Grace Hopper’s work with computers helped NASA communicate with Apollo astronauts, and still helps scientists keep track of far-flung spacecraft. Grace Hopper was a computer scientist who is best known for helping to create the first all-electronic digital computer, called UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer). NASA’s tracking stations for the Apollo moon missions used UNIVAC hardware […]
Tag Archives | space
Blastoff! Russian Progress 65 Cargo Ship Launches To ISS, Suffers Glitch | Video
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Moonwalker Buzz Aldrin Evacuated from South Pole Due to Illness
Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin was evacuated today (Dec. 1) from the South Pole due to illness, where he had been visiting as part of a tourist group. Aldrin is 86 years old, and was the second man to walk on the moon (after Neil Armstrong) during NASA’s historic Apollo 11 lunar landing mission in […]
Earth from Space
Join us Friday, 2 December, at 10:00 CET for the ‘Earth from Space’ video programme. This week, take a tour of Switzerland with Sentinel-2 To source
Future power
Operations image of the week: Young and ‘young at heart’ engineers and scientists visit ESA’s mission control To source
Rift in Antarctica's Larsen C Ice Shelf
On Nov. 10, 2016, scientists on NASA’s IceBridge mission photographed an oblique view of a massive rift in the Antarctic Peninsula’s Larsen C ice shelf. Icebridge, an airborne survey of polar ice, completed an eighth consecutive Antarctic deployment on Nov. 18. To source
Oddball Galaxy With 'Tangled Threads' Snapped By Hubble | Video
By Steve Spaleta | December 1, 2016 06:12pm ET Galaxy NGC 4696 is 150 million light-years from Earth and has a “bright core wrapped in system of dark, swirling, thread-like filaments,” according to the Space Telescope Science Institute. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured new imagery of the galaxy, located in the Centaurus constellation. credit […]
Astronomers Primed to Track Spectacular Comet Encounters
Comets can produce a spectacular show in the night sky, especially if you have binoculars or a telescope to see the fainter ones. And luckily for everyone, at least three known comets are expected to pass closely (but safely) by our planet in the next two years. That’s why the Planetary Science Institute hopes to […]
US Military Develops 'Multi-Object Kill Vehicle' to Blast Enemy Nukes
Artist’s illustration of Raytheon’s Standard Missile 3, a current defensive weapon system designed to destroy short- to intermediate-range ballistic missiles. Defensive weapons that can intercept and destroy enemy missiles before they can harm the United States or its allies have been a key part of military strategy for decades, but the rules of the game […]
Pooping in a Spacesuit Is as Complicated as It Sounds
“Get me a napkin quick,” said Apollo 10 commander Tom Stafford with some urgency. “There’s a turd floating through the air.” “I didn’t do it. It ain’t one of mine,” replied command module pilot John Young. “I don’t think it’s one of mine,” added lunar module pilot Gene Cernan. “Mine was a little more sticky […]
High School Girls Have Designed Africa's First Private Satellite
Africa’s first private space satellite will be launched in May 2017, thanks to 14 girls from South Africa. They have designed and constructed payloads for a satellite that will collect agriculture information across the continent, helping African countries better prepare for natural disasters and food shortages. The satellite launch is part of a project headed […]
Neutron Star May Reveal First Evidence of 80-Year-Old Quantum Prediction
A strange quantum phenomenon predicted more than 80 years ago finally may have been observed in nature. In 1930, physicists Werner Heisenberg and Hans Heinrich Euler predicted that very strong magnetic fields could change the polarity of light waves in a vacuum (where polarity refers to the orientation of the light’s electric and magnetic fields). […]
Quantum Effect Predicted In 1930s Possibly Observed For First Time | Video
By Steve Spaleta | November 30, 2016 12:00pm ET The effect, called vacuum birefringence, comes from the theory of quantum electrodynamics (QED) and predicts that strong magnetic fields could polarize light in a vacuum. A new study of neutron star RX J1856.5-3754 using ESO’s Very Large Telescope may have presented evidence of the phenomenon. [Full […]