Category: Missions
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NASA’s Dawn Arrives at Dwarf Planet Ceres
In the first of two NASA missions to arrive at a Dwarf Planet this year NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft, which previously visited the asteroid Vesta, successfully inserted itself into orbit. First launched in 2007, the spacecraft uses three Xenon Ion Thrusters for propulsion. After launch it traveled to the asteroid Vesta where is spent 14 months…
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Is NASA out of the Space Business?
It is now 2015 and in July it would have been four years since an American Spacecraft launched a crew into space. I have heard many people say that NASA is no longer in the space business because of this. In this article we will explore not only the missions that are currently operating in…
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2015 The Year of the Dwarf Planets
It is hard to believe that 2015 is already here, we would like to wish all of you a Happy New Year and look forward to continuing to serve you with fantastic Space News throughout the year. This year promises to be an exciting year as NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft races towards Pluto, Dawn moves…
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Orion completes maiden voyage
NASA’s Orion spacecraft has completed it’s maiden voyage with a successful splashdown in the pacific ocean. After the launch this morning a number of tests were performed during the two orbit mission, Orion was the first human rated spacecraft to travel beyond Low Earth Orbit since Apollo 17 which flew 42 years ago. This mission…
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NASA’s Orion has begun it’s EFT-1 mission
Following a smooth countdown the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavies three main engine’s came to life today to lift the Orion capsule to orbit. 18 minutes later the upper stage completed its first firing and left the Orion capsule in the desired orbit. Over the next two orbits Orion will follow the flight profile…
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Station crew returns to six
Following a picture perfect launch earlier today and successful docking this evening the station crew is back to six members after the hatches between the Soyuz and Station were opened. Terry Virts of NASA, Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency, who will spend the…
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Humans vs Robots for Space Exploration
Last week the European Space Agency achieved an important milestone in the history of Space Exploration with the first landing on a Comet. The lander named Philae was released from it’s parent spacecraft Rosetta and seven hours later touched down in the surface. Due to some complications the spaecraft ended up bouncing and landed two…
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Philae Lands on 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko
Today the European Space Agency and it’s partners around the world successfully landed the Philae spacecraft on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The Philae lander was launched on 2 March 2004 aboard ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft which has travelling billions of miles since then and has been in orbit around 67P since August this year (see previous post).…
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India’s Mars Orbiter Mission successfully insert into Orbit
Today India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft arrived at Mars and was successfully placed into orbit. Launched 5th November, 13 days before NASA’s Maven the spacecraft, it took a slightly different route to Mars resulting in it arriving three days after MAVEN. This is the first spacecraft from India to travel this far from Earth and it…
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NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft reaches Mars
Following a ten month, 442 million miles journey NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) successfully entered into orbit of Mars this evening. The orbit insertion maneuver began with six thruster engines firing briefly to damp out deviations in pointing. Then, the six main engines quickly ignite and burn for 33 minutes to slow the craft,…