CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX will use a powerful, improved capsule to launch the International Space Station out of orbit once the spacious laboratory expires. NASA and Elon Musk’s company outlined a plan Wednesday to incinerate the space station upon re-entry and dump what’s left in the ocean, ideally in early 2031 when it… Read More »
Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have successfully tested a next-generation microgravity 3D printer called SpaceCAL. The tests were conducted as part of the Virgin Galactic 07 mission, a crewed sub-orbital spaceflight that launched on Monday (June 8). During the 140-second test run, SpaceCAL 3D-printed four items from a liquid plastic called PEGDA, including… Read More »
NASA’s oldest active astronaut will return to space for a six-month mission in September. 69-year-old Don Pettit will fly International Space station (ISS) as part of the Roscosmos-led Soyuz MS-26 mission, which included Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner. Russian state media source TASS said this week that the launch date would be September… Read More »
What do you do when your star attraction — a retired space shuttle — remains hidden and out of public view for the next few years? If you’re the California Science Center, you land another spacecraft. The Los Angeles museum and educational center announced the addition of a SpaceX Dragon capsule to its collection on… Read More »
This year’s induction into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame was also a reunion of sorts; The two award winners took the stage under the spacecraft where they once crossed paths. NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida hosted the ceremony where the retired space shuttle Atlantis was exhibited on Saturday, June 1. A… Read More »
In the final days of World War II, one of Hitler’s brightest rocket scientists put forward an ambitious plan to attack America. Eugen Sänger’s design, called Silbervogel or “Silver Bird,” was part rocket, part spacecraft. Shaped like a crushed paper plane, it would launch from Germany and enter low earth orbit; From there, it will… Read More »
We may earn an affiliate commission from anything you purchase from this article. British journalist Adam Higginbotham, author of “Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster,” returns with his comprehensively researched new book, “Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space” (Simon). . & Schuster),… Read More »
NASA’s iconic Hubble observatory is still working on ideas that will keep it going for a long time, and maybe even longer; but these proposals may face uphill battles. The Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, has been serviced five times by astronauts and is still in good condition. However, the telescope is aging and… Read More »
Created to honor the first woman to command a U.S. spacecraft, the collectible embroidered patch features a geometric pattern representing the space shuttle’s glow rising into the night sky. The colorful, diamond-shaped pieces can also be seen as the metaphorical “glass ceiling” that Eileen Collins broke on her way to the stars. In the latest… Read More »
The first Spanish woman in space has now become the second female astronaut to be awarded the United States’ highest honor. Ellen Ochoa, who later directed NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a ceremony held at the White House on Friday, May 3. Ochoa became the 10th… Read More »