Space and astronomy news
With asteroid 2005 YU55 passing close by Earth yesterday, this rather unsettlingly near flyby has many people wondering if we would be able to divert an asteroid that was heading for an intersection with Earth in its orbit. Of course, as natural disasters go, an asteroid strike on Earth would be extremely bad. Even relatively …
[/caption] After an absence of almost two decades, Russia is at last on the cusp of resuming an ambitious agenda of interplanetary science missions on Tuesday Nov. 8 3:16 p.m. EST (Nov. 9, 00:16 a.m. Moscow Time) by taking aim at Mars and scooping up the first ever soil and rocks gathered from the mysterious …
Continue reading “Russian Mars Moon Sample Probe Poised to Soar atop Upgraded Rocket – Video”
[/caption] Phobo-Grunt, Russia’s first interplanetary mission in nearly two decades, has now been encapsulated inside the payload fairing and sealed to the payload adapter for mating to the upper stage of the Zenit booster rocket that will propel the probe to Mars orbit and carry out history’s first ever landing on the petite Martian moon …
Continue reading “Phobos-Grunt and Yinghuo-1 Encapsulated for Voyage to Mars and Phobos”
The first Mars crew has “returned” home. Thee Mars500 crew of six complete their simulated mission to Mars, with the hatch opening today, November 4, 2011. You can watch the replay the crew coming out of their 520 days of isolation inside a mock spaceship, which was actually in Russia. They crew has done countless …
Continue reading “Hatch Opens as Simulated Mars Mission Ends”
Video Caption: Phobos and Jupiter in Conjunction – taken from Mars orbit ! A movie of the 1 June 2011 Phobos–Jupiter conjunction made by combining a sequence of 100 images of the encounter taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express orbiter. Mars Express is searching for safe landing zones on Phobos …
Video Caption: Live Video of Shenzhou-8 and Tiangong-1 docking in Earth orbit. Photos below. Credit: CCTV commentary/CMSE China’s technological capabilities took a major surge forward with the successful docking in space today for the first time ever of two Chinese built and launched spaceships – orbiting some 343 kilometers in the heavens above at 1:37 …
Continue reading “China Technology Surges Forward with Spectacular First Docking in Space”
[/caption] China today launched the Shenzhou-8 capsule on a historic mission to accomplish the nation’s first ever docking in space with another vehicle, already in orbit, and pave the way toward’s China’s true ambition – constructing a multi-module space station by 2020. The unpiloted Shenzhou-8 streaked skywards today in a blinding flash atop a powerful …
Continue reading “China launches Shenzhou-8 bound for Historic 1st Docking in Space”
[/caption] Russia’s Space Agency, Roscosmos, has set November 9 as the launch date for the Phobos-Grunt mission to Mars and its tiny moon Phobos. Roscosmos has officially announced that the audacious mission to retrieve the first ever soil samples from the surface of Phobos will blastoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan atop a Zenit-2SB …
Continue reading “Russia Fuels Phobos-Grunt and sets Mars Launch for November 9”
Ever wonder what it would be like on board the Starship Enterprise when Capt. Kirk commands Mr. Sulu to fire the thrusters, only to have the artificial gravity turn off at the same time? We’ve got our own 21st century equivalent of a big spaceship — the International Space Station — firing its thrusters in …
Continue reading “What’s It Like Inside the Space Station During a Re-boost?”
[/caption] From a pool of 500 potential applicants, Virgin Galactic has found their man. The NewSpace firm chose from some of the greatest pilots the world has to offer to work to be a pilot for their company. U.S. Air Force test pilot Keith Colmer rose to the top of the list and was selected …
Continue reading “Virgin Galactic Taps Test Flight Veteran As Pilot”