Tag: spacecraft

‘Humanity’s spacecraft’ Voyager 1 is back online and still exploring

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After months of challenging trouble-shooting and suspenseful waiting, Voyager 1 is once again talking to Earth.

The aging NASA spacecraft, about 24 billion kilometers from home, began transmitting garbled data in November. On April 20, NASA scientists got the probe back online after uploading new flight software to work around a chunk of onboard computer memory that had failed. They’re now receiving data about the spacecraft’s health and hope to hear from its science instruments again in a few weeks,

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Humans are already trashing Mars – despite never setting foot on it: Shocking map reveals the 15,694lbs of space junk piling up on the Red Planet including crashed spacecraft and discarded drill bits

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Despite never even setting foot on the planet, human-made space junk is already piling up on Mars. 

A new map reveals the locations of debris from spacecraft that have landed on Mars in the past 53 years, including the now defunct Ingenuity helicopter. 

This junk includes bits of metal landing equipment, heat shields, used parachutes, clipped rotor blades, drill bits and even fabric netting. 

Cagri Kilic, a professor of aerospace engineering at West Virginia University, estimates that there’s already a

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NASA’s moon crew meet their Orion spacecraft for first time

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The four astronauts embarking on a mission to the moon next year have had their first good look at the Orion capsule that will take them there.

NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, got up close and personal with the Orion spacecraft during a visit to the Kennedy Space Center from where the moon-bound Artemis II mission is currently scheduled to launch in November 2024.

Artemis II crew members,
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SpaceX images flaunt the awesome power of Starship rocket

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SpaceX
SpaceX testing its Super Heavy booster.
SpaceX
SpaceX testing its Super Heavy booster.
SpaceX
SpaceX testing its Super Heavy booster.
SpaceX

SpaceX has shared a set of dramatic images captured during a recent static fire test of its Super Heavy vehicle, the most powerful rocket ever built.

They show off the astonishing strength of the rocket’s 33 Raptor engines that will blast the Super Heavy skyward on its second test flight following a failed effort to reach orbit in April.

The first-stage Super Heavy and upper-stage Starship spacecraft are collectively known as the Starship, and SpaceX plans

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NASA’s Mars helicopter glimpses Perseverance rover from sky

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NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, captured an aerial image of the Perseverance rover during its latest flight at the end of last week.

The aircraft and rover arrived together on the red planet in February 2021, and since then both have been operating inside the Jezero Crater, a dried-up lake that scientists believe could contain evidence of ancient life.

In an image shared by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which is overseeing the current Mars mission, we can just spot

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Starliner spacecraft won’t fly first crew until next year

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Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft at the space station during an uncrewed test flight in May 2022. NASA/Boeing

Boeing’s Starliner CST-100 spacecraft won’t be going on its first crewed test flight to the International Space Station (ISS) until March 2024 at the earliest.

The news was announced at a press conference on Monday offering an update on the Starliner program, which has suffered numerous issues and delays since its failed maiden flight in December 2019.

“Based on the current plans, we’re anticipating

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This 360-degree video shows Ariane 5 rocket’s final launch

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Arianespace’s Ariane 5 rocket lifted off for the final time last month, bringing to a close 27 years of reliable service.

The European Space Agency (ESA), which oversaw the mission, has just released a 360-degree video of the launch from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, allowing space fans to strap on a pair of VR goggles to see the 164-foot-tall (50-meter) rocket blast skyward from just a few meters away.

The camera was clamped firmly to a steel cable

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Watch SpaceX test fire the world’s most powerful rocket

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SpaceX has performed a static fire test of its Super Heavy booster ahead of its second test flight.

SpaceX live streamed Sunday’s event, with the footage now available via the video player embedded at the top of this page. The company also tweeted a clip showing the test from a different angle.

The test took place at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, and fired up all 33 of the Super Heavy’s Raptor engines.

The Super Heavy creates around

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Curiosity rover battles up a 23-degree slope on Mars

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The Curiosity rover is slowly making its way up Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall mountain on Mars. Mountains are useful to study as their steep slopes can reveal layers of material laid down over time, like a geological time capsule. But just like heaving up a mountain is a challenge for humans, it can be tricky for rovers too. Curiosity recently took on a particularly steep and slippery slope, marking its most challenging climb to date.

How difficult terrain is for

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Psyche spreads its wings: NASA puts finishing touches on spacecraft that will visit a ‘$10,000 QUADRILLION space rock’ packed full of precious metals

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The launch of an exciting mission that will confirm if an asteroid near Mars is worth an unimaginable amount of money is now just two months away.

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft has had its two jumbo solar arrays attached as engineers put the finishing touches on it ahead of its targeted October 5 lift-off date.

The orbiter is due to explore an asteroid called 16 Psyche which scientists think may be packed full of precious metals with a value in excess

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