September 8th, 2016
Author: 
On Mars it’s Sol 1455 for the Curiosity rover. After another successful drive of roughly 130 feet (40 meters), Curiosity is aiming to approach the south side of a butte for its next potential drill site. The area is known as “Quela” – a bright outcrop at the base of the butte. Major dust storm? […]
Posted in 
Creative and novel work is underway to create a Single-Person Spacecraft (SPS). Genesis Engineering Solutions of Lanham, Maryland has highlighted their recent underwater, neutral buoyancy tests for an SPS at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Neutral buoyancy is a proven way to simulate the weightless space environment and the center […]
“Our next flight is going to be dramatic, no matter how it ends,” explains Jeff Bezos, lead rocketeer of the Blue Origin group and Amazon.com guru. Bezos notes in a new update that “this upcoming flight will be our toughest test yet.” The test should be in the first part of October, he says, “and […]
A new NASA history document is yours for the download – spotlighting the growth of spacewalking – known as extravehicular activity or EVA. Walking to Olympus: An EVA Chronology, 1997–2011 Volume 2 has been written by Julie B. Ta and Robert C. Treviño. Following the first volume of Walking to Olympus: An EVA Chronology, which […]
Nearly 50 years to the day of the original airing of “Star Trek,” the U.S. Postal Service dedicated the Star Trek Forever stamps. According to the U.S. Postal Service, these stamps will “live long and prosper,” because as Forever stamps they are good for mailing a 1-ounce First-Class letter anytime in […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is gearing up for Sol 1454 duties. A four-sol plan over the holiday weekend went well, and Curiosity drove roughly 130 feet (40 meters) to the south, reports Lauren Edgar, a research geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona. “We’re currently just to the east of a butte […]
The National Academy of Sciences has released National Security Space Defense and Protection: Public Report (2016). At the request of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine produced two classified reports that assess currently available […]
The European Space Agency announced today that the Philae comet lander has been found! Images taken by ESA’s Rosetta spotted the lander, wedged into a dark crack on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Imagery clearly shows the main body of the lander, along with two of its three legs. Ballistic bounces Back in November 2014, Philae was […]
Now in Sol 1451 on Mars, the Curiosity rover has a Labor Day of duties, but has recently been stymied by communication challenges. Lauren Edgar, a research geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona, reports that a Deep Space Network issue led to an entire Odyssey Mars orbiter pass to be […]
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd and Goonhilly Earth Station are looking for CubeSat passenger payloads on a lunar mission. They are teaming up with the European Space Agency to create “the world’s first commercial deep space mission” for 2019. Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station is a large radio communication site located on Goonhilly Downs near Helston […]
