Category: Missions

  • Another successful Morpheus Test Flight

    Today was a busy day in Florida following on from the successful launch of Atlas 5 this morning another flight occurred a KSC when the Morpheus Lander test vehicle took to the skies for another flight. This was the first closed-loop ALHAT free flight onboard Morpheus, which basically means the ALHAT operated completely autonomously during…

  • Weekly Space Blog 11/16

    Beyond Earth: Removing the Barriers to Deep Space Exploration round table This week NASA’s Bill Gerstenmaier moderated a panel discussion to consider the challenges facing the U.S. space exploration program. Panelists include: • Julie Van Kleeck, Vice President, Space Programs, Aerojet Rocketdyne • Charlie Precourt, Vice President & General Manager, ATK Space Launch Division •…

  • Weekly Space Blog 11/9

    India’s first Mars Orbiter Mangalyaan launched successfully This week India successfully launched their first Mars Orbiter called Mangalyaan, the spacecraft was launched by a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket (PSLV) from India’s launch site, Satish Dhawan Space Center.  If all goes well the spacecraft is due to arrive in Sept 2014 and will make India only the fourth nation…

  • Weekly Space Blog 11/2

    We are back after a rather long delay due to upgrading to Windows 8.1 and losing everything that was installed on the machine :(… Cygnus completes COTS demo mission The Orbital Sciences Cygnus spacecraft completed it’s final test mission under the C.O.T.S program with a fiery end during re-entry to earth’s atmosphere.  Following a week…

  • Weekly Space Blog 10/12

    With the  shutdown continuing there isn’t much news from NASA this week LADEE enters lunar orbit Dispite the government shutdown the recently launched LADEE spacecraft entered into orbit around the moon this week. The spacecraft launched last month has been traveling to the moon since it launch and after a series of burns to refine…

  • Weekly Space Blog 8/24

    WISE approved for asteroid survey NASA announced this week that the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft will be taken out of hibernation to start a three year mission to search for Near Earth Objects.  While the primary instruments on the vehicle required frozen hydrogen to operate which ran out in 2011 the other instruments…

  • Weekly Space Blog 7/13

    Another week has come and gone and the stories continue to flow in, this week we have a number of exciting stories plus four Kickstarter projects related to space. Bold New Plan for first SLS/Orion Launch This week NASA managers announced the new plan which would see the first uncrewed mission named EM-1 travel to…

  • Weekly Space Blog 7/6

    Another busy week in space Cassini captures picture of Saturn Moon Janus This week Cassini returned a picture of one of Saturn’s small lumpy moon’s named Janus, the moon doesn’t have sufficient gravity to pull itself into a round shape as seen with most other moons.  For more pictures of the moon check out the…

  • Weekly Space Blog 6/29

    Another busy week in space, here is this weeks blog. Saturn News Saturn was in the news twice this week, researches have discovered the mystery of the gigantic storm circling Saturn and a image capture by Cassini shows a propeller like structure in the rings.  The researchers announced there findings based on analysis of images…

  • Active NASA missions

    As we close out another year we are going to take a look at some of the other NASA missions that are active in the Solar System exploring other planets.  While the future looks a little uncertain at the moment due to the growing budget crisis there are plenty of spacecraft still in operation. Voyager…