The head of Russia’s space agency is in Vostochny to review the construction of Russia’s new spaceport there.
The competition heats up: The head of Russia’s space agency is in Vostochny to review the construction of Russia’s new spaceport there.
Tag: spaceflight
The reactivation of Rosetta continues, with no serious issues so far.
The reactivation of Rosetta continues, with no serious issues so far.
More information on the problems with China’s lunar rover Yutu.
More information on the problems with China’s lunar rover Yutu.
It appears that the rover was not responding properly to commands from the ground and thus did not prep itself properly for going into hibernation for the long lunar night.
Something is wrong with China’s lunar rover.
Something is wrong with China’s lunar rover.
The link above is exceedingly short, one sentence, and describes the problem as an “abnormity” which makes no sense, so there is as yet no clear idea what the issue is.
A longer report is here, but it doesn’t add much, other than the “abnormality” is related to “mechanical control.”
Sierra Nevada sets November 2016 as the date for its first orbital flight of Dream Chaser.
The competition heats up: Sierra Nevada has now set November 2016 as the date for its first orbital flight of Dream Chaser.
The flight will be unmanned, followed by a manned mission the next year.
In celebration of the tenth anniversary of Opportunity’s landing on Mars, the journal Science publishes a special section of the newest findings from Mars.
In celebration of the tenth anniversary of Opportunity’s landing on Mars, the journal Science has published a special section of the newest findings from Mars.
The main conclusion of all this research is that Mars was once potentially habitable, though there is no evidence so far to show that anything actually inhabited it. The data obtained however is now giving scientists clues on the best places to look for the remains of that ancient life, should it exist.
Virgin Galactic today announced the successful testing of their own new rocket engine.
The competition heats up: Virgin Galactic today announced the successful testing of their own new rocket engine.
Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial spaceline, announced today that it has reached a significant milestone in the testing of a new family of liquid rocket engines for LauncherOne, the company’s small satellite launch vehicle. As part of a rapid development program, Virgin Galactic has now hot-fired both a 3,500 lbf thrust rocket engine and a 47,500 lbf thrust rocket engine, called the “NewtonOne” and “NewtonTwo” respectively. Further, the NewtonOne engine has successfully completed a full-mission duty cycle on the test stand, firing for the five-minute duration expected of the upper stage engine on a typical flight to orbit. These tests are being conducted on two new state-of-the-art test stands that the team designed, assembled and installed internally. [emphasis mine]
Though they say that these engines are for their orbital rocket, not SpaceShipTwo, I find it interesting that their development was in-house, not by Scaled Composites which has so far been building everything for Virgin Galactic. Moreover, note the highlighted words, “rapid development program.” Though you should never be leisurely about this stuff in order to compete, giving this particular title to this engine program suggests they are in a particular hurry to develop it.
Both factoids suggest again that they are not happy with the performance of the hybrid engines Scaled Composites built for them, under their direction, and are now working hard to replace them.
A look at China’s plans to develop a heavy-lift rocket.
A look at China’s plans to develop a heavy-lift rocket.
Penn State’s Google Lunar X Prize team has now launched a kickstarter campaign to fund its effort.
Penn State’s Google Lunar X Prize team has now launched a kickstarter campaign to fund its effort.
Because of a computer reboot, Rosetta’s revival from hibernation came 18 minutes late.
Because of a computer reboot, Rosetta’s revival from hibernation came 18 minutes late.
[Rosetta] woke yesterday as planned, to the relief of ESA scientists – but the signal it sent home to confirm it was awake reached Earth late, fraying the nerves of some mission controllers in the meantime. Due to call at 1745 GMT, Rosetta did not announce its revival until 1818. Fifteen minutes could be explained because the spacecraft’s computer checked the on-board clock only every quarter of an hour. The additional 18 minutes, however, was a mystery.
Now, the telemetry has shown that soon after Rosetta’s first revival sequence had started, the on-board computer automatically rebooted and the sequence started again, causing 18 minutes of delay.
It seems all is well now, though the engineers plan to spend some time pinpointing the cause of the reboot.
A donut-sized rock suddenly appears in front of the Mars rover Opportunity.
A donut-sized rock suddenly appears in front of the Mars rover Opportunity.
NASA announced the discovery of the rock at an event at Caltech in Pasadena this past Thursday night, dubbing the rock “Pinnacle Island.” “It’s about the size of a jelly doughnut,” NASA Mars Exploration Rover lead scientist Steve Squyres told Discovery News. “It was a total surprise, we were like ‘wait a second, that wasn’t there before, it can’t be right. Oh my god! It wasn’t there before!’ We were absolutely startled.”
Another lunar Earthrise image from the 1960s restored and enhanced.
Another lunar Earthrise image from the 1960s restored and enhanced.
One must remember that when these images from the 1960s were first taken, it was the very first time humans were seeing our home world from a distance. While today we are somewhat sanguine about such images, then no one knew exactly what the Earth looked like. These images told us.