July 31st, 2023
Author: 
The European Space Agency performed an assisted/semi-controlled descent of its retired Aeolus, a wind profiling spacecraft lofted into Earth orbit in 2018. Mission scientists and engineers took on the tricky task of targeting a remote stretch of the Atlantic Ocean for the plunge to Earth of Aeolus. A key aspect of assisted reentry is that […]
Posted in 
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3904 duties. Lucy Thompson, a planetary geologist at the University of New Brunswick; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, reports that rover engineers have navigated Curiosity through tricky terrain of fractured blocks and sand. “Our parking spot is on the rim of one of the larger […]
GOLDEN, Colorado – The pace is quickening for using Earth’s Moon as a near-term, go-to location to land, live and explore. NASA’s Artemis back-to-the-Moon agenda is jelling. So too are long-term plans by small and large firms, academia, along with international space agencies. That was in evidence at the twenty-third meeting of the Space Resources […]
That ill-fated dive of the Titan submersible and loss of its deep ocean exploring occupants has sparked conversation and debate in the world of public space travel. There are similarities, some of which offer lessons learned as commercial suborbital and orbital passenger flight flourishes. Please go to my new […]
The results from a just-released RAND analysis of UAP point to three recommendations for government officials. “First, we recommend that government authorities (e.g., local and state government officials, the FAA, and DoD) conduct outreach with civilians located near military operations areas (MOAs.) We hypothesize that many civilians may not be aware that they […]
Call it a “stone’s throw” type of spacecraft mission. Making its way back to Earth is NASA’s Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer. Yes, that’s a mega-mouthful, but word manicured to OSIRIS-REx. Now it’s called by project members as just “O-REx” for the sake of speedier repartee. OSIRIS-REx is the first U.S. mission […]
They’re Here! How best to brace for “Full Disclosure.” The ongoing saga of UFOs/UAP, what are they and what impact on society? If you follow the complex and perplexing world of Unidentified Flying Objects, now tied to the term Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, we may be inching toward “full disclosure.” What that means is uncorking the […]
Russia is set to reactivate the country’s robotic investigation of the Moon, picking up from its former Soviet Union days of heady and milestone-making lunar exploration. Luna-25 is reportedly targeted for an August 11 sendoff to the Moon, departing from the Vostochny cosmodrome atop a Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with a Fregat upper stage. “This launch […]
Russia’s Luna-25 Moon lander continues to make progress as it heads for its August liftoff from the Vostochny launch site. According to Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, Luna-25 is now fueled with propellant and loaded with compressed gases. Meanwhile, employees of the IKI RAS, the space research institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, have […]
NASA has selected 11 U.S. companies to develop technologies that could support long-term exploration on the Moon and in space. Six of the selected companies are small businesses. The awarded companies, their projects, and the approximate value of NASA’s contribution are: Astrobotic Technology of Pittsburgh, $34.6 million – LunaGrid-Lite: Demonstration of Tethered, Scalable […]
