May 8th, 2015
Author: 
The errant Russian supply ship intended to link up with the International Space Station has made a destructive plunge to Earth. The United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) pegged the Progress 59 fall to Earth on May 8 at 02:20 UTC, within a 1 minute window. According to a European Space Agency (ESA) Internet posting, […]
Posted in 
The fate of the out-of-control Russian Progress supply ship is near-at-hand. The logistics spacecraft — Progress M-27M — was launched by a Soyuz booster April 28 from Area 31 of the Baikonur launch site at 10:09:50 Moscow Time. As a resupply ship stocked with tons of cargo and fuel, it was headed for the International Space […]
Round and round it goes…exactly when and where it will plummet to Earth is a guessing game. On April 28, Russia’s uncrewed Progress M-27M supply ship streaked into orbit atop a Soyuz launcher, intended to dock with the International Space Station (ISS). But shortly after liftoff, the vessel experienced technical difficulties. Subsequently, a Russian […]
Orbiting spacecraft of Mars have imaged over the past several years dark, finger-like features – now called “recurring slope lineae” – or RSL for Martian short-hand. These dark flows have been observed at low and middle latitudes on Mars. RSL’s are a type of feature that creep down some Martian slopes in warmer months and […]
According to Ken Herkenhoff of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Flagstaff, Arizona, NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars is now in a good position for contact science observations on an interesting outcrop of sedimentary rock. On Sol 973, the rover is using several instruments to observe nearby targets “Albert” and “Charity,” and a distant […]
A scientific and public campaign is underway to keep operating NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Opportunity Mars rover. Both have been zeroed out in the President’s FY16 budget for NASA. This is despite LRO and Opportunity being highly ranked in a recent “Senior Review” of planetary missions. LRO was launched in 2009; Opportunity […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has advanced through a sandy-floored valley, busily inspecting the lower slopes of a layered mountain, Mount Sharp. The Mars machinery is busy investigating how the region’s ancient environment evolved from lakes and rivers to much drier conditions. New imagery shows the robot taking hits to its wheels, including a […]
A new story from me posted today on Space.com. The in-coming leader of the European Space Agency is keen on establishing an international base on the moon – a next-step outpost beyond the International Space Station. Johann-Dietrich Wörner expressed his lunar base views at The Space Foundation’s National Space Symposium, held here […]
Word is that Russian ground controllers have had “no joy” in attempting to establish control of the tumbling Russian Progress 59 supply ship. The logistics spacecraft — Progress M-27M — was launched April 28 from Area 31 of the Baikonur launch site at 10:09:50 Moscow Time. The spacecraft was to use a […]
The United Launch Alliance (ULA) has announced that the Atlas V launch of the AFSPC-5 mission – the X-37B — has been confirmed on the Eastern Range for May 20, 2015. The U.S. Air Force has confirmed the spacecraft is on track to meet this launch date. Meanwhile, new details about an experiment onboard the […]
