Space and astronomy news
Mark your calendars. April 12, 2011 marks the 50th Anniversary of Human Spaceflight and Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s astonishing First Orbit of our precious planet Earth on April 12, 1961. Gagarin was the first human to enter outer space and see what no one else had ever witnessed – our commonly shared Earth as a planet …
Continue reading “Countdown to Yuri’s Night and the 50th Anniversary of Human Spaceflight !”
[/caption] The inaugural version of NASA’s new Orion human space exploration capsule was unveiled by Lockheed Martin at the company’s new state-of-the-art Space Operation Simulation Center (SOSC) located in Denver, Colorado. Orion is designed to fly human crews to low Earth orbit (LEO) and the International Space Station, the Moon, Asteroids, Lagrange Points and beyond …
Continue reading “NASAs First Orion Capsule and New Space Operations Center Unveiled”
50 years ago, April 12th, Yuri Gagarin became the world’s first human to go into space. What did he see? He described it fairly well, but there are limited pictures and no video from his time in orbit. Now, through a unique collaboration between a filmmaker and ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli on board the International …
Continue reading “What Did Gagarin See on His Historic Flight?”
[/caption] ORLANDO – The Google Lunar X-PRIZE (GLXP) recently announced the 29 official teams that will be vying for the $30 million grand prize. One group in particular stands out amongst the list however – Omega Envoy. This team is comprised primarily by college students from the University of Central Florida, working on engineering and …
Continue reading “Google Lunar X-Prize’s ‘college team’ gaining steam, attention and support”
[/caption]NASA’s Space Shuttle Program is inexorably and swiftly headed towards its finale. With shuttle Discovery orbiting some 200 miles overhead on her final flight, launch preparations for the final flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour moved into high gear. Endeavour was rolled a few hundred yards from her processing hanger at the Kennedy Space Center to …
Continue reading “Endeavour Rolls to Vehicle Assembly Building for Final Flight”
[/caption] Think again if you believe the suborbital space market is exclusively for well-heeled tourists. The Southwest Research Institute has just inked deals with Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace to fly up to 17 scientific research flights. Three scientists, including Dr. Alan Stern, former head of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA and current New …
Want to know what it feels like at close range to ride on a spaceship past a zooming comet that’s spewing dust and debris that could destroy you at any moment ? Check out the movies (above & below) which gives you a front row seat at NASA’s newest ‘Comet Experience’. Hitch a ride on …
Continue reading “Movies of Comet Tempel 1 Encounter by Stardust-NExT”
[/caption] NASA’s aging and amazing Stardust space probe has at last discovered the human made crater created on Comet Tempel 1 in 2005 by the history making cosmic smash up with NASA’s Deep Impact penetrator. Stardust streaked past the comet on Feb. 14 at 10.9 km/sec, or 24,000 MPH, and succeeded in briefly photographing the …
Continue reading “NASA’s Stardust Discovers Human made Deep Impact Crater on Comet Tempel 1”
[/caption] NASA’s Stardust-NExT comet chaser successfully zoomed by Comet Temple 1 exactly as planned a short while ago at 11:37 p.m. EST on Feb. 14. The cosmic Valentine’s Day encounter between the icy comet and the aging probe went off without a hitch. Stardust snapped 72 science images as it raced by at over 10 …
Continue reading “Stardust-NExT zooms by Comet Tempel 1 for Cosmic Encounter”
[/caption] At last, NASA embraces a romantic rendezvous in the dark void of deep space. And soon the whole world can watch the up close meet up of the hot Stardust probe and the volatile, icy comet. The historic space tryst is less than a day away! The Stardust-NExT spacecraft successfully hot fired its thrusters …
Continue reading “Romantic Valentines Day Encounter Looms with Icy Comet”