Spaceflight Vol 57 No 12 – December 2015

COSMONAUTS: Birth of the Space Age
Vix Southgate took a wander down to the Science Museum to check out the new exhibition of Soviet space hardware and came back more than a little impressed with what she found.

Tereshkova’s unseen sister
Tony Quine has a habit of rooting out previously untold stories about Soviet and Russian space affairs. He has been at it again and shares the fascinating story behind the woman selected to carry out physiological research prior to Valentina Tereshkova’s historic flight.

Aiming High
Chris McIntosh, CEO of ViaSat UK shares his thoughts about Britain and the space programme and comes out with a very positive view and a few recommendations of his own in this exclusive feature.

Countdown to Principia
Nick Spall caught up with Tim Peake as he nears his historic mission to the International Space Station, Britain’s second astronaut and its first flying as a representative of the European Space Agency.

THE MARTIAN – A love letter to science
Spaceflight takes a look behind the scenes of the latest space film, hailed by NASA as a great inspiration for the effort to get humans to the Red Planet, and finds out what it takes a make a big screen movie of this kind.

Apollo astronauts return to Iceland
It was just one place they came to learn geology before going to the Moon but Apollo astronauts have a special regard for the hospitality and sheer ruggedness of this island in the Atlantic Ocean, as Ken MacTaggart reports.

Seven Steps to Space Settlement
Derek Webber has a plan to get humans off-planet and living in secure settlements in space and defines the way to do that through a series of incremental steps.

Regular Features

ISS Operations Summary – 16 August to 30 September 2015

Briefing notes – news shorts from around the world

Satellite Digest – 515 September 2015

Flashback – A regular feature looking back 50 years ago this month

Inbox – NASA Commercial Crew Program – Life Force – News Management – For the Record – Lessons learned

Obituary – Wilfred Neat (1920-2015)

Off the Shelf – The Aviation Historian – Voices of the Soviet Space Program

Society News – BIS and Herschel Society Event – West Midlands Branch in UN Space Week

What’s On