But still, when stepping back and looking at the big picture, not so much different than our little orbiting space station.
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Beijing Daily says three astronauts will head out to China's orbiting space station this summer and spend two weeks testing the station's systems for supporting life.
"In order to justify it politically, they had to say, 'Well, it's not going to an Earth-orbiting space station, but it could carry the components of an Earth-orbiting space station to space, '" he says.
He'll then spend over a week orbiting Earth on the space station.
Right now, though, one of the high tech toilets - the one built in Russia - is orbiting the Earth on the international space station, and, as NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reports, it's partially broken.
The International Space Station is the biggest orbiting outpost ever built and can sometimes be seen from Earth with the naked eye.
KOROLYOV, Russia (Reuters) -- A Russian space capsule docked with the orbiting station Mir on Monday to allow a joint Russian-French-Slovak crew to embark on what could be the last mission to the aging craft.
While the International Space Station is currently the only orbiting space tourist destination, other extended stay commercial spaceflight opportunities could exist in the future, the authors wrote.
When the belts expand, they can pose dangers to satellites orbiting Earth, and even the astronauts aboard the International Space Station, which orbits about 240 miles high (390 km).
While Padalka and Malenchenko worked outside, 5h3 four other members of the space station's Expedition 32 crew remained inside the orbiting lab.
That optimistic timeline had been offered by numerous NASA managers, who would like to resume shuttle flights to the international space station soon to send crews and components to the unfinished orbiting outpost.
Because of the extraordinary value of this orbiting research outpost, earlier this year I proposed extending the life of the space station until at least 2020 so that NASA can pioneer new frontiers in education and international cooperation that will maximize the scientific return of this important foothold in space.
In addition, it is probable that the orbiting module will be followed up in the next few years by something that is more recognisably a space station, though this station is unlikely to be manned full-time.
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