Timothy Kopra will make their farewells and enter the Russian spacecraft that will carry them home from the ISS.

Squeezed into custom-moulded seats in a tiny return ship that hasn't changed substantially in design since the Soviet era, the three crew members will wait for more than three hours before they are clear to undock from the outpost that has been their home for 186 days.

The Soyuz performs several engine burns to nudge itself clear of the space station and, after it has drifted about 12km from the orbiting platform, the engines fire again to begin the fiery descent to Earth.
This is the most unsettling stage of the journey: as the craft plunges toward Earth at 25 times the speed of sound, atmospheric molecules dissociate and their atoms ionise, enveloping the vehicle in superheated plasma which raises the temperature outside to around 2,500 degrees C.

Once the capsule has decelerated past the plasma phase and has reached an altitude of 10.7km above the Earth's surface, parachutes open to further slow its descent. As the Soyuz floats to the ground, an engine fires to cushion its landing on the Kazakh steppe, scheduled for 10:15 BST.

A rescue team flown in by chopper will then help the astronauts out of the capsule before carrying them into a tent for medical checks.
Extended stays in zero gravity have a number of effects on the body, including muscle wastage and a loss of bone density. The lack of gravity also redistributes fluid more evenly throughout the body, causing astronauts' face and neck to swell that gives them a characteristic puffy appearance during their first few weeks on orbit.

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36519885
 
Tim Peake returns to Earth on ‘best ride ever’
International Space Station mission ends as British astronaut and two crewmates land in Kazakhstan in Soyuz capsule
[VIDEO]
Staff and agencies
Saturday 18 June 2016 17.09 BST

The British astronaut Tim Peake has said “it feels wonderful” to be back on Earth after six months in space, having landed in Kazakhstan at the end of a seven-hour return journey from the International Space Station (ISS).

The Soyuz capsule, which also carried the Nasa astronaut Col Tim Kopra and the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, completed its de-orbit to enter the Earth’s atmosphere at about 10am on Saturday UK time. It landed by parachute in a remote spot in the vast scrubland steppe of Kazakhstan 15 minutes later.

Upon touchdown, Nasa’s mission control in Houston said the Soyuz had landed on its side after being caught by the wind, but this was a fairly routine occurrence. “The search and recovery forces are now making their way around the aircraft so they can secure the aircraft and make sure all its systems are safe before they can extract the crew,” it said.

The three men were soon extracted one by one and attended to by flight surgeons and nurses. Peake had his eyes closed and looked tired, but then smiled and gave a thumbs up to waiting reporters. The astronaut told the press he was “good thanks, very good” and the journey “was incredible, a real ride. Best ride I’ve been on ever.” :D

He added: “It’s just been fantastic, from start to finish … I’m just truly elated, just the smells of Earth are so strong, it’s wonderful to be back … to feel the fresh air. I look forward to seeing the family now.”
Peake said spending 186 days on the ISS had been a “life-changing experience”. “I’m going to miss the view, definitely. I’d love some cool rain right now, it was very hot in the capsule and the suit’s very hot … I might be having some pizza later, maybe a cold beer as well,” he said.

The Nasa public affairs officer Dan Hewitt said: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen better weather than the one we have now … all the teams out here actually got to see the capsule touch down, that’s something I’m never going to forget, it was phenomenal to see. All the crew members are out of the capsule, they’re going to now enjoy the weather, their first fresh air in over six months.”

Since December, Peake, a 44-year-old former helicopter test pilot, has taken part in more than 250 experiments, performed a spacewalk, run the London Marathon on a treadmill and inspired more than 1 million schoolchildren, earning him an honour from the Queen for “extraordinary service beyond our planet”.

On Saturday, his Soyuz made a scorching and at times rough descent through the atmosphere, with temperatures outside reaching more than 1,600C (2,910F).
The British astronaut Helen Sharman said before the landing that Peake’s body would need to be prepared. “To multiply your weight by five, it’s very heavy, so just breathing will be more laboured and difficult for him, but he’ll have done this in a centrifuge, we know that he’s strong and fit, as they all are in this crew; he knows what to expect,” she told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

Sharman said she didn’t think Peake would be scared. “You know this even before you launch into space, but I think once you’ve made the decision to go, you know that you want to come back, and there is no way around it. This is the only way back and so it’s not a thought of: ‘Shall I do it or not?’”

Soon after 3am UK time, the three men climbed from the ISS into the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft that took them into orbit on 15 December. Closing the hatch between the station and the spacecraft 34 minutes later marked the official end of ISS expedition 47 and Peake’s Principia mission.

etc...

https://www.theguardian.com/science...hatch-on-soyuz-capsule-for-trip-back-to-earth

Well done, Timbo! :) :clap:You kept the British end up - right up! :p

EDIT: there's an excellent 20 minute ESA video on that page, showing the procedures that occur during re-entry. Well worth watching.
 
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If you go on iPlayer you can see Major Tim reading a bedtime story from space. Suitable for all ages!
 
