Archives for the 'space exploration' Category
KAGUYA plunges into the Moon
Published on 10 Jun 2009 at 10:05 am.
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Filed under moon, space exploration.
The KAGUYA (formerly SELENE) spacecraft is at the end of its mission. As with several other recent missions to the Moon, KAGUYA’s final action will be a deliberate plunge into the lunar surface. The orbit has already been altered, and at this late time, there is not much that could stop it from slamming into […]
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The Mercury Seven
Published on 9 Apr 2009 at 10:31 pm.
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Filed under NASA, history, space exploration.
Fifty years ago, the newly created NASA announced the selection of seven military test pilots who would be serving as America’s first astronauts. Officially, they are Astronaut Group 1, but most people call them the Mercury Seven. Selected from Naval aviators were Malcolm Scott Carpenter, Walter Marty (Wally) Shirra, Jr., and Alan Bartlett […]
Apollo 8, 40 years ago
Published on 21 Dec 2008 at 4:04 pm.
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Filed under space exploration.
Today is the winter solstice. That means that the Sun is the farthest south that it will appear in the sky. That would be a topic worth blogging about. However, I wrote a bit about the solstice several years ago, and there is nothing particularly different about this one. What is […]
Spacecraft
Published on 2 Dec 2008 at 9:56 pm.
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Filed under Uncategorized, space exploration.
The plural of spacecraft is … spacecraft.
English is sometimes a strange language. Like all languages, English has rules for handing words. Unlike most languages, though, English has a lot of words that don’t fit the normal rules. Remember the spelling rule “i” befor “e”? Except that does not hold for words like “neighbor” or “weird.” For […]
Lunar Space Debris
Published on 28 Oct 2008 at 8:52 pm.
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Filed under moon, space debris, space exploration.
From the time that the first satellite was placed into orbit around the Earth, we have had space debris. The rocket that launched Sputnik also orbited Earth. Every launch creates more debris. Old satellites still orbit Earth. In the early days, when satellites needed to use cameras to image Earth, they […]
India shoots for the Moon
Published on 22 Oct 2008 at 10:40 am.
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Filed under space exploration.
India’s space agency, ISRO, has successfully launched that nation’s first payload beyond Earth orbit. That payload is the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. It will join China’s Chang’e 1 and Japan’s Kaguya (SELENE) spacecraft, which are already in orbit around the Moon. The United States is now planning to launch its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in the spring of […]
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IBEX
Published on 3 Oct 2008 at 3:02 pm.
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Filed under solar system, space exploration.
In biology, an ibex is a type of wild goat. But, that is not what I am writing about here. Rather, I am writing about NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) Mission, set to launch in just over two weeks, on October 19 by a Pegasus rocket. IBEX is the latest […]
