by David Todd | Mar 9, 2016 | Science
A “time travelling” total solar eclipse which started just West of Indonesia and tracked over that nation, followed by Borneo and then over half of the Pacific. Because the eclipse’s path crossed the International Date Line, according to local time...
by David Todd | Feb 17, 2016 | JAXA, Launches, Satellites, Science
An H-2A202 launch from Tanegashima in Japan took place at 0845 on 17 February 2016. Aboard the flight to orbit were four satellites. The main payload was the Japanese ASTRO-H aka Hitomi spacecraft. This 2700kg astronomical spacecraft, which has been launched for...
by David Todd | Feb 17, 2016 | commercial launch services, ESA, Satellites, Science
While it may only have a few flights left in its career, Rockot is still working well. A Rockot/Breeze KM successfully launched the 1150kg Sentinel-3A spacecraft on behalf of the European Space Agency at 1757 GMT on 16 February 2015 from the Plesetsk launch site in...
by David Todd | Feb 12, 2016 | Science
In what is being hailed as one of the scientific discoveries of the century, vying with the discovery of the Higgs Boson, US scientists revealed that they had detected gravitational waves. On 14 September 2015, two US-based Laser Interferometer...
by David Todd | Feb 8, 2016 | History, Science
The chance of an individual being killed by meteorite (a meteor that actually reaches the ground) remains surprisingly high. This is because, while major events are rare, a cataclysmic strike could kill millions. Given the destruction that such an event would cause,...
by David Todd | Jan 26, 2016 | ESA, Satellites, Science, Seradata News, Technology
Having been launched by a Vega rocket on 3 December 2015 to an initial 1540km apogee orbit, the science spacecraft LISA Pathfinder was raised via a series of six burns using a propulsion module/transfer stage to boost the orbit in steps in order to finally approach...