Tim Peake nursing 'world's worst hangover' after six months in space
British astronaut experiencing dizziness and vertigo as he readjusts to Earth and begins intensive rehabilitation in Germany
Press Association
Monday 20 June 2016 14.42 BST

British astronaut Tim Peake is experiencing the “world’s worst hangover” after spending six months in space.
Now back on Earth at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, he faces three weeks of rehabilitation during which he will undergo a barrage of medical tests and maintain a strict exercise regime.

Doctors will draw blood, conduct Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans, and question Peake to improve their understanding of the physical and psychological effects of space travel.
The astronaut will also be examined on a tilt table that can rotate his body from a horizontal to a vertical position to monitor how his heart and blood circulation are responding to gravity.

It will take Peake a few days to learn to walk again. Soon after landing in Kazakhstan on Saturday he could be seen making his first attempts at walking in Earth’s gravity supported by two helpers.
Sense of balance is also greatly affected by the transition away from an environment where there is no “up” or “down” as defined by gravity.
On Earth, the vestibular system in the inner ear that keeps us on our feet can be over-stimulated. Dizziness and nausea are common problems experienced by astronauts returning from orbit, as are feelings of faintness caused by a drop in blood pressure.

After arriving in Cologne, Peake said he was experiencing dizziness and vertigo every time he moved his head. Such effects normally disappear very quickly; others could take much longer to recover from and some may cause permanent changes.
Months in space will have weakened Peake’s muscles and bones and temporarily shrunk the size of his heart. Astronauts lose up to 1.5% of their bone mass for each month spent in space. The loss is greatest in the upper thighs and pelvis, and can increase the risk of injuries such as hip fractures.


Over time, the influence of gravity helps the bone regrow, but full recovery can take as long as three years depending on the individual. Muscles get stronger quickly, but the weakness can be deceptive to begin with and astronauts have reported straining their necks by turning their heads too quickly.

While in space, unprotected by the Earth’s magnetic field, Peake will have been exposed to a radiation dose equivalent to about 1,200 chest x-rays. That is enough to increase his risk of cancer, but not by more than about 3%.

Peake and his crewmates – American Nasa astronaut Colonel Tim Kopra and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko – made the trip back to Earth on Saturday in a tiny Soyuz descent module measuring just over 6ft (1.8 metres) across.

etc...

https://www.theguardian.com/science...rlds-worst-hangover-after-six-months-in-space
 
Are we sure it isn't due to the space whiskey?
 
Ardbeg sent some whiskey to the ISS.
 
They probably had plenty of Russian vodka on board.
Medicinal purposes, of course.
 
Justin Pickard ‏@justinpickard 50m50 minutes ago
Foxes walk in front of a Baikonur launch pad, prior to the Soyuz MS carrying new crew to the ISS (Dmitri Lovetsky):

CmyRJhGWEAAZfhb.jpg
 
Tim Peake, Britain's first official astronaut, is returning to space
Sarah Knapton, Science Editor
26 January 2017 • 9:52am

Tim Peake is heading back to the International Space Station, Greg Clark, the Business Secretary has announced.
Major Peake became Britain's first official astronaut in December 2015 and spent six months on board the ISS.

On Thursday, the Russian Soyuz capsule that brought Major Peake back down to Earth was unveiled at the Science Museum in central London where it will now be on permanent display.
Unveiling the spacecraft, Mr Clark confirmed that the astronaut will be heading back to the ISS.
"Tim Peake will be returning to space aboard the ISS," he told journalists. "The space sector is an important and growing part of the UK space agency."

Jan Woerner, director of the European Space Agency, also confirmed that the British astronaut would be returning in the near future.
Speaking via a live link, Mr Worner said: "We have organised that Tim can fly again. We hope you are ready for it, and we hope you are ready Tim."

The Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft launched Major Peake into orbit and returned him to Earth following his mission, which began in December 2015.
Refurbished but still singed by the heat of re-entry, the capsule joins other exhibits charting the history of space exploration.

Speaking about the Soyuz spacecraft as it was unveiled, Major Peake said: "It's amazing that it still bears the scorch marks of our entry into the atmosphere at 1,600C, which was punishing.
"The capsule was tightly packed. It's one of the only times in my life that I was grateful for being 5ft 8in."

The Science Museum also made Major Peake a fellow of the museum alongside the Queen and Stephen Hawking and announced that a virtual reality experience of the descent will open in March, voiced by the astronaut.
Acquired for the nation by the Science Museum Group in December 2016, Soyuz TMA-19M is the first flown human rated spacecraft in the UK's national spacecraft collection.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/...ins-first-official-astronaut-returning-space/







 
Tim Peake, Britain's first official astronaut, is returning to space
Sarah Knapton, Science Editor
26 January 2017 • 9:52am

Tim Peake is heading back to the International Space Station, Greg Clark, the Business Secretary has announced.
Major Peake became Britain's first official astronaut in December 2015 and spent six months on board the ISS.

