Virgin Orbit completed a captive carry test flight of its LauncherOne system April 12, the final major milestone before the company performs its first orbital launch attempt. The company’s modified Boeing 747 aircraft, with a LauncherOne rocket attached to its left wing, took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California at 2:23…
Boeing’s Starliner CST-100 crew spacecraft got off to a great start on its first-ever launch to the International Space Station this morning — but despite the rocket and launch vehicle performing as expected, the Starliner spacecraft itself hit a bit of a snag when it came time for its own post-launch mission to begin. UPDATE…
Scientists are sending mighty mice to space, but rather than being gym rats, their strength was enhanced through genetic experimentation in the hopes of preventing human astronauts from experiencing muscle loss in microgravity. NASA is sending 40 genetically modified mice to space via this week’s scheduled SpaceX Dragon launch as part of its “Mighty Mice…
A satellite launched by Samsung into space last week crash-landed near a US couple’s rural home. The Space Selfie device, which the company said aimed to capture images “using a unique view of planet earth as the backdrop,” was found by Nancy Mumby-Welke and her husband on Saturday morning after they heard a loud crash…
The U.S. Air Force’s unpiloted X-37B space plane landed back on Earth Sunday (Oct. 27) after a record 780 days in orbit , racking up the fifth ultra-long mission for the military’s mini-shuttle fleet. The X-37B’s Orbital Test Vehicle 5 (OTV-5) mission ended with a smooth autonomous touchdown at the Shuttle Landing Facility of NASA’s…
SpaceX’s Starhopper prototype has completed its second and final flight test, lifting off to an apogee of roughly 150m (500 ft) before nailing the bullseye on a landing pad adjacent to the launch mount. From start to finish, Starhopper spent almost a full minute (~57 seconds) in flight, showing off the first-ever public view of…
The launch of a rocket carrying an imaging satellite for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as failed about two minutes after liftoff from a base in French Guiana. European rocket-launch service provider Arianespace, which markets the satellite, said in a brief statement on Thursday that the Wednesday night launch ended after a “launcher anomaly occurred”…
NASA is opening the International Space Station for commercial business. There will be up to two short private astronaut missions per year. The missions will be for stays of up to 30 days. As many as a dozen private astronauts could visit the ISS per year, NASA said. These travelers would be ferried to…
NASA’s Mars InSight lander has measured and recorded for the first time ever a likely “marsquake.” The faint seismic signal, detected by the lander’s Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument, was recorded on April 6, the lander’s 128th Martian day, or sol. This is the first recorded trembling that appears to have come from…
The United States had criticised India over the anti-satellite missile test, calling it unacceptable and incompatible with the future of human space flight. In turn, the Russian Foreign Ministry called anti-satellite (ASAT) tests conducted by India a result of the deterioration of the situation in the arms control sphere, caused by US actions. Earlier, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that New Delhi…
Today, an Israeli lander named after the Hebrew word for “Genesis” attempted to mark a new beginning for space exploration by becoming the first privately funded spacecraft to touch down on the moon. Built by the Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL, the Beresheet lander tried to softly land within Mare Serenitatis, a vast volcanic basin on the…
After decades of conjecture and simulations, an international consortium of scientists released the first ever photos of a black hole on Wednesday. The never-before seen black hole is in a galaxy far, far away, called Messier 87 (M87). It’s at about the center of that galaxy, and about 53 million light years from Earth. It’s…
