Space Exploration news

Space shuttle Atlantis lifts off on supply mission

Nov 16, 2009 | 3.5 / 5 (2) | 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 ...

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

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 16, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (6) | 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 'Drops' Next Generation Robotic Lander During Autonomous Tests

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 16, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (10) | 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 ...

First view of Earth as Rosetta approaches home

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

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

A Tale of Planetary Woe (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 11, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (11) | 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 | 4.5 / 5 (11) | 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 ...

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 ...

The Stars My Destination

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 10, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (23) | 2

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.

Scientists prepare the Mini-Research Module 2 (MRM 2) "Poisk"

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.

NASA's WISE Set to Blast Off and Map the Skies

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

10 hours ago | 5 / 5 (2) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- The countdown clock is ticking, with just days to go before the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, rockets into space on a mission to map the entire sky in infrared light.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Spacecraft Out of Safe Mode

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

16 hours ago | 4.3 / 5 (3) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter today has been taken out of the precautionary 'safe mode' it had been in since August.

The 2009 Geminid Meteor Shower (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 08, 2009 | 4.4 / 5 (5) | 0

Make hot cocoa. Bundle up. Tell your friends. The best meteor shower of 2009 is about to fall over North America on a long, cold December night.

Further Tests Designed for Rover's Right-Rear Wheel

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 08, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A series of diagnostic tests on Spirit's right-rear wheel on sols 2104 and 2105 (Dec. 3 and 4) investigated stalls that occurred on Sol 2099 (Nov. 28) and earlier. The rover team cannot draw ...