The squid are part of an experiment to see if, like some collegiate females on spring break, good bacteria “go wild” in the microgravity of space. Bobtail squid use bacteria called Vibrio fischeri to generate light. According to Discovery News:

That light helps the squid hunt for prey in dark waters. It also provides camouflage from any organisms trying to eat him, because the squid doesn’t cast a telltale shadow on the ocean floor as a result of the moon’s rays shining down into the water.

Previous shuttle experiments have shown what happens to harmful bacteria in space, but this will be the first experiment with beneficial bacteria.  Scientists are hoping that these results with squid will translate to beneficial bacteria with humans.

The NASA press kit reports that worms are part of the mission:

One NASA experiment known as Biology (Bio) will use, among other items, C. elegans worms, that are descendants of worms that survived the STS-107 space shuttle Columbia accident.

Haven’t these worms been through enough?!

Wired UK has a breakdown of other microbes joining STS134:

The microbes on-board Endeavour include the tardigrades (nicknamed Water Bears) which are large extremophiles that can withstand temperatures as biting as absolute zero, and as hot as 150 degrees Celsius. They’re joined by the Deinococcus radiodurans (which NASA dubbed “Conan the Bacterium“) which can survive upward of 15,000 Gy of radiation — 10 Gy is more than enough to kill an average human.

Haloarcula marismortui (Old Salty) loves salt, and lives in levels of high salinity that would kill other organisms. Pyrococcus furiosus (Fire Eater) is all about heat, and thrives in temperatures over 100 degrees Celsius. Cupriavidus metallidurans (which doesn’t have a nickname, unfortunately) plays a vital role in the formation of gold nuggets, thanks to its love of gold tetrachloride: a compound that is toxic to most other microorganisms.

Finally there’s Bacillus subtilis (The Average Joe), which is a model organism used in hundreds of biological experiments. It’s been into space many times before, so it’ll be a good comparison point for other studies.

You know, Dorothy only had lions and tigers and bears to face in Oz…

Image by Hans Hillewaert/Wikimedia

Though the 180-foot rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, where many NASA spacecraft lift-off, it was done so by a private company, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX. (SpaceX was found by internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, who also runs Tesla Motors.)

With the space shuttle program coming to an end within the year, commercial rockets like these may become essentials tools for getting cargo, and astronauts, to the International Space Station and beyond.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden had this official statement after the launch:

Space X’s accomplishment is an important milestone in the commercial transportation effort and puts the company a step closer to providing cargo services to the International Space Station.

Not only was the launch successful, but the separation of the Dragon spacecraft capsule also went off without a hitch. (You can view video of the lift-off and separation here.)

Later this year, SpaceX will launch a second Falcon 9 rocket to prove to NASA it can handle cargo.

According to NPR,

SpaceX has a contract with NASA to use the Falcon 9 and its “Dragon” capsule to carry cargo to and from the International Space Station, starting next year. And SpaceX has designed the Dragon spacecraft so that it could potentially take up NASA astronauts.

President Obama has been pushing the idea of this kind of space taxi for hire.

Reuters says that NASA will now focus on research and technology development while SpaceX and other private companies do the heavy lifting (literally).

SpaceX is selling its Falcon 9 rockets, which can carry 12 tonnes to an orbit about 225 miles above Earth, for about $50 million — less than half what is typically charged for rides on similar U.S. rockets.

And Nature’s blog, The Great Beyond, sums it up this way:

This bodes well for NASA science mission managers, who desperately need a new, cheap supplier of medium-sized rockets. It also means that the radical shift afoot within NASA’s human spaceflight programme, which is trying to dump expensive government-owned vehicles in favor of these so-called commercial rockets, now has perhaps slightly more credibility with a skeptical Congress.

Success, saving money and big, big news!

On just about any dark, clear night, skywatchers can see at least a few satellites cruising silently overhead, looking like faint stars wandering across the sky.  Since the launch of Sputnik in 1957, thousands of artificial moons have been rocketed into orbit for civilian, scientific, commercial, and military purposes.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, there are currently about 900 operational satellites circling the planet, but if “space junk” is included – that is, rocket shrouds, booster stages, dead satellites…and even a toolbox that was accidentally released by a spacewalking astronaut – the number of objects currently being tracked by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network is approximately 19,000. And that’s only those larger than 10 centimeters in diameter, or about the size of a softball.

Most satellites operate between 100 miles and 22,300 miles.  Within this range, everything from communication to military to weather satellites circle the planet.  Lower-orbiting satellites circle the globe about every 90 minutes, while those up at 22,300 miles – the geosynchronous orbit – circle at the same rate at which Earth rotates and thus always remain above the same spot on the ground (which is why images from certain weather satellites always show the same part of the country and why satellite-TV dishes must constantly be pointed toward the same spot in the sky).

With so many objects orbiting the planet, space scientists are growing concerned about the potential for collisions between satellites, as occurred in February 2009 when an out-of-control Russian satellite ran into a U.S. communications satellite, destroying both and creating a cloud of debris that scientists were concerned could pose further collision hazards to other satellites, though not to NASA’S Space Shuttle or to the International Space Station, whose orbits are below that of the debris.

For the near future, it seems that our astronauts will be working on the International Space Station, travelling into orbit via the Russian Soyuz spacecrafts.

Last summer, after a new group of nine astronauts was chosen for training, we spoke to astronaut and scientist Peggy Whitson about the need for astronauts in the future. Aside from being the first female commander on the space station, she chaired the astronaut selection board last year. She also has clocked the most time in space for a NASA astronaut: 376 days.

Last year the selection process was quite different, according to Dr. Whitson. “We did things a little bit differently this year because this was the first year we were selecting all long-duration flyers—people who are going to fly on the International Space Station for six months. Those of us who have flown on the station realize that being technically competent is obviously something that we want out of a crewmember, but also personality is pretty big—in being able to adapt to different and difficult situations is really important.”

After the one-year training program, the astronauts will be eligible for crew assignment. “Once they get picked to be on a crew, it would be another 2–2½ years of training before they’ll be able to fly on the space station.”

So don’t give up if you dream of becoming an astronaut—but be prepared for the reality of the challenge. According to Whitson, last year “we had 3800 applicants and we picked nine… So it’s not something that a lot of people get the opportunity to do. But it’s very special and it’s definitely worth pursuing.”

Image courtesy of NASA