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The International Space Station (ISS) has been in orbit around the Earth for over 9,000 days. The 109-metre-long station is operated under the leadership of NASA by 16 countries and five space agencies, including NASA and the European ESA. The ISS orbits the Earth at an altitude of about 400 km in an easterly direction and needs 93 minutes at a speed of about 28,800 km/h for a complete orbit. In fact, the station loses about 50 to 150 metres of altitude every day, which is compensated for by an acceleration manoeuvre.

Ideas of a permanently manned space station have existed in the USA since the 1960s. When NASA began concrete planning in the 1980s, they realised that the cost of operating such a station would be exorbitant. After the end of the Cold War, however, there was cooperation with the Soviet Union, or later Russia. The Soviet Union had already installed its MIR space station in space in 1986 and the USA eventually joined the programme. The MIR was abandoned in 2001.

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In parallel, NASA launched its ISS project in cooperation with other international space organisations and countries. The station has a modular design, and the individual components have been gradually assembled by Russian and American expeditions in over 40 flights since 1998. The station is being successively expanded.

The first long-term ISS crew expedition moved into the station on 2 November 2000 and was brought there on a Russian Soyuz-TM 31. The astronauts and cosmonauts William Shepherd (USA), Yuri Gidsenko and Sergei Krikalyov (Russia) remained at the station for 136 days, until 19 March 2001. On 20 August 2001, ISS Expedition 2 arrived at the station on a NASA space shuttle. Susan Helms was the first woman to occupy the ISS.

After initially only Russian cosmonauts and US astronauts provided the crew of the ISS, other countries also provided personnel after 2006. However, US-Russian cooperation suffered greatly after Russias attack on Ukraine and the US support measures for Ukraine.

As early as July 2022, Yuri Borisov, head of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, had declared that Russia would withdraw from the ISS project after 2024. Russia would fulfil all its contractual obligations until then, but would build its own station in parallel. It is possible that Roskosmos will continue to use the Russian modules of the ISS.

The crew of ISS Expedition 69 is currently on the ISS. The seven-member crew includes Andrey Fedyaev, Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev (Russia), Frank Rubio, Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg (USA) and Sultan Alneyadi (VAR).

The official portrait of the Expedition 69 crew: (from the left) flight engineers Frank Rubio of NASA, Dmitri Petelin of Roscosmos, Sultan Alneyadi of the United Arab Emirates, Woody Hoburg of NASA, Stephen Bowen of NASA, Andrey Fedyaev of Roscosmos and Commander Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos.

In addition to the scientific programme in the ISS, the maintenance of the station, which also includes some outdoor expeditions, the team members have time to take breathtaking photos of space and of the Earth.

Self-explanatory controls and cable connections

Outreach: NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen and United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi are seen in their spacesuits during a seven-hour and one-minute spacewalk, during which they laid cables and applied insulation

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View of the Earth

View of Sicily with the volcano Etna

Or else they play chess. The biggest chess fan on the team is US astronaut Woody Hoburg.

Frank Rubio, Woody Hoburg (both NASA), Sultan Alneyadi from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Stephen Bowen from NASA playing chess

Hoburg not only remembered to bring a chess set with him to the ISS, but also made sure that the pieces were magnetic, which is a particularly useful feature on the ISS.

Woddy Hoburg plays a remote game against the controllers in the mission centre at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. There is time for one or two moves a day between appointments. Hoburg has won the first game.

Or he plays against his colleagues, as here against the cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev. The game took place in the dome of the International Space Station. The ISS was 259 miles above the Colombian-Venezuelan border at the time this picture was taken.

Where to put the beaten figures

Link:
Chess in outer space - ChessBase

Almost three years after the premiere of the popular Netflix show The Queen's Gambit, the streaming giant released The Queen's Gambit Chess, a game based on the series, on Tuesday. You can play this game for free and without ads or paywalls with a Netflix subscription (starting at $7, 7 or AU$7 a month) on Android and iOS devices.

The Queen's Gambit Chess is a good introduction to chess for anyone who enjoyed the show and wanted to play the game, and it's a good challenge for people who already know how to play chess.

You can select your experience level early in the game -- I haven't played chess in years so I opted for the easiest setting. Early parts of the game teach you the placement of the pieces and how they move, and once you get the basics down, you'll start tackling chess puzzles and playing games against the computer.

As you progress, you'll also explore more of the world from the show, including the Methuen Home orphanage, where Beth Harmon learned to play chess in the show, and Moscow, where Beth took on the USSR grand master Vasily Borgov.

There's also an online game mode where you can play ranked matches against other people from around the world. The game even gives you an Elo rating -- the numeric system used to rank chess players -- so you can see how you stack up against others.

