Space Exploration news

Spirit Mars Rover: No Wheel Stall in Diagnostic Drive

Nov 25, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (5) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- On Sol 2095 (Tuesday, Nov. 24), Spirit performed a set of diagnostic actions related to a stall of the right-rear wheel on the previous drive, three days earlier.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbite Team Plans Uplink of Protective Files

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 25, 2009 | 5 / 5 (4) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- The team operating NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter plans to uplink protective files to the spacecraft next week as one step toward resuming the orbiter's research and relay activities.

ET: Check your voicemail

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 24, 2009 | 3.7 / 5 (6) | 6

(PhysOrg.com) -- Alien beings on faraway planets may not have noticed, but it’s been 35 years since human beings made the first deliberate effort to send them a message.

WISE Snug in Its Nose Cone; Launch Set for Dec. 9

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 01, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer has been wrapped in the outer nose cone, or "fairing," that will protect it during its scheduled Dec. 9 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

TacSat-4 spacecraft complete and awaiting launch

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 01, 2009 | 1 / 5 (1) | 1

Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) engineers have completed all environmental and performance testing on the TacSat-4 COMMx payload. This completes the entire TacSat-4 spacecraft as the spacecraft bus was completed ...

Space shuttle Atlantis, 7 astronauts back on Earth

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 27, 2009 | 5 / 5 (2) | 0

Space shuttle Atlantis and its crew of seven astronauts ended an 11-day journey of nearly 4.5 million miles with a 9:44 a.m. EST landing Friday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Chang'E-1 has blazed a new trail in China's deep space exploration

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 01, 2009 | 5 / 5 (2) | 0

A huge amount of scientific data have been accumulated by the CE-1 lunar orbiter. Using laser altimeter data, Jinsong Ping and Qian Huang et al obtained improved 3D lunar topography, and based on this, they ...

Baby can wait as expectant dad finishes spacewalk

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 21, 2009 | 3.7 / 5 (3) | 0

(AP) -- A spacewalking astronaut put aside the impending birth of his daughter and blazed through his first-ever venture outside the International Space Station on Saturday.

Rocket test will carry Purdue experiment

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 30, 2009 | 3 / 5 (1) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Purdue University researchers are designing and building an experiment that will operate during a test flight of a new type of reusable rocket to be launched by aerospace company Blue Origin LLC.

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

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 13, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (7) | 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 ...

Gullies and Flow Features on Crater Wall

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 26, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (2) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- This image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a sample of the variety and complexity of processes that may occur ...

Success in 'space elevator' competition (AP)

Success in 'space elevator' competition (Update 3)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 05, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (36) | 54

(AP) -- A robot powered by a ground-based laser beam climbed a long cable dangling from a helicopter on Wednesday to qualify for prize money in a $2 million competition to test the potential reality of the ...

Planetary Society plans new 'solar sail'

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 09, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (14) | 1

(AP) -- Four years after its first solar sail ended up in the ocean instead of orbit, The Planetary Society announced Monday that by the end of 2010 it will try again to launch a spacecraft that will be propelled by the ...

A bubbling ball of gas (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 11, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (18) | 7

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 ...