Archive by category | Space and astronomy

Private rocket explodes on launch to space station

Private rocket explodes on launch to space station

An Orbital Sciences Antares rocket exploded seconds after its 6:22 p.m. lift-off from Wallops Island, Virginia, Tuesday on a mission to resupply the International Space Station. No one was hurt but the rocket was apparently destroyed and there was “significant property damage,” according to mission control commentators on NASA television.  Read more

Possible space weather role in downing of US copter

Possible space weather role in downing of US copter

In the predawn hours of 4 March 2002, as the United States and its allies battled Al Qaeda in the mountains of Afghanistan, a US army helicopter was sent to drop reinforcements on Takur Ghar, a mountain peak blanketed by snow — and enemy fire. Attempts to warn the chopper off via satellite radio failed. At the landing zone, it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and crash-landed, stranding its force in a fierce firefight that killed four US soldiers.  Read more

NASA extends Mars rover and Moon orbiter missions

A false-colour image of the Mars Opportunity rover, taken in March 2014.

NASA is on the verge of releasing its long-awaited prioritization of planetary missions, meant to guide the agency if tight budgets force it to switch off an operating spacecraft. But two missions that had been considered on the verge of closure — the Mars Opportunity rover and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) — have each received a reprieve of another two years of operations, scientists close to the projects have confirmed.  Read more

NASA announces instruments for 2020 Mars rover

NASA's 2020 Mars rover will carry seven instruments.

The rover that NASA is sending to Mars in 2020 will carry seven instruments geared to choosing just the right rocks to collect and store for future return to Earth. They include several firsts for Mars, including a zoomable camera, a machine to generate oxygen from carbon dioxide, and radar to explore geology up to half a kilometre deep.  Read more

Attempt to retrieve NASA probe runs out of gas

Attempt to retrieve NASA probe runs out of gas

An ambitious citizen-science effort to revive and redirect a decades-old NASA spacecraft has hit a snag. The International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) probe, now roughly 5 million kilometres from Earth, appears to be out of the nitrogen gas that it needs to pressurize its propulsion system’s rocket thrusters.  Read more