Foresail-1, the first satellite from the Finnish Center of Excellence in Research of Sustainable Space, is ready for space.

"With the help of long-term funding from the Academy of Finland, we have created the first scientific space program in Finland, which aims to develop more sustainable space technology," says Professor Minna Palmroth from the University of Helsinki, the director of the Center of Excellence.

The satellite's journey from Otaniemi in Espoo will begin within a few days. The first stop will be Berlin, Germany, where the satellite will be integrated into the launch adapter. Foresail-1 will be delivered to its designated rocket by the German launch service provider EXOLaunch.

An international team of researchers has conducted an extensive study of the impact of long-term space flight on the eyes and brains of astronauts. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their study of MRI scans of both astronauts and cosmonauts before and after venturing into space and the differences they found between the two groups.

When humans venture into space, their bodies undergo changes due to freefall. Prior research has shown that a person's height can be impacted, for example, due to less downward pressure on the spinal column. More recently, as flight times have expanded, researchers have found that the great reduction in gravity also impacts vison and the brain. In this new effort, the researchers took a close look at such changes by studying MRIs made of 24 astronauts and 13 cosmonauts before they went into space and then again within two weeks of their return to Earth. All those studied had spent a minimum of six months in space. The researchers also looked at MRIs of astronauts that had been in space for just two weeks as part of NASA shuttle missions, and also at a few astronauts with the European Space Agency.