NASA’s Voyager 1: Reality Check on Solar Wind Speed
Launched back in 1977, the 33-year odyssey of NASA’s Voyager 1continues, chalking up another milestone. The spacecraft has reached a distant point at the edge of our solar system where there is no outward motion of solar wind. Voyager 1 has crossed into an area where...NASA’s Mars Rovers: Opportunity Rolls, Spirit’s Health in Doubt
Things are busy for NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover. It’s over half-way towards its next exploration site: Endeavor crater. But sistership, Spirit, is the real problem child. First, a status update on the healthy and rolling, rolling, rolling robot – Opportunity. “We...Japan’s Venus Orbiter: Not Injected into Planned Orbit
Japan’s Venus orbiter — the AKATSUKI spacecraft — has failed to reach an intended orbit insertion around the veiled planet. Officials at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have announced that the planned December 7 injection into Venus orbit was...(Update) New Venus Arrival! Japan’s AKATSUKI Orbiter
Japan is initiating a hoped for start of a new era in Venusian exploration with the orbit insertion around the veiled planet on December 7 of its AKATSUKI spacecraft. However, the exact whereabouts of the orbiter is not known due to loss of contact with the craft by...Work Those Mars Muscles!
What every good Mars explorer needs – an exercise plan for the red planet. At the Haughton-Mars Project on Devon Island, High Arctic, researchers there will be using a Made-in-USA handheld exerciser – a unique patented device that has resistance in two directions and...Arsenic-laced Bacteria Sheds New Light on Search for Extraterrestrial Life
Scientists have identified a surprising form of bacteria that incorporates toxic arsenic rather than traditional phosphorus into the backbone of its DNA, the microscopic genetic material found in the nucleus of cells. The surprising finding re-defines under what...Senate Panel Urges NASA Budget Flexibility
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee pledged a bi-partisan effort on Wednesday to remove legislative barriers from future temporary budget measures that could pro-long NASA’s efforts to transition from the Constellation lunar program to a...Live Cam! Keep An Eye on Next Mars Robot
NASA’s next robot to explore the Red Planet is undergoing extensive checkout. The Mars Science Laboratory, named Curiosity, can now be viewed on a webcam as engineers and technicians work on the huge rover. The “Curiosity Cam” is mounted in the viewing gallery of the...Book Review: How Old is the Universe?
How Old is the Universe? by David Weintraub; Princeton University Press; Princeton, New Jersey; $29.95; January 2011. This is a very engaging and readable book that will help you wrap your mind around an agreed to astronomical actuality: The universe is 13.7 billion...Space Talk
@rookisaacman's MiG is a gorgeous jet to see in the skies
Congratulations to the SpaceX team on today’s very successful launch. That was a blast to watch!
@ThePrimalDino A rocket that has been undergoing test flights for three years still keeps failing. That’s why I’m bearish on Starship. The repeated setbacks of Starship have put America’s lunar landing program far behind schedule.
@xue_tu93527 I mean I wouldn’t call this flight a failure personally, but the impact of this extensive testing campaign is indeed noticeable on our lunar ambitions
Say cheese, Earth and Moon! 📸
One of our two Mars-bound ESCAPADE spacecraft captured Earth and the Moon from 363,250 miles (584,600 kilometers) away. In visible light, both worlds appear as slim crescents.
But switch to thermal infrared and it’s a different picture 👇 🧵1/2
🧵2/2 In thermal infrared, Earth's nightside glows in the dark, warmed by its own heat. The Moon, with no oceans or atmosphere to hold in warmth, stays locked at a bone-chilling -280°F.
The images help calibrate ESCAPADE's cameras for its mission to the Red Planet:
@NASA and @BlueOrigin announced Friday they recently agreed to conduct second stage hot fire testing for the company’s New Glenn rocket on the B-2 test stand at the agency’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
The annex to a reimbursable Space Act Agreement
