>good for them
ESA astronaut and International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 13 crew member Thomas Reiter set a new record for the number of days spent in space by a European astronaut last week when he completed a total of over 209 days in orbit, according to a recent ESA release.

ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain sent a message of congratulations to Reiter, who is scheduled to stay on board ISS until December 2006. “At the end of your mission you will have spent one year in space. With this outstanding expertise and experience you – as our “highest flying” colleague – symbolise Europe’s commitment to space,” said Dordain.

The career spaceflight record belongs to Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, who spent a total of 803 days in space – more than two years of his life altogether – during a series of six spaceflights beginning with a November 1988 launch toward the space station Mir and ending with 2005’s Expedition 11 mission to the ISS, according to space.com.

The U.S. career spaceflight record is currently held by NASA astronaut Michael Foale, who has flown six space missions and racked up 374 days in orbit.

>inflatable & delayable
Bigelow Aerospace’s Genesis-2 inflatable space module is now scheduled for a January 2007 launch, according to a recent space.com article.

“Initially scheduled for late 2006, we and our launch provider have decided not to obligate our staffs to be away from home over the December and early January holidays. So we now have a new approximate launch time frame of the last week of January,” Bigelow noted.

Late in the month following the July 12 liftoff of Genesis-1, a Dnepr booster—the rocket upon which the new module will depend to achiev orbit—failed to deliver its cargo of satellites into Earth orbit. An ISC Kosmotras investigation of that failure is underway.