Posts Tagged ‘ space ’

"A U.S. mission to send the first unmanned commercial spacecraft to the International Space Station was aborted with a half second left in the countdown. Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the company’s Dragon capsule, attempted to lift off at 4:55 a.m. yesterday from Cape Canaveral, Florida. A computer detected an engine pressure problem, grounding the rocket and delaying the flight for a new attempt May 22." (05/20/12)

"The aerospace company that built the solid rocket boosters for NASA's space shuttle fleet announced plans Tuesday to develop its own private launch system — a spaceship and rocket — to fly astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit. The first manned flight could launch in about three years, company officials said. Utah-based Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, announced the new project here at the first Spacecraft Technology Expo, where thousands of government and industry officials have gathered to discuss innovative new technologies and the future of human spaceflight." (05/10/12)

"New research supports the theory that early Mars had a thick, wet atmosphere, and a climate similar to the Earth’s climate now. The atmosphere of Mars is currently less than 1% the density of Earth’s atmosphere. That’s one of the main reasons that the Earth’s climate is wet and Mars is very dry. ... The new findings, just published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, provide evidence that early Mars was saturated with water, and that it’s atmosphere was at least 20 times thicker than it is now." (05/06/12)

"A private U.S. company has delayed launching a cargo ship to the International Space Station. Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, was scheduled to launch the supply ship next Monday. But company officials said that the spaceship needs more testing. The delay will probably be about one week." (04/24/12)

"A robotic Russian cargo spacecraft launched toward the International Space Station Friday (April 20) to ferry tons of gear for the orbiting lab's crew, a flight that comes just 10 days before an American private spaceship is expected to make a historic supply run of its own. The unmanned Progress 47 supply ship blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in central Kazakhstan at 8:50 a.m. EDT (1250 GMT) today, reaching its preliminary orbit less than 10 minutes later, NASA officials said." (04/20/12)

"The latest effort from James Cameron has all the earmarks of a science fiction movie -- but in real life. The movie director has joined Google executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt in backing Planetary Resources, a mysterious company that promises to 'create a new industry and a new definition of 'natural resources.'' (04/18/12)

"New analysis of 36-year-old data, resuscitated from printouts, shows NASA found life on Mars, an international team of mathematicians and scientists conclude in a paper published this week. ... esearchers crunched raw data collected during runs of the Labeled Release experiment, which looked for signs of microbial metabolism in soil samples scooped up and processed by the two Viking landers. General consensus of scientists has been that the experiment found geological, not biological, activity. The new study took a different approach." (04/12/12)

"Two US rocket companies are readying the first private space missions to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX and Orbital both have multi-billion dollar Nasa contracts to supply cargo to the station, filling the void left by the retirement last year of the space shuttle. California-based SpaceX has set the pace so far, having successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule into orbit, and safely returning the capsule to Earth, in December 2010. The company says it could launch for the ISS as soon as 30 April." (04/09/12)

"The Cassini spacecraft has captured striking images from flying by three moons of Saturn, including new pictures of Enceladus's gushing geysers. Cassini made its lowest pass yet over the south pole of Enceladus, at at an altitude of 74km (46 miles). This allowed it to 'taste' the jets of water vapour and ice that the moon spews forth into space. The Nasa probe also made relatively close flypasts of two other Saturnian satellites: Dione and Janus." (03/29/12)

"With fears of a catastrophic galactic collision mounting, the United States will join a transnational consortium aimed at making outer space a more navigable enterprise. 'Unless the international community addresses these challenges, the environment around our planet will become increasingly hazardous to human spaceflight and satellite systems, which would create damaging consequences for all of us,' Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a written statement Tuesday." (01/17/12)