You can access this game and others with any of Netflix's subscriptions, which start at $7 a month. To access Netflix games, open the Netflix app on your Android or iOS device, scroll down the homepage until you see the Mobile Games carousel, and tap into the game you want to play.

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Rook No Further, The Queen's Gambit Chess Is Now on Netflix Games - CNET

As is known, chess is the world sport that, after football, has the most registered athletes. It is played on all continents, both by able-bodied people and by the vast majority of people with disabilities. Chess, for the second time, was included in the list of sports that will be present at the IBSA WORLD GAMES.

There are 22 athletes from seven countries (Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Uzbekistan) which will compete for medals. The tournament will take place in the Swiss system with seven rounds; each round will start at 15:00, the first round will be on August 20, and the game time is one hour and a half per player plus 30 seconds per increment move. The technical session is scheduled for August 18 at 7.30pm CEST (-1 local time), in the Great Hall. Also, the athletes have the opportunity to prepare together with the staff, on August 18 and 19. The main referee of the tournament is Michail Keramiotis (Greece).

The prize will be awarded in three categories: * Open Tournament * Women * Teams (each team will be composed of two athletes, who will be established during the technical meeting).

I hope with all my heart, that in the future, the sports organisations from the IBSA member countries will focus more on the promotion of this sport of the mind! I wish all the athletes who will be present in Birmingham the best thoughts to dispute games that rise to the highest value level and the best to win! Sorin Lapadatu, Chess Sport Committee Chairperson

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Chess in the IBSA World Games - IBSA International Blind Sports ... - International Blind Sports Federation

A call by the Chess Federation of Ukraine (FSHU) for their players not to shake hands with Russian or Belarusian players during the International Chess Federation (FIDE) World Cup and Womens World Cup here has been called "blackmail".

The Ukrainian recommendations, listed in a post on the FSHU Facebook account, urges players to "refrain from handshakes with representatives of Russia and Belarus, regardless of what flag they stand under."

Players from both have been permitted to compete in the tournament as neutrals.

In addition, Ukrainian players have been warned against posing for photos with players from the two nations.

"Avoid talking to representatives of the aggressor's country in a way not provided for by the rules of chess," the list also stipulates.

Players are also asked to "refrain from actions that can damage the image of Ukraine."

There is a further recommendation that players speaking at media conferences or using social media should "inform and remind the world community that the war waged against Ukraine and its people is ongoing by Russia and Belarus."

At official FIDE World Cup media conferences so far, no appearances have been made by Ukrainian players.

The FSHU message also called for FIDE's Russian President Arkady Dvorkovich to be removed from office because of his nationality.

When competition began here today none of the Ukrainians were in action against opponents from Russia or Belarus but meetings remain a possibility as competition continues until August 24.

In the Open tournament, Yuriy Kuzubov began his campaign against Moroccos Mohamed Tissir, Vitaliy Bernadskiy opened against Australias Temur Kuybokarov and Vladimir Baklan met Singapores Jingyao Tin.

In the FIDE Women's World Cup first round, Nataliya Buksa was in action against Mongolias Turmunkh Munkhzul and Anastasiya Rakhmangulova played her first game against Viktoria Radeva of Bulgaria,

A FIDE spokesperson has today toldinsidethegames that the rules of chess do not make any stipulation on handshakes.

The Ukrainian advice has been condemned by Russian Chess Federation (FSHR) officials.

"Now all the national Ukrainian federations will be doing this kind of thing," Russian State Duma on sports and physical culture chairman Dmitry Svishchev told Russia's official state news agency TASS.

"In fact, this is blackmail, which will lead to a mess in world sports."

FSHR executive director Alexander Tkachev refused to accept that players would refuse to shake hands.

"There is no need to react to this, shaking hands before a game, congratulating an opponent on a victory after is an age-old tradition that has been and will be as long as chess has existed and no recommendation will change this," Tkachev insisted to TASS.

"I think this is stupidity that will only hinder the Ukrainians and bring them discomfort, I am one hundred per cent sure that there will be meetings between our chess players and Ukrainians at the tournament," FSHR vice-president Sergey Smagin added.

In chess, there has been a famous non-handshake incident when Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria subsequently refused after Topalov accused his opponent of cheating during a match in 2006.

Tensions have escalated after the incident at the International Fencing Federation (FIE) World Championships in Milan last week.

Ukraines Olga Kharlan was disqualified for refusing to shake hands with Russian fencer Anna Smirnova after their round-of-64 womens sabre bout.

Kharlan's disqualification was later rescinded.

At Wimbledon, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus was booed by the crowd when walking off court, after not shaking hands with Elina Svitolina, her Ukrainian opponent.

The incident prompted the Women's Tennis Association to issue a statement ruling that handshakes were no longer deemed compulsory.

