Space Exploration news

Cassini Spacecraft to Monitor North Pole on Titan

Cassini Spacecraft to Monitor North Pole on Titan

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created 15 hours ago | popularity 4.7 / 5 (9) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Though there are no plans to investigate whether Saturn's moon Titan has a Santa Claus, NASA's Cassini will zoom close to Titan's north pole this weekend.


Voyager makes an interstellar discovery

Voyager makes an interstellar discovery

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 26, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (54) | comments 21

The solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud that physics says should not exist. In the Dec. 24th issue of Nature, a team of scientists reveal how NASA's Voyager spacecraft have solved the mystery.


As shuttle's career nears an end, NASA turns focus to satellites

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 26, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (8) | comments 2

NASA heads into 2010 with the bittersweet assignment of retiring the space shuttle after nearly three decades. But that's not all the agency has planned: There are also launches of three new satellites aimed at better understanding ...


Iran to unveil new home-built satellite: report

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 24, 2009 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (10) | comments 5

Iran will unveil a new home-built satellite in February, a newspaper reported Thursday, amid Western concerns that Tehran is using its nuclear and space industries to develop atomic and ballistic weapons.


Top-bottom: Soichi Noguchi, Timothy J. Creamer and Oleg Kotov wave before boarding a Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft

Astronauts dock at International Space Station

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 22, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

A Russian rocket carrying three astronauts from Japan, Russia and the United States docked at the International Space Station Wednesday, the Russian flight control centre said.


Titan

Titan's lakes could be explored by boat

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 22, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (10) | comments 1 weblog

(PhysOrg.com) -- If a suggestion to be made to NASA comes to fruition, vast lakes thought to be filled with liquid hydrocarbons near the north pole of Saturn's moon Titan, may one day be explored by boat.


NASA Flight Tests Unique Jumbo Jet with Opening in Side

NASA Tests Unique Jumbo Jet with Opening in Side; Plane's Airborne Telescope Will Be Used to Study Cosmos

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 21, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- A NASA jumbo jet that will help scientists unlock the origins of the universe with infrared observations reached a milestone Friday when doors covering the plane's telescope were fully opened ...


Final launch of Ariane 5 GS completes busy year

Final launch of Ariane 5 GS completes busy year

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 21, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Last week, an Ariane 5 GS launcher lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on a journey to place the French military reconnaissance satellite Helios-2B into Sun-synchronous polar ...


Silicon technology offers extended X-ray vision of high-energy cosmos

Silicon technology offers extended X-ray vision of high-energy cosmos

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 21, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- As elements of the integrated circuits running our computers, phones and electronics, silicon wafers are everywhere. An ESA-led effort is establishing an out-of-this-world use for these ...


Astronauts blast off for Christmas space mission (AP)

Astronauts blast off for Christmas space mission

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 20, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

(AP) -- A Russian rocket blasted off from a cosmodrome in Kazakhstan lighting up the frigid Central Asian steppe Monday, shuttling an American, a Russian and a Japanese to the International Space Station.


An undated photo shows then director of Sukhumi's monkey nursery, Sergei Ardzimba, feeding his monkeys

War-torn 'nursery' hopes to send monkeys to Mars

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 20, 2009 | popularity 2.4 / 5 (7) | comments 6

The monkeys at this run-down research centre which was once the pride of Soviet science have seen it all -- a brutal civil war, freezing winters and starvation.


US astronaut Timothy Creamer (L) and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov give a press conference

Astronauts to carry Christmas cheer to ISS

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 19, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Despite being separated from their families, astronauts heading to the International Space Station next week are excited to be spending Christmas in space, a crew member said Saturday.


Right-Front Wheel Rotations

Spirit Rover: Right-Front Wheel Rotations

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 18, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Spirit's right-front wheel, which had stopped operating in March 2006, revolved with apparently normal motion during the first three of four driving segments on Sol 2117 (Wednesday, Dec. 16) ...


How to Find Signs of Life on Mars

How to Find Signs of Life on Mars

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 18, 2009 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 2

By studying the signatures of fossil life on Earth, geobiologists can get a clue of what to look for when hunting for extraterrestrial life on Mars.


Caltech scientists discover fog on Titan

Scientists discover fog on Titan

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 18, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (11) | comments 2

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, looks to be the only place in the solar system—aside from our home planet, Earth—with copious quantities of liquid (largely, liquid methane and ethane) sitting on its surface. ...