spacecraft
New Horizons Wakes Up for the Summer
While many kids in the U.S. are starting their school summer vacations, New Horizons is about to get back to work! Speeding…
Astronomy Cast Ep. 346: Area 51
Who knows what mysteries lurk at the military's Area 51 complex in Nevada? Conspiracy theorists and UFO chasers think it's…
Astronomy Cast Ep. 342: Sunsetting Spacecraft
Everything dies, including our technology. But when we’ve hurtled a few thousands pounds of robotic instrumentation to another planet, it…
Russia’s Second Shot at Phobos May Return Bits of Mars As Well
After the tragic failure of the first Phobos-Grunt mission to even make it out of low-Earth orbit, the Russian space…
Sleek GOCE Spacecraft Will Have Uncontrolled Re-entry into Earth’s Atmosphere
The sleek and sexy-looking GOCE spacecraft has been mapping Earth’s gravity for over four years, but soon its xenon fuel…
Podcast: The Spacecraft That Wouldn’t Die
In our previous episode, week we explored the various ways spacecraft can die. But this week, we explore the spacecraft…
Podcast: Death of a Spacecraft
In the end, everything dies, even plucky space robots. Today we examine the last days of a series of missions.…
Is It Time to Return to the Moon?
Humans haven't set foot on the Moon -- or any other world outside of our own, for that matter --…
Space Exploration By Robot Swarm
[/caption] With all there's yet to learn about our solar system from the many smaller worlds that reside within it…
Spacecraft
[/caption] When a vehicle or robot is designed to leave the Earth's atmosphere and travel through space, we call that…