Svitolina had refused to shake hands with any players from Russia or Belarus at previous tournaments, in response to the invasion of Ukraine by the two nations.

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Ukraine's chess players warned against shaking hands with ... - Insidethegames.biz

Four Things You Didnt Know About Affiliates

Our rulebook has scant wording regarding chess tournament organizers. In contrast, Tournament Directors (TDs) get an entire chapter to themselves. But organizers only get Rule 23.

The first sentence of that directive puts to rest the idea that individuals are the organizers of rated chess events. Only US Chess Affiliates get that official privilege. You can sign up for an Affiliate Membership here. Rule 23 tells us what expectations come with that Affiliate Membership. Without an affiliate, a TD cannot submit a tournament ratings report. In practice there is even more to know about affiliates than rule 23. Check out these top four things that you might not about affiliates:

1. The TD and the Organizer are two separate jobs that can be done by two different people.

Many TDs also wear the organizers hat, but those two jobs dont need to be fulfilled by the same person. Affiliates can authorize TDs to be their onsite official. It has been observed that smaller events especially club tournaments often are directed by a TD that happens to also be the affiliate. This has led many a player to mistakenly conclude that a single person must always be both the TD and organizer. At Super Swisses, organizers are the ones that take care of pre-event publicity, event details, site rental, staffing, etc. Then, once the tournament starts, the TD takes over. At smaller events, one person likely wears both the TD and the organizer hats at once. The larger an event gets the more likely that the TD and organizer are not the same individual. All the same, it is still difficult for the average tournament wood-pusher to tell the difference between those two jobs.

2. Organizers can submit rating reports to US Chess too.

An affiliate i.e., the organizer on a routine basis authorizes a TD, or several TDs, to submit official rating reports to US Chess for them. If a TD releases the ratings report directly to an affiliate, the affiliate instead of the TD submits the rating report directly to US Chess.

3. Organizers are responsible for paying the prize fund, not the TD.

Affiliates, not their designated TDs, are responsible for seeing that the prizes and all other chess bills like new and renewed US Chess memberships get paid. Sometimes one of their TDs has access to the affiliates accounts. That allows that TD to hand out prize gold directly to the tournament winners. Other times all a TD can do is calculate the prize money and pass that list along to the affiliate for payment.

TDs must have an affiliates consent to file rating reports. To avoid securing an affiliate membership, some TDs simply have an affiliate add their name to an existing affiliates approved TD list. That-a-way, those extraneous TDs can submit rating reports using that affiliates ID. Those onsite officials typically do their own leg work in securing a site, creating event details, publicizing the tournament and paying prizes; however, if that TD fails to pay the prizes, submit a ratings report, or collect US Chess dues, then it's the affiliate on the hook. Those affiliates could then experience US Chess sanctions as well as possible civil liabilities.

4. There is more than one kind of affiliate.

While the rulebook does not list them, there are four kinds of affiliates: College, School, Prison, and General. Those names alone signal the specific interests, and privileges, for each kind of affiliateship. State affiliates get pulled from the General affiliate category via US Chess/Delegates. They have extra duties and responsibilities to US Chess: naming delegates via some process to the yearly Delegates convention, determining various state champions (typically via sanctioned events), etc.

Any affiliates US Chess sign-up needs to designate a manager, or managers. Only those managers are allowed to make any changes to the affiliates US Chess data such as designating TDs, official addresses, adding and deleting managers plus TDs. In other words, the paperwork! Those managers do not need to be the ones responsible for the event-to-event details. Clubs (affiliates) change leadership upon occasion and those new details need to be noted to US Chess.

If you are interested in which affiliates are in your area click here.

The free, updated US Chess Rules (Chapters 1+2 + 9 + 10 +11 from the 7th edition rulebook) are now downloadable and available online.

Want more? Past columns can be found here or by searching the Chess Life Online archives.

Plus, listen to Tim when he was a guest on the US Chess podcast One Move at a Time.

Tim Just is a National Tournament Director, FIDE National Arbiter, and editor of the 5th, 6th, and 7th editions of the US Chess Rulebook. He is also the author of My Opponent is Eating a Doughnut & Just Law, which are both available from US Chess Sales and Amazon/Kindle. Additionally, Tim revised The Guide To Scholastic Chess, a guide created to help teachers and scholastic organizers who wish to begin, improve, or strengthen their school chess program. US Chess awarded the 2022 Tournament Director Lifetime Achievement Award to Tim. He is also a member of the US Chess Rules Committee plus the Tournament Director Certification Committee (TDCC). His new column, exclusive to US Chess, Just the Rules will help clarify potentially confusing regulations.

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Just The Rules: Organizer Blues | US Chess.org - uschess.org