Space Exploration news

NASA on track for Monday space shuttle launch

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

23 minutes ago | not rated yet | 0

(AP) -- NASA has cleared space shuttle Atlantis for liftoff Monday on a trip to stock up the International Space Station with several years' worth of spare parts.

LCROSS Impact Finds Water on the Moon

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 13, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (24) | 9

(PhysOrg.com) -- The argument that the moon is a dry, desolate place no longer holds water. Secrets the moon has been holding, for perhaps billions of years, are now being revealed to the delight of scientists ...

Rosetta bound for outer Solar System after final Earth swingby (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 13, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (6) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- This morning, mission controllers confirmed that ESA’s comet chaser Rosetta had swung by Earth at 8:45 CET as planned, skimming past our planet to pick up a gravitational boost for an epic ...

Rosetta spacecraft may help unravel cosmic mystery (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 12, 2009 | 5 / 5 (3) | 4

When Europe's comet chaser Rosetta swings by Earth tomorrow for a critical gravity assist, tracking data will be collected to precisely measure the satellite's change in orbital energy. The results could help ...

First view of Earth as Rosetta approaches home

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 12, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (5) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- This spectacular image of our home planet was captured by the OSIRIS instrument on ESA's Rosetta comet chaser earlier today as the spacecraft approached Earth for the third and final swingby. ...

NASA to Begin Attempts to Free Sand-Trapped Mars Rover

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 12, 2009 | 5 / 5 (6) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA will begin transmitting commands to its Mars exploration rover Spirit on Monday as part of an escape plan to free the venerable robot from its Martian sand trap.

Space station gets new research module

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 12, 2009 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

(AP) -- A cargo ship has delivered a Russian research module to the International Space Station.

Leonid meteor shower peaks Tuesday, Nov. 17 (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 12, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Leonid meteor shower best viewing this year will be in the hours before dawn on Nov. 17.

A bubbling ball of gas (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 11, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (18) | 6

The Sun is a bubbling mass. Packages of gas rise and sink, lending the sun its grainy surface structure, its granulation. Dark spots appear and disappear, clouds of matter dart up - and behind the whole thing ...

A Tale of Planetary Woe (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 11, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (10) | 5

Once upon a time — roughly four billion years ago — Mars was warm and wet, much like Earth. Liquid water flowed on the Martian surface in long rivers that emptied into shallow seas. A thick atmosphere blanketed ...

A lightning strike in Africa helps take the pulse of the sun

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 11, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (9) | 2

Sunspots, which rotate around the sun's surface, tell us a great deal about our own planet. Scientists rely on them, for instance, to measure the sun's rotation or to prepare long-range forecasts of the Earth's ...

WISE Is Chilling Out

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 11, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Engineers are busy cooling the science instrument on NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The spacecraft is scheduled to blast into space from Vandenberg Air Force Base in ...

Seeing stars, Proba-2 platform passes its first health check

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 11, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (4) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Into its second week in orbit, Proba-2's spacecraft platform has proven to be in excellent health. This leaves the way clear for commissioning the many new technology payloads aboard the mini-satellite, ...

The Stars My Destination

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 10, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (23) | 1

The Voyager spacecraft are now in the outermost layer of the heliosphere, traveling toward interstellar space - the first man-made spacecraft to travel such a vast distance from Earth.

The 2009 Leonid Meteor Shower

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 10, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (4) | 0

This year's Leonid meteor shower peaks on Tuesday, Nov. 17th. If forecasters are correct, the shower should produce a mild but pretty sprinkling of meteors over North America followed by a more intense outburst ...

Rocket with new module for space station blasts off

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 10, 2009 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

A Soyuz rocket carrying a new Russian-made module for the International Space Station blasted off on Tuesday from the Baikonur space base in Kazakhstan, television pictures showed.

Vatican searches for extra-terrestrial life

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 10, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 0

Is there life on other planets? The Vatican has asked that age-old question over the past five days during a "study week" on astrobiology gathering leading scientists from around the world.

Butterfly payload to launch Nov. 16 on space shuttle

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 10, 2009 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

When NASA's space shuttle Atlantis launches for the International Space Station on Nov. 16 it will carry a University of Colorado at Boulder butterfly experiment that will be monitored by thousands of K-12 ...