Category: Space
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T-7 days and counting to New Horizons Pluto Flyby
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is just 7 days away from its closest approach to Pluto, and this week we are going to look at the amazing images that have already been returned. As the spacecraft gets closer and closer we are going to learn much more about the Planet and its moons. Before we take…
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New Horizons Suffers Safe-Mode event
Just 10 days before New Horizons closest approach to Pluto it suffered a Safe-Mode event on Saturday causing a lost of communications when the spacecraft handled the event and switched to its backup computer system. Thankfully the backup system took over and re-established communications and begun sending data back to Mission Control to allow them…
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ISS Resupply Vehicle Launches successfully
Following on from two recent failures the Progress 60P (M-28M) spacecraft lifted off successfully this morning, Lifted to orbit aboard a Soyuz-U rocket the automated spacecraft successfully deployed its Solar Arrays and Kurs docking antennas before firing its thrusters to begin the journey to the ISS, for this flight the spacecraft will use the two…
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ISS and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Year
It does seem like the International Space Station is having quite a bad time with re-supply at the moment, three missions have been lost since last October. However things are not really as bad as the title suggests. Tomorrow morning another re-supply vehicle is scheduled to liftoff from Baikonur, the Russian Progress 60P spacecraft. This…
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Buzz Aldrin
Today I had the opportunity to meet with Astronaut Buzz Aldrin as part of my role with The Mars Foundation. Buzz is truly a unique character during out time together he had to do a phone interview with a South Dakota radio station which was interesting to listen to. He discussed many of his ideas…
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Leading theories for SpaceX CRS-7 mishap
It has been two days since the Falcon 9 carrying the CRS-7 Dragon exploded and there are currently two leading THEORIES on what happened. As we have yet to hear an official reason from SpaceX these are just PURE SPECULATION at this point. 1) The International Docking Adapter or a part of it came lose…
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T-14 days and counting to New Horizons Pluto Flyby
A journey that started 3451 days ago aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V is rapidly closing in on its primary destination Pluto. The New Horizons spacecraft will be the first to visit the Pluto system and will bring the distant planet and its five moons to life. In 14 days it will reach its…
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Now comes SpaceX’s true test
This morning SpaceX suffered the first failure of their Falcon 9 rocket as it explode two minutes into the CRS-7 mission. Initial data from Elon Musk indicates that an over-pressure event happened on the second stage. There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank. Data suggests counterintuitive cause. — Elon Musk…
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SpaceX loses CRS-7 mission to ISS
This morning SpaceX launched their latest mission to the International Space Station, unfortunately during the first stage flight the rocket exploded causing lost of Falcon, Dragon and the cargo it was carrying Among the cargo that Dragon was carrying was the first of two International Docking Adapters for the station which will be used…
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NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Gutted by Congress
The President’s 2016 request for $1.2b towards the continued development of the Commercial Crew program by Boeing and SpaceX has been reduced to $900 million by Congress. At present there is only one way to get crew to the International Space Station aboard Russia’s Soyuz rocket. To allow its astronauts to fly to the station…