Free Republic

Russian state media have reported Thursday that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio may attend Moscow's May 9 celebrations in Red Square to commemorate the end of World War Two. Zvezda, a TV channel of the Russian defense ministry, cited an unnamed diplomatic source that the U.S. might be represented by Rubio at the show piece event for the Kremlin which parades Russian military hardware. Newsweek has contacted the U.S. State Department and the Kremlin for a response.

The space exploration is as dangerous as any other human activity can get, and with the accumulating security issues of the aging International Space Station (ISS), the risks of a disaster are getting bigger by the day. Some space experts go as far as warning that NASA’s astronauts should evacuate the ISS immediately. For British expert Nick Pope, NASA’s ‘wait-and-see’ attitude may result in ‘devastating consequences’. Daily Mail reported: “’Leaving it too late could lead to a disaster that would kill not only the astronauts, but also NASA’s reputation,’ he said.” This comes as NASA is tracking 50 ‘areas of...

NASA's astronauts aboard the International Space Station have been told to prepare for an urgent evacuation amid growing safety concerns. The US space agency and its Russian counterpart, Roscomos, are tracking 50 'areas of concern' related to a growing leak aboard the station. NASA is now calling the cracks in a Russian service module a 'top safety risk' - escalating the threat rating to five out of five. Astronauts have been warned to stay in the American section when the module is open so they can be close to their spacecraft in case of an emergency evacuation. Although officials have...

NASA is tracking down the source of a minor air leak on the International Space Station. Crewmembers of the station's current Expedition 63 are in no immediate danger and will spend the weekend in the orbiting laboratory's Russian segment, inside the Zvezda service module, NASA officials said in an update today (Aug. 20). Astronauts can work in a shirtsleeve environment inside the station, but the orbiting lab is never completely airtight; a little bit of air always leaks over time, requiring routine repressurization from nitrogen tanks that are sent up during cargo missions, NASA added in the update. This leak...

The International Space Station (ISS) orbital altitude will be raised by 1.7 kilometers (about a mile) on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Russian Mission Control orbital altitude has said. The space station manoeuvre will be carried out with the help of eight boosters on board the Progress M-04M space freighter which is currently docked with the Zvezda module on the ISS, Ria Novosti quoting the spokesman said. "As a result of the operation...the ISS's orbit will be raised 1.7 kilometers, bringing the space station to an altitude of 348 kilometers (about 216 miles) above the Earth's surface," he said. The...