All Space news – Page 10
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AnalysisANALYSIS: Solar Orbiter mission heats up for the European Space Agency
To get a sense of the challenge in designing the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter mission, consider that the surface temperature on the planet Mercury gets up to 427°C – nearly twice the melting point of tin.
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AnalysisANALYSIS: On Asteroid Day, take a minute to look skyward
Anybody inclined to look at deep-space exploration mission proposals and their associated budgets and ask “why?” could do worse than consider the problem of so-called Near Earth Objects; that’s jargon for big chunks of rock that orbit the Sun – until they actually hit us. As long as they are ...
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NewsUK spacecraft project completes major review
Reaction Engines has completed the first development milestone of a hybrid rocket engine to power the single-stage-to-orbit Skylon spacecraft.
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AnalysisANALYSIS: In Russia's space programme, the state strikes back
While a number of recent events in spaceflight have underscored the rising significance of private sector competition, 2014 concluded with a maiden flight that serves to remind us all of the enduring presence of big, state-driven programmes.
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NewsVirgin Galactic announces first new pilot since fatal spaceship crash
Virgin Galactic has hired a new test pilot for the SpaceShipTwo commercial spacecraft from the company that designed the suborbital ship.
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Analysis
ANALYSIS: Lynx 'set to roar' in 2015
While Virgin Galactic waits for the results of an NTSB investigation into the 31 October 2014 fatal crash of SpaceShipTwo, another Mojave-based suborbital hopeful is making steady progress towards first flight of a very different concept.
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AnalysisANALYSIS: Where next, Virgin Galactic?
A 2014 that opened with great expectations that the era of privately funded personal spaceflight would finally begin ended with a crash, nowhere near space
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AnalysisANALYSIS: Space Station maintaining orbit – for now
The International Space Station has been the focal point of human spaceflight activity for so long now that the outpost can seem like a permanent, if remote, feature of our planet.
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NewsVirgin Galactic takes pragmatic approach to fatal spacecraft crash
Virgin Galactic is focusing its efforts on the development of its next sub-orbital tourist spacecraft following the fatal crash of the previous model in October 2014.
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NewsSierra Nevada loses appeal against NASA Commercial Crew choice
The US Government Accountability Office has put an end to Sierra Nevada Corporation’s dream of providing NASA with a lifting body spaceplane as part of the agency’s plan to replace the Space Shuttle’s astronaut-transport capability with spacecraft provided by the private sector.
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NewsFORECAST: In space, nobody can hear you on Mars
The most exciting thing to watch in spaceflight in 2015 won’t, of course, actually happen – in 2015 or, probably, in anything resembling the foreseeable future. Sorry, space people, but nobody is going to Mars.
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NewsNASA Ikhana UAV to monitor Orion test module's descent
NASA will deploy its General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Ikhana unmanned air vehicle to survey the descent of the Lockheed Martin Orion Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) module after its first planned 4.5h space mission that is expected to take place on 5 December.
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NewsComet update: Philae running on last scraps of battery power
Philae, the washing-machine-sized lander that the European Space Agency has successfully delivered to the surface of a comet, looks destined to complete just a fraction of its scientific agenda as it counts down the final hours before its batteries run out after an landing system malfunction left its solar panels ...
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NewsRobospace: Star moments in robotic space exploration
At the end of a week that saw the European Space Agency turn heads the world over by achieving the first-ever soft landing on a comet, we look at the most dazzling achievements in five decades of robotic space exploration.
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NewsScientific work on hold as ESA determines comet lander's condition
European Space Agency scientists have determined that their robotic lander Philae is on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, but it is not anchored as it should be and it is not sitting level. Philae, the washing machine-sized lander, may have come to rest on the steep rim of a crater ...
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NewsComet chaser peers deeper into origins of life with successful touchdown
European Space Agency scientists are attempting to determine exactly where their robotic lander Philae has come to rest on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, but have confirmed that the first-ever soft landing on a comet was a success.
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NewsSpaceShipTwo survivor unaware tail feathers unlocked
The surviving pilot of the SpaceShipTwo crash on 31 October has told investigators that he was unaware the co-pilot had unlocked a system that rotates the tail feathers of the vehicle moments before an in-flight break-up, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says.
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OpinionOPINION: Virgin Galactic crash shows that big dreams mean big risk
Tragedy has struck space tourism a most cruel blow. First, the 31 October crash of SpaceShipTwo took the life of test pilot Mike Alsbury. Then, images of the in-flight break-up cast a calamitous cloud over the industry’s biggest and most important player – the Virgin Galactic/Scaled Composites team.
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NewsEx-SpaceShipOne test pilot critical of hybrid motor in new video
Count the Ansari X-Prize-winning test pilot of SpaceShipOne, Brian Binnie, among the critics of SpaceShipTwo.
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NewsSpaceShipTwo broke up after tail feathers moved
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo telemetry data has offered a vital clue to investigators searching for the cause of the fatal 31 October crash while the wreckage appears to rule out an engine or fuel tank malfunction.