February 20th, 2015
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The European Space Agency’s (ESA) fifth and final Automated Transfer Vehicle — Georges Lemaître — was purposely dumped over the South Pacific on February 15. The large cargo ferry craft was outfitted with an internal camera in the hopes of imaging from inside the reentry process. While the ATV-mounted Break-Up Camera did produce images (nearly […]
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Here’s a sub story from me that finally surfaced on Space.com: NASA Space Submarine Could Explore Titan’s Methane Seas by Leonard David, Space.com’s Space Insider Columnist February 18, 2015 12:04 pm ET http://www.space.com/28589-titan-submarine-robotic-saturn-ship.html
China rocket builders are reporting success in test firing engines for the Long March 5 booster. That launcher is tasked to further the Chinese space station program, as well as boost their future Moon exploration agenda. China’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) reported the major ground test of the […]
NASA is pressing ahead on an air-launched concept to toss small spacecraft into Earth orbit. The rocket-launching concept is called the Towed Glider Air-Launch System, or TGALS. The first flights of the one-third-scale twin fuselage towed glider took place last year at the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in California. That test program involved […]
New Mexico’s Spaceport America hosted ten private pilots and 24 of their guests in a first ever Fly-in event held today at the spaceport on Valentine’s Day. Visiting aircraft at today’s event ranging from a large twin-engine, 6-passenger Cessna aircraft to a two seat, homebuilt, RV 4, parked on the spaceport apron around the iconic […]
The European space transporter ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) ‘Georges Lemaître’ has “de-docked” from the International Space Station (ISS). The ATV-5 spent more than 200 days in space – the longest period of any of the ATV spacecraft. It is filled with 2.5 tons of waste – dry refuse, waste water and equipment that is […]
It has been two years since a sky blast rocked the Chelyabinsk region in Russia on February 15, 2013. The event injured scores of people and damaged property as the over 65-feet (20-meter) across space rock fragmented in the atmosphere. However, the whereabouts of its parent asteroid remains elusive according to a new paper published in […]
Can we — or should we — try to protect Earth from potentially hazardous impacts?How about harvesting asteroids for potential economic benefits? Could asteroid exploration be used to boost our capabilities and help clear a pathway to Mars? How should we balance costs, risks, and benefits of human exploration in space? An effort set up […]
A U.S./Russian team of experts has found that space travel may severely impair the body’s ability to regulate blood rushing to the brain. If that’s the case, it could contribute to the temporary or permanent vision problems experienced by astronauts. In a new paper published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers from Florida State […]
Europe’s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) – an experimental spaceplane – plopped down in the Pacific Ocean just west of the Galapagos islands. The European Space Agency vehicle was launched Feb. 11 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana atop a Vega rocket. The craft carried some 300 sensors to record its performance during a high-heat […]
