Space Exploration news

Success in 'space elevator' competition (AP)

Success in 'space elevator' competition (Update 3)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 05, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (36) | comments 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 ...


NASA 'Drops' Next Generation Robotic Lander During Autonomous Tests

NASA 'Drops' Next Generation Robotic Lander During Autonomous Tests

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 16, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (10) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA has successfully completed a series of autonomous "drop" tests of a robotic lander test article - in a record 10 months - to demonstrate the ability to perform a controlled landing on ...


Ghostly 'Spokes' Puff Out From Saturn's Ring's

Ghostly 'Spokes' Puff Out From Saturn's Ring's (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 16, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (6) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Massive, bright clouds of tiny ice particles hover above the darkened rings of Saturn in an image captured by the Cassini spacecraft on Sept. 22, 2009, around the time of Saturn's equinox. ...


NASA Assessing New Roles for Ailing QuikScat Satellite

NASA Assessing New Roles for Ailing QuikScat Satellite

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 24, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA mission managers are assessing options for future operations of the venerable QuikScat satellite following the age-related failure of a mechanism that spins the scatterometer antenna. ...


Space hotel taking bookings for 2012 opening

Space hotel taking bookings for 2012 opening

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 05, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (21) | comments 11

(PhysOrg.com) -- The first orbiting space hotel is on track to open for its first customers in 2012, but hurry, as bookings are filling fast.


Space shuttle Atlantis lifts off on supply mission (AP)

Space shuttle Atlantis lifts off on supply mission

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 16, 2009 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Space shuttle Atlantis and its six-member crew began an 11-day delivery flight to the International Space Station on Monday with a 2:28 p.m. EST launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in ...


Hidden Territory on Mercury Revealed

Hidden Territory on Mercury Revealed

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 04, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (20) | comments 1

The MESSENGER spacecraft's third flyby of the planet Mercury has given scientists, for the first time, an almost complete view of the planet's surface and revealed some dramatic changes in Mercury's comet-like ...


Astronauts await word of baby girl on Earth (AP)

Astronauts await word of baby girl on Earth

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 20, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(AP) -- Atlantis' astronauts anxiously awaited word on the birth of one crewman's daughter Friday, as they moved more supplies into the International Space Station and geared up for another spacewalk.


Kepler Mission Manager Update

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 24, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Kepler experienced a safe mode event on Nov. 18, 2009.


Before Darkness Falls: Cassini to Scan Enceladus on Winter's Cusp

Before Darkness Falls: Cassini to Scan Enceladus on Winter's Cusp

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 20, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Cassini spacecraft will fly by Saturn's moon Enceladus this weekend for a last peek at the intriguing "tiger stripes" before winter darkness blankets the area for several years.


First view of Earth as Rosetta approaches home

First view of Earth as Rosetta approaches home

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 12, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (6) | comments 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. ...


Astronauts get extra moving time at space station (AP)

Astronauts get extra moving time at space station

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 20, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(AP) -- The astronauts aboard the shuttle-station complex are getting some extra moving time.


SOFIA Seeks Secrets of Planetary Birth

SOFIA Seeks Secrets of Planetary Birth

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

You don't always have to have a rocket to do rocket science. Sometimes a mere airplane will do - that is, a mere Boeing 747 toting a 17-ton, 9-foot wide telescope named SOFIA.


Spacesuits with artificial intelligence may look for life on Mars

Spacesuits with artificial intelligence may look for life on Mars

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 04, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronauts may in future be wearing spacesuits equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) and digital eyes, turning them into what the researchers call cyborg astrobiologists.


The 2009 Leonid Meteor Shower

The 2009 Leonid Meteor Shower

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 10, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 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 ...