NASA Completes Successful Heat Shield Testing for Future Mars Exploration Vehicles
As NASA missions to Mars progress with science and complex human exploration missions, spacecraft will require larger heat shields to protect against the extreme heat of entering a planet’s atmosphere and decelerating at a safe altitude in the thin Martian atmosphere. To source
Blue Origin Reaches Milestone in BE-4 Rocket Engine Development
Testing of components of the BE-4 engine is in progress at Blue Origin’s facilities in West Texas.Credit: Blue Origin WASHINGTON — Blue Origin said Sept. 30 that it has completed more than 100 developmental tests of its BE-4 engine, which the company is building both for United Launch Alliance and its own vehicle. The company […]
Virgin Galactic Claims Progress on LauncherOne Rocket
WASHINGTON — Virgin Galactic announced Sept. 28 that it has made “significant progress” on the engines that it will use on its LauncherOne small satellite launch vehicle, two weeks after the company said it was increasing the vehicle’s performance. In a statement, Virgin Galactic said it had successfully carried out a 20-second test firing of […]
NASA Completes Successful Heat Shield Testing for Future Mars Exploration Vehicles
As NASA missions to Mars progress with science and complex human exploration missions, spacecraft will require larger heat shields to protect against the extreme heat of entering a planet’s atmosphere and decelerating at a safe altitude in the thin Martian atmosphere. To source
'The Martian' Locales on Mars Revealed in NASA Spacecraft Photos
This May 2015 image from the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows part of a region on Mars called Acidalia Planitia, the landing site for the Ares 3 mission in the novel and movie “The Martian.”Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona Newly released photos taken by a NASA spacecraft provide a real-world look at the […]
Rocker Grace Potter Mixes Space, Science and Music on Instagram (Video)
Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Grace Potter, currently on tour in support of her first solo record, “Midnight,” manages to find time to post her thoughts about space and science via Instagram. Space.com sat down with Potter prior to her performance at New York’s Radio City Music Hall on Saturday (Oct. 3) to discuss her cosmic influences , […]
Pulsars Have Crunchy Crust, Supersmooth Interiors, Study Suggests
An artist’s rendition of a pulsar, which radiates bright beams of light from its two magnetic poles. The pulsar doesn’t necessarily rotate around those poles, so the beams of light sweep across the sky and sometimes appear to “pulse” on and off. This image portrays the Jodrell Bank Observatory (silhouetted in the foreground), where scientists […]
World View's Balloon-Based Space Tourism to Lift Off in 2017
Artist’s illustration of World View’s balloon-borne capsule cruising through the stratosphere.Credit: World View Enterprises, Inc. TUCSON, Arizona — A new type of space tourism is set to lift off two years from now, without the aid of a rocket. Arizona-based World View Enterprises aims to start launching paying customers to the stratosphere in 2017 beneath […]
Aliens observed
Space Invader art has arrived at ESA’s Earth observation centre in Italy To source
Best Space Stories of the Week — Oct. 4, 2015
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft obtained this high-resolution enhanced color view of Pluto’s moon Charon just before the closest approach on July 14, 2015.Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute There’s water on Mars, a resupply spaceship at the International Space Station, a science-heavy survival novel on the big screen and something moving inside […]
[JAXA President Monthly Press Conference] JAXA President Monthly Regular Press Conference September 2015
JAXA President Monthly Regular Press Conference Date and time: From 11:00 – 11:45 a.m. on Sept. 10 (Thu.), 2015Venue: JAXA Tokyo Office Presentation Room (B1 floor)MC: Shigeki Kamigaichi, JAXA Public Affairs Department Director The recently launched “KOUNOTORI5” (HTV5) carried a small satellite of the Chiba Institute of Technology and one from Brazil. I would like […]
[Space Transportation Systems] H-IIA UPGRADE – Moving to a new stage
H-IIA UPGRADE Enhanced launch performance to cope with geostationary satellite launch –Adopting it to the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 29, our upgraded flagship launch vehicle The “geostationary orbit” is about 36,000 km above the Earth’s equator. The orbit is used by meteorological and communication satellites.For entering into the geostationary orbit, a satellite is injected into […]
'The Martian' Misses Out on a Faster Way to Mars (Op-Ed)
Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is stranded on Mars, in the new Ridley Scott movie, “The Martian.”Credit: Twentieth Century Fox Edward Belbruno is a mathematician and an artist. His paintings are in major collections and exhibited throughout the United States, and he regularly consults with NASA from his position as a cosmology researcher at Princeton […]