On Thursday, the Russian Soyuz capsule that brought Major Peake back down to Earth was unveiled at the Science Museum in central London where it will now be on permanent display.
Unveiling the spacecraft, Mr Clark confirmed that the astronaut will be heading back to the ISS.
"Tim Peake will be returning to space aboard the ISS," he told journalists. "The space sector is an important and growing part of the UK space agency."

Jan Woerner, director of the European Space Agency, also confirmed that the British astronaut would be returning in the near future.
Speaking via a live link, Mr Worner said: "We have organised that Tim can fly again. We hope you are ready for it, and we hope you are ready Tim."

The Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft launched Major Peake into orbit and returned him to Earth following his mission, which began in December 2015.
Refurbished but still singed by the heat of re-entry, the capsule joins other exhibits charting the history of space exploration.

Speaking about the Soyuz spacecraft as it was unveiled, Major Peake said: "It's amazing that it still bears the scorch marks of our entry into the atmosphere at 1,600C, which was punishing.
"The capsule was tightly packed. It's one of the only times in my life that I was grateful for being 5ft 8in."

The Science Museum also made Major Peake a fellow of the museum alongside the Queen and Stephen Hawking and announced that a virtual reality experience of the descent will open in March, voiced by the astronaut.
Acquired for the nation by the Science Museum Group in December 2016, Soyuz TMA-19M is the first flown human rated spacecraft in the UK's national spacecraft collection.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/...ins-first-official-astronaut-returning-space/







Just hope Major Tim doesn't do a Major Tom this time.
 
UK schoolboy corrects Nasa data error
1 hour ago


A British teenager has contacted scientists at Nasa to point out an error in a set of their own data.
A-level student Miles Soloman found that radiation sensors on the International Space Station (ISS) were recording false data.
The 17-year-old from Tapton school in Sheffield said it was "pretty cool" to email the space agency.

The correction was said to be "appreciated" by Nasa, which invited him to help analyse the problem.
"What we got given was a lot of spreadsheets, which is a lot more interesting than it sounds," Miles told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme.

The research was part of the TimPix project from the Institute for Research in Schools (IRIS), which gives students across the UK the chance to work on data from the space station, looking for anomalies and patterns that might lead to further discoveries.

During UK astronaut Tim Peake's stay on the station, detectors began recording the radiation levels on the ISS.
"I went straight to the bottom of the list and I went for the lowest bits of energy there were," Miles explained.

Miles's teacher and head of physics, James O'Neill, said: "We were all discussing the data but he just suddenly perked up in one of the sessions and went 'why does it say there's -1 energy here?'"
What Miles had noticed was that when nothing hit the detector, a negative reading was being recorded.
But you cannot get negative energy. So Miles and Mr O'Neill contacted Nasa.

"It's pretty cool", Miles said. "You can tell your friends, I just emailed Nasa and they're looking at the graphs that I've made."
It turned out that Miles had noticed something no-one else had - including the Nasa experts.

Nasa said it was aware of the error, but believed it was only happening once or twice a year.
Miles had found it was actually happening multiple times a day.

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39351833


 
A schoolboy error.
 
I see they're all still mucking about on the I.S.S. ... their Mums must be furious ..

 
Alien Bacteria Found On Hull Of ISS?

Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) may have discovered the first case of alien life after allegedly finding bacteria on the hull of the space station.

This bacteria was not there at the launch of the ISS and therefore could have come from outer space.

"Bacteria that had not been there during the launch of the ISS module were found on the swabs," confirmed Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, who was part of a team of scientists aboard the orbiting station.

They are currently being analysed to find out if they really are extra-terrestrial in nature.

On the other hand,

Some bacteria originating from Earth (specifically, Madagascar) has been found to survive the vacuum of space after being lifted off our planet by a phenomenon known as "ionosphere lift".

It has been known to attach itself to the surface of the space station which is orbiting 20km above the Earth.
 
After the ISS.

As the world’s leading spacefaring nations plan for their next big outpost in space — a successor to the International Space Station — scientists are drafting a wish list of experiments for the most remote human laboratory ever built. NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are hosting meetings to discuss the science plans, the first of which are taking place on 5–6 December in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

No nation has yet committed to fully funding the project, which does not yet have an estimated cost but is slated for the 2020s. But the space agencies are working on a plan to build an outpost in orbit around the Moon. Scientists are already jockeying for room on the platform. “I have been taken aback by the extent and the quality of proposals,” says James Carpenter, human and robotic exploration strategy officer at ESA in Noordwijk, who organized the event and had to double the capacity of the agency's event to 250 people, owing to the level of interest.

Known as the Deep Space Gateway, the platform is the “commonly accepted” next step once the International Space Station retires in the mid-2020s, says David Parker, director of human spaceflight and robotic exploration at ESA. The space agencies have made clear that its main purpose would be to test, from Earth’s backyard, the technology for deep-space exploration and long-duration missions — including, eventually, going to Mars. “But we also want to work out how we get the best science out of it,” says Parker.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-017-07869-3?utm_source=TWT_NatureNews&sf175497332=1
 
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