Scientific research is flying high on the International Space Station. The shoebox-sized 'SODI-IVIDIL' experiment in Europe’s Columbus laboratory module has already provided scientists with thousands of fascinating images of an everyday phenomenon: the behaviour of liquid mixtures under vibration.

This has been a significant year for ESA’s Directorate of Human Spaceflight and, in particular, for the International Space Station. During 2009, ESA astronaut Frank De Winne became the first European Commander of the station, and ESA carried out two missions, OasISS and Alissé, to the station.

On 15 December, graduates of the fourth International Master Course in ’SpacE Exploration and Development Systems’,called SEEDS, presented the results of their final team project in the Erasmus Centre Auditorium at ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands. The project focused on the subject of ‘Advanced Lunar Itinerant Caravan for Exploration’.

On 17 December, Giorgio Napolitano, President of the Italian Republic, met with ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli, NASA astronauts Scott Altman and Michael Massimino from the Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-125 mission, launched in May 2009, and the Director of the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence, Paolo Galluzzi.

The unique particle physics detector known as the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer will soon arrive at ESA’s ESTEC facility in the Netherlands to undergo final testing in Europe prior to being shipped to the Kennedy Space Center in the spring of 2010 and its launch to the International Space Station on the STS-134 Shuttle Endeavour mission in July 2010.

ESA PR 31-2009 Today at the Paris headquarters of the French space agency (CNES), Simonetta Di Pippo, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight, and Thierry Duquesne, CNES Director for Strategy, Programmes and International Relations, signed an agreement that paves the way for the launch of a high-accuracy atomic clock to be attached to the outside of the European Columbus laboratory onboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Mr Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Prime Minister of Sweden, which currently holds the presidency of the EU, was on Monday presented with a European flag that travelled 9 262 217 km in space aboard the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station.

The launch operations and vehicle recovery contract for ESA’s European Experimental Re-entry Testbed (Expert) was signed on 2 December in Moscow, Russia, between ESA and the Russian Makeyev State Rocket Centre. The contract was signed by ESA’s Director of Human Spaceflight Simonetta Di Pippo and Makeyev State Rocket Centre’s Deputy General Director for Economics and Finance, Sergey Glazyrin.

The recent Shuttle mission to the International Space Station has brought ESA’s Columbus module a step nearer to beginning an ambitious experiment to track global maritime traffic from space.

ESA PR 30-2009. The Soyuz TMA-15 reentry module landed safely in Kazakhstan at 13.15 local time (08.15 CET), bringing ESA astronaut Frank De Winne, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk back to Earth.

Parabolic flights with aircraft have provided microgravity conditions for scientific research, technology testing and astronaut training for the last 25 years in Europe. Now the flights can reach further into space: with a very special flight plan, the European ‘Zero-G’ Airbus can imitate gravity conditions on the Moon and Mars.

The Texus-46 sounding rocket was launched on 22 November at 12:30 CET from the Esrange space centre in Swedish Lapland to provide 388 seconds of microgravity for its two experiment payloads.

Twelve years of design, development and hard work came to fruition with the formal handover of Node 3 from ESA to NASA on 20 November. The ceremony took place in the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA.

ESA’s 51st Parabolic Flight Campaign took place this week in Bordeaux, France. Fourteen scientific experiments were conducted by European scientists under microgravity conditions on the modified Airbus A300 aircraft. Four of the experiments were conducted by student teams as part of ESA’s ‘Fly Your Thesis!’ programme.

ESA is looking for ideas to use the International Space Station as a platform to conduct research into global climate change.

Note: Deadline exteded to 18 January 2010

The Astrobiology Lecture Course Network, or ABC-Net, kicked off its third season of live lectures on Tuesday 20 October with three astrobiology lectures broadcast live from the University of Turku in Finland to the other universities participating in ABC-Net programme.

Starting in 2010, an international crew of six will simulate a 520-day round-trip to Mars, including a 30-day stay on the martian surface. In reality, they will live and work in a sealed facility in Moscow, Russia, to investigate the psychological and medical aspects of a long-duration space mission. ESA is looking for European volunteers to take part.

Using organic waste and minerals and the sun as an energy source, pilot project Melissa aims to develop the life support systems essential for long-term space missions.

Last Sunday, ESA astronaut Frank De Winne took over the command of the International Space Station - the first non-American and non-Russian to take on this role. This represents another milestone for Europe and ESA in human spaceflight and exploration. To celebrate this achievement, ESA held an inflight call event at the Columbus Control Centre in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.

ESA PR 26-2009. Ministers from the 29 European Space Agency and European Union Member States will meet in Prague on 23 October for the 1st EU-ESA International Conference on Human Space Exploration, to prepare a roadmap leading to the definition of a common vision and strategic planning for space exploration.