Browse by Tags

All Tags » Space Flight   (RSS)
09 July 2010
Tanks for the Memories
Almost the end of an era: the last external tank scheduled to fly on a shuttle mission was rolled out of the Michoud Assembly Facility on Thursday. The tank, ET-138, traveled on a wheeled transporter one mile to the Michoud barge dock, accompanied by a brass band and hundreds of the workers who built tanks [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
30 June 2010
Red Bull Stratos Update: Breaking the Speed of Sound in Freefall
Here's an update on the Red Bull Stratos project, where skydiver Felix Baumgartner will attempt to break the speed of sound during freefall. (Read our preview article). Baumgartner and the project's aeronautic's experts recently conducted the latest round of high-altitude test jumps and step-off procedure tests. Baumgartner himself reports feeling both satisfaction and apprehension while [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
25 June 2010
Climate Change Contributes to Space Junk Problem
The effects of climate change can be seen across the majority of the planet, but a new study reveals it is also affecting the space environment. New Scientist reports that increased carbon dioxide levels are cooling the upper atmosphere, which decreases the atmospheric density. This in turn affects how long defunct satellites, spent rocket boosters [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
22 June 2010
Israel Launches Spy Satellite
Israel launched an "Ofeq 9" satellite on Tuesday, an advanced remote sensing satellite that likely is capable of high resolution surveillance to monitor Iran's nuclear program. The satellite was launched on Israel's Shavit launch vehicle. The Israel Defense Ministry gave no public details on the satellite, only releasing this statement following the launch: "A few [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments
Filed under: ,
 
18 June 2010
Video Tour of the Mars500 Habitat
Mars500 participant Diego Urbina (follow him on Twitter at @diegou) provides a tour inside the Mars500 facilities – see how the crew are living and working for the next 17 months in isolation. On June 3, 2010 Urbina and five fellow crewmates from Europe, Russia and China embarked on a 520-day mock mission to Mars, [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
16 June 2010
Separation Camera Takes Full Images and 'Movie' of IKAROS Solar Sail
Two small "separation cameras" were ejected from JAXA's (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) IKAROS solar sail, which successfully took some amazing full images of the fully deployed sail. The cameras are quite small, cylindrical in shape about 6 cm in diameter and height. They were ejected from the sail using a spring, and [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
15 June 2010
100th Launch to the International Space Station
The Soyuz TMA-19 vehicle blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today to bring three new crew members to the International Space Station. This was the 100th launch of missions in support of space station assembly, resupply and crew exchanges. The rocket lit up the early morning sky in Kazakhstan at 3:35 a.m. Wednesday [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
15 June 2010
Unusual Views of the Soyuz Rocket
Two NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut will launch to the International Space Station later today, and astronauts Douglas Wheelock has been able to get up close and personal with the Soyuz rocket that will take them there. He's taken a few pictures of his rocket from unusual vantage points and posted them on [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
11 June 2010
Japanese Solar Sail Deploys Successfully
New images and data from the IKAROS solar sail show the thin solar film has deployed and expanded successfully and is now generating power. Since its launch on May 21, 2010, teams from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), have been painstakingly checking out all the systems on IKAROS before deploying the sail, and [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
10 June 2010
South Korean Rocket Explodes 137 Seconds Into Flight
A South Korean rocket carrying a climate observation satellite apparently exploded 137 seconds into its flight early Thursday. The two-stage Naro rocket operated normally during and after liftoff from the country's space center, Minister of Education, Science and Technology Ahn Byong-man said. But then communications with the rocket were lost. This is the country's second [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
09 June 2010
Delays Likely for Final Two Shuttle Missions
The final scheduled space shuttle flight of Endeavour that has been targeted for late November 2010 is now likely to move to January or even February of 2011 because the primary payload, the $1.5 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, won't be delivered to KSC in time to support the earlier date. Additionally, the penultimate scheduled [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
05 June 2010
Spirialing 'UFO' Over Australia Was Likely Falcon 9 Booster
Logical explanations take all the fun out of UFO's. After the Falcon 9 rocket launched successfully, later, over on the other side of the world, people in Australia saw a spiraling object in their early morning skies, about 6 am local time. Geoffrey Wyatt, from the Sydney Observatory, said it appeared to have [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments
Filed under: , ,
 
04 June 2010
Falcon 9 Launch Gallery; 'Fantastic Day,' P–G Singularity and More
Universe Today photographer Alan Walters was on hand for Friday's spectacular and picture-perfect launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. Enjoy a gallery of images, including this great shot of a Prandtl–Glauert singularity, or shock cone that formed around the rocket, which sometimes occurs when a sudden drop in air pressure occurs when rockets or [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
03 June 2010
Crew Embarks on 520-Day Mock Mission to Mars
Six men from Europe, Russia and China embarked on a 520-day mock mission to Mars, heading out to a crew module in a warehouse in Moscow and locking the hatches behind them today. The mission runs from June 2010 to November 2011, and like a real Mars mission, the crew will live and [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
03 June 2010
SpaceX Hopeful For Successful Flight Test of Falcon 9
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sits poised on Cape Canaveral to begin a new era in space flight, as the company received their final clearance from the U.S. Air Force make their first launch attempt on Friday, June 4, 2010. The launch window is from 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. EDT (1500 and 1900 [...]
Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
0 Comments  
More Posts Next page »