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
On Dec. 3, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully launched its Hayabusa2 mission to rendezvous with an asteroid, land a small probe plus three mini rovers on its surface, and then return samples to Earth. NASA and JAXA are cooperating on the science of the mission and NASA will receive a portion of the Hayabusa2 sample in exchange for … Read the rest of this article
After a ten-year journey, Rosetta and Philae had finally reached their destination, Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Rosetta spent many weeks studying the comet, sending lots of information back to Earth. But where was Philae going to land? Eventually the scientists on Earth found the best place on the comet for Philae to land. Soon it was time to make the final preparations … Read the rest of this article
NASA is inviting the worldwide public to submit short messages and images on social media that could be placed in a time capsule aboard a spacecraft launching to an asteroid in 2016.
Called the Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx), the spacecraft will rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu in 2019, collect a sample and return the cache in a capsule to … Read the rest of this article
NASA successfully beamed a high-definition video 260 miles from the International Space Station to Earth Thursday using a new laser communications instrument.
Transmission of “Hello, World!” as a video message was the first 175-megabit communication for the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS), a technology demonstration that allows NASA to test methods for communication with future spacecraft using higher bandwidth … Read the rest of this article
The following statement is from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, released March 4 2014, on the Obama Administration’s budget request for the 2015 fiscal year:
“Today, President Obama released his Fiscal Year 2015 budget request for the nation, and there is a lot of good news in it for NASA. The president’s funding plan for America’s space program reaffirms the path … Read the rest of this article
Two generations of aerospace engineering excellence will come together Saturday, March 1 when NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., is redesignated NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center.
The agency’s center of excellence for atmospheric flight research is being renamed in honor of the late Neil A. Armstrong, a former research test pilot at the center and the first man … Read the rest of this article
Almost a million people have watched the YouTube video of ESA’s 3D camera being used in space. Here on Earth, the same camera technology is equally successful.
“3D brings a human and immersive feel to images that nothing else can match,” says Max Collon from Dutch Cosine Research and its subsidiary 3D-ONE.
Cosine developed the ERB-1 and ERB-2 Erasmus Recording … Read the rest of this article
The International Space Station celebrates its birthday today, 15 years after the first module was launched in 1998.
The Space Station is the largest cooperative project ever carried out in science, involving NASA, ESA, Roscosmos, the Canadian Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
On 20 November 1998 a Russian Proton rocket lifted off from the Baikonur space centre … Read the rest of this article
Sir Richard Branson is set to travel to outer space in 2014 on Virgin Galactic’s first commercial spaceflight, and all of us on Earth will get to watch the adventure.
Sir Richard has admitted that he didn’t have a clue about space travel, or even how he would raise the money to start the business when he registered the name … 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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Aurora Oval
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