Recap From the Expedition Lead Scientist
(Highlights: Week of Aug. 29, 2016) – It was a busy week on the International Space Station with aspacewalk and the preparation for NASA astronaut Jeff Williams’ return home. Before he...
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Speeds Toward Asteroid Rendezvous
NASA’s first asteroid sampling mission launched into space at 7:05 p.m. EDT Thursday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, beginning a journey that could revolutionize our...
Small Asteroid Flew Safely Past Earth Today
A small asteroid designated 2016 RB1 safely flew past Earth today at 10:20 a.m. PDT (1:20 p.m. EDT / 17:20 UTC) at a distance of about 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers, or just less than 1/10th the...
Two Russian “swarms” of mini-satellites to be orbited in 2017-2018
Two constellations of Russia’s CubeSat nanosatellites are planned to be orbited in the next two years for practicing their control and their communication with each other, Alexander Chernyavsky, an...
The ‘impossible’ EM Drive is about to be tested in space
An actual EM Drive is about to be launched into space for the first time, so scientists can finally figure out – once and for all – if it really is possible for a rocket engine to...
The supernova that wasn’t: a tale of three cosmic eruptions
In the mid-1800s, astronomers surveying the night sky in the Southern Hemisphere noticed something strange: over the course of a few years, a previously inconspicuous star named Eta Carinae grew...
Russian space agency: First tourist may go to orbit within next 2 years
The Russian space agency, Roskosmos, will send to the orbit the first space tourist within next two years. “I believe, within next two years (the first tourist will fly),” he said....
Jupiter’s North Pole Unlike Anything Encountered in Solar System
NASA’s Juno spacecraft has sent back the first-ever images of Jupiter’s north pole, taken during the spacecraft’s first flyby of the planet with its instruments switched on. The images show storm...
