After a 25½ day journey to the Moon and back, NASA’s Artemis I mission Orion spacecraft successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, west of Baja California, at 1740 GMT on 11 December. In doing so, it tested out the guidance and thermal protection systems...
The Presidential directive to put humans on the Moon by the end of 2024 is concentrating the mind of NASA’s leadership. To some extent NASA’s hands have been bound by past equipment choices with the ever-present problem of having very limited funds to enact such a...
While NASA left off the parachutes for schedule reasons (the parachute system has already been tested) the Orion crew module capsule (in unmanned condition) had its tractor rocket tower escape system fitted above it, successfully fired in a test on 2 July 2019 to...
The 69th International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2018) was held in the city of Bremen near the coast of Northern Germany. The Congress is both a technical symposium, where engineers, scientists and even lawyers present their papers, and a place where the great space...
Just as most modern jet airliners look the same as they optimise their shapes for their mission, so manned spacecraft are starting to look very similar. Sinodefence.com has revealed that China is working on a new manned spacecraft design that appears to be a close...
While the recent film “The Martian”, starring Matt Damon, whetted the appetite of the general public for long-range human exploration, in truth, any mission to Mars is at least 20 years away. Similarly, while NASA has recently revealed its initial “Journey to Mars”...
