Space
Apollo 11 And America, Forty Years Later
Sadly, few Americans can even name any of the courageous dozen of their countrymen who have walked on another world. »
SpaceX successfully test fires Falcon 9 rocket in Texas
At 10:30pm on November 23, 2008, near the airport in McGregor, Texas, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) tested their new Falcon 9 rocket at full thrust for nearly 3 minutes (160 seconds). The engineers then shut down two of the nine engines — in order to limit potential damage to the launch pad —... »
India’s flag landed on Moon
At 8:34 pm Indian time Friday night (1504 UTC), India became the fourth group to land its flag on the Moon. The unmanned lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-1 ejected its Moon Impact Probe, which hurtled across the surface of the Moon at 1.5 kilometres per second (3000 miles per hour), and successfully crash landed near the... »
India’s moon craft reaches final lunar orbit
India’s first lunar mission, the Chandrayaan-1 (meaning ‘moon craft’ in Sanskrit), reached its destined lunar orbit on Wednesday. The satellite’s on-board engine was fired for 58 seconds. It is now in a circular orbit 102 kilometres from the Moon. It will stay in this orbit for two years and conduct various experiments to gain a... »
NASA calls end to Mars Phoenix mission
WASHINGTON — NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander has ceased communications after operating for more than five months. As anticipated, seasonal decline in sunshine at the robot’s arctic landing site is not providing enough sunlight for the solar arrays to collect the power necessary to charge batteries that operate the lander’s instruments. Mission engineers last received a... »
Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 enters moon orbit
India’s first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1(meaning ‘moon craft’ in sanskrit) has passed the tricky man oeuvre of entering the lunar orbit at 5:15 PM Indian standard time. This was an important milestone for the Indian mission to moon which was launched on October 22 from Indian spaceport Satish Dhawan Space Center at Sriharikota. The lunar orbit... »
Mars orbiter finds widespread evidence of water-bearing minerals
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has found evidence of hydrated silica or opal, a form of mineral, over large areas in the Martian surface, including in the large martian canyon called Valles Marineris. The discovery was made by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer (CRISM) instrument on the orbiter. The findings are published by Ralph Milliken... »
Rocket carrying the ashes of astronaut Gordon Cooper and actor James Doohan fails during third launch attempt
A SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket has failed during its third attempt to reach orbit. Over four years behind schedule, the rocket lifted off from Omelek Island, part of Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, at 03:34 GMT this morning, carrying three technology development satellites, and the ashes of 208 people, including astronaut Gordon Cooper,... »
Searching for asteroids, extraterrestrial life a little more rocky: Budget cuts threaten to close Arecibo, world’s largest radio telescope
For nearly half a century the world’s largest telescope, the Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, has been observing our solar system and the universe around it. Completed by Cornell University along with the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1963, Arecibo’s enormous size gives it the ability to collect more light than any other... »
Apollo 11: American Excellence Remembered
Sunday July 20, 2008 will likely be a fairly typical summer day in America. People will get up, go to Church, and maybe hold a barbeque in the back yard. Perhaps the more industrious amongst us will wash the family car. Calmness, serenity, and above all, normality will rule the day. And in a... »
Asteroid slammed into Mars’ northern hemisphere
An asteroid the size of Pluto that slammed into the Northern hemisphere of Mars created the Borealis basin, based on the latest survey of NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Global Surveyor. The report released by the magazine Nature explains the 1984 observation of the unusual shape of Mars terrain in the northern hemisphere against... »
NASA says Martian soil could sustain life
The scientists behind the Mars Phoenix Lander project announced that the soil on Mars was more alkaline than expected and could sustain life. Scientists at NASA or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration claimed that they were “flabbergasted” by their discovery on the possibility that life could grow on Martian soil. “It is the type of... »
Phoenix lander confirms presence of water ice on Mars
For the first time ever, NASA has confirmed the presence of water ice on Mars. The Phoenix lander, which landed on Mars on May 25, has confirmed to NASA scientists that the white substance it found while digging a trench on June 15 is water ice. “It is with great pride and a lot of... »
Panspermia Theory for Life’s Origins Gets Boost from Top Scientists
Previous studies had identified amino acids and sugars in the meteorite that were believed to have formed in space. »
Obama, Lay Off Black Fathers!
Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama thundered to long, loud and vigorous applause from a Father’s Day Chicago church crowd that black fathers don’t engage with their children. A month before Obama made this stereotypical and plainly false assertion, Boston University professor Rebekah Levine Coley, in a comprehensive study on the black family, found that... »
NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft having trouble analyzing soil samples
NASA has stated that the Mars Phoenix lander is having trouble analyzing soil samples that its robotic arm is collecting. According to NASA, the soil appears to be too clodded to pass through screens on the way to Phoenix’s Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA). Images taken by the lander’s camera shows that the robotic arm... »
Phoenix spacecraft makes first ‘impression’ on Mars
The robotic arm scoop on the Phoenix lander on Mars has made its first impression on the red planet, leaving behind a mark that resembles a human footprint. It began its first dig on Saturday, May 31, and the camera on board the arm caught an image. “This first touch allows us to utilize the... »
Space Shuttle Discovery launches on mission STS-124
Space Shuttle Discovery has successfully launched from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, beginning mission STS-124. Discovery will deliver the main pressurized module of the Japanese Experiment Module to the International Space Station. Lift-off occurred at 21:02:12 GMT this evening, with the ascent to an initial sub-orbital trajectory lasting approximately... »
Toilet on International Space Station breaks
According to a NASA status report, the lone toilet on the International Space Station (ISS) has broken, leaving the astronauts on board having to use a rigged-up system of bags to collect any liquid waste. According to NASA, the collection fan motor broke sometime last week after one of the crew used the Russian-made toilet... »
NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft lands safely on Mars
NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft has landed safely on Mars, following a ten-month flight. Landing occurred yesterday evening at around 23:38 GMT (20:38 EDT), with confirmation being received by flight controllers around fifteen minutes later at 23:53, the communications delay due to the time taken for light and radio signals to travel from Mars back to... »
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