On Sept. 5, 2017 – the 40th anniversary of Voyager 1’s launch — NASA revealed the winning Message To Voyager and beamed it into space. “Message to Voyager” is a social media campaign inspired by the messages of goodwill carried on the Golden Record aboard each Voyager spacecraft.
NASA invited the public to submit short, uplifting messages to … Read the rest of this article
Maybe you’re familiar with the Mowhawk Hair Guy who was part of the mission controller staff for the Mars Curiosity Rover mission?
Distinctive hairstyles in space circles are nothing new!
The 1970s are known for being a fashion disaster, and to go with the awful clothes were awful hairstyles.
Think hipster hairdos are cool? People certainly did at one time … Read the rest of this article
The ability to rove the surface of Mars has revolutionized NASA missions.
With more advanced mobility, cliff faces, cave ceilings, and the surfaces of asteroids and comets could be explored.
This talk will present the work of the Robotic Rapid Prototyping Lab at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This includes grippers for NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission, which plans to extract a … Read the rest of this article
ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft is set to complete its incredible mission in a controlled descent to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on 30 September.
Mission experts joined an ESA Hangout on 19 September to discuss Rosetta’s final days and hours of operation, including expectations for the images and other scientific data that will be collected as the spacecraft gets closer and … Read the rest of this article
Less than a month before the end of the mission, Rosetta’s high-resolution camera has revealed the Philae lander wedged into a dark crack on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
The images were taken on 2 September by the OSIRIS narrow-angle camera as the orbiter came within 2.7 km of the surface and clearly show the main body of the lander, along with two … Read the rest of this article
The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury must withstand extremely harsh conditions while in orbit around the innermost planet of our Solar System: temperatures in excess of 450 degree Celsius, high ultraviolet and electron and proton fluxes.
ESA’s Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory was called in by the mission team to test the performance of candidate materials and components throughout the … Read the rest of this article
NASA’s Launch Services Program (LSP) has awarded multiple Venture Class Launch Services (VCLS) contracts to provide small satellites (SmallSats) — also called CubeSats, microsats or nanosatellites — access to low-Earth orbit.
The three companies selected to provide these new commercial launch capabilities, and the value of their firm fixed-price contracts, are:
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Replay of the liftoff of Vega VV04 with ESA’s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle, IXV, launched from Kourou, French Guiana on 11 February 2015.
IXV was launched 340 km into space atop a Vega rocket, VV04, from Kourou in French Guiana on 11 February 2015. After separation from Vega, IXV coasted to 412 km before beginning a punishing glide back through … Read the rest of this article
An annotated timeline of the most critical events during the IXV mission. ESA’s wingless spaceplane is set for liftoff on a Vega rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, 11 February 2015.
ESA’s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) will be launched on Vega flight VV04 at 13:00 GMT (14:00 CET) for a suborbital flight to test technologies and critical systems for Europe’s future … Read the rest of this article
ESA’s experimental spaceplane, poised for liftoff on its Vega rocket, is set to showcase the latest technologies and critical systems to extend Europe’s capability for space exploration.
In a world first, Europe will launch and land an unmanned spaceplane that has no wings but instead features an aerodynamic shape that produces the lift to fly through the atmosphere. Flaps … Read the rest of this article
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The Sun Now (H-Alpha light)
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Aurora Oval
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