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What Is a 'Morning Star,' and What Is an 'Evening Star'?

Skywatcher Shawn Malone took this photo of two “evening stars,” Venus and Jupiter, in Eagle Harbor, Michigan, on March 10, 2012. Whether a planet qualifies as a “morning star” or an “evening star” can vary throughout the year. Credit: Shawn Malone I received an interesting inquiry recently from a woman who wanted to know the […]

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Where the Super Bowl Meets Space: NASA's Aerodynamics Lab

Student intern Joe Burces at NASA’s Ames Research Center observes a football in a fluid dynamics chamber. Credit: NASA Ames/Dominic Hart Throwing a tight spiral to a receiver downfield isn’t so different from trying to get a rocket to fly smoothly through the atmosphere. Or at least these tasks are similar when viewed from an […]

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Saturn V vs. SLS - Both Old Tech | Video

Saturn V vs. SLS – Both Old Tech | Video

CosMix: The Universe Is Alive With Music Goddard Space Flight Center’s Best Videos NASA Edge NEOs: Near Earth Objects – The Video Show Inside Space Station – The Video Show Exploring the Southern Sky – ESO at 50 | Vide… Last Venus Transit In Your Lifetime | Video S… Curiosity – The SUV of Mars […]

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Sentinel 3A

Mission teams prepare for critical days

Moments after Sentinel-3A separates from its rocket, a team of European mission control specialists will assume control, shepherding the new spacecraft through its critical first days in space. To source

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SpaceX's Grasshopper: Reusable Rocket Prototype

On Oct. 7, 2013, SpaceX’s Grasshopper rocket climbed 2,441 feet (744 meters) into the air before safely landing back on its launch pad in McGregor, Texas. Credit: SpaceX Grasshopper was a reusable vertical-takeoff-and-landing rocket prototype tested by the company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) in preparation for more ambitious launches. After progressively higher hops and pinpoint […]

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Elon Musk: Private Space Entrepreneur

Elon Musk is an entrepreneur best known in space circles for Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), which became the first private company to ship cargo to the International Space Station in 2012. A long-time advocate of Mars exploration, Musk has publicly talked about ventures such as building a greenhouse on the Red Planet and more ambitiously, […]

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Send Humans to Mars Orbit, Not the Surface (Op-Ed)

Mars, as seen by India’s Mangalyaan orbiter, which arrived at the Red Planet in September 2014. Credit: Indian Space Research Organisation Neil MacDonald is the editor of Federal Technology Watch and Joshua Chamot is the editor of Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights section. The authors contributed this article to Space.com’s Expert Voices .  Establishing […]

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