by Matt Wilson | Sep 30, 2016 | ESA, exploration, Satellites, Science, Technology
On 30 September 2016, at 1119 GMT the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), Darmstadt, announced that the Rosseta probe had completed its de-orbit manoeuvre to land/crash on to the surface of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, sending its last telemetry packet at...
by Matt Wilson | Sep 28, 2016 | Commercial human spaceflight, exploration, Personal spaceflight, SpaceX, Technology, test
On 23 September, SpaceX released a statement explaining the progress they had made in the investigation into the cause of the Falcon 9 “anomaly” in the run-up to the AMOS-6 mission. It stated that “…the Accident Investigation Team (AIT),...
by David Todd | Sep 27, 2016 | exploration, NASA, SpaceX, Technology
At the International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2016) in Guadalajara, Mexico, Elon Musk, the billionaire founder and Chief Technical Officer of the launch provider and manufacturer SpaceX, revealed his plan to put mankind onto the planet Mars, in effect becoming THE...
by David Todd | Sep 9, 2016 | exploration, Launches, NASA, Satellites
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 411 rocket carrying the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, for NASA, lifted off from the Space Launch Complex-41 pad of Cape Canaveral at 1105 GMT on 8 September 2016. The OSIRIS-REx sample return spacecraft was launched into a hyperbolic...
by David Todd | Sep 8, 2016 | ESA, exploration
While the little German Philae lander which had been carried to Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko by the ESA Rosetta spacecraft has been dead for several months (it stopped transmitting last year), at least we now know where it is buried. Or rather not buried. While the...
by David Todd | Aug 30, 2016 | exploration, Launches, NASA
On 25 August it was formally confirmed that NASA’s Launch Services Program had selected the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 541 vehicle to launch its Mars 2020 robotic science rover. This award resulted from a competitive procurement under the NASA Launch...
