Archives for the 'space exploration' Category
Return to Luna writing contest
Published on 4 Mar 2008 at 3:20 pm.
3 Comments.
Filed under science fiction, space exploration.
The National Space Society and Hadley Rille Books are hosting a Return to Luna science fiction writing contest. Contestants are to submit a short story (2000 to 6000 words) about lunar exploration, preferably in the near future.  (To illustrate how little that is, yesterday’s posting about escape velocity was only a little over 2000 […]
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Explorer 1
Published on 30 Jan 2008 at 5:15 pm.
2 Comments.
Filed under history, space exploration.
Tomorrow, January 31, marks 50 years in space for the United States.
50 years ago, on the evening of January 31, 1958, a Juno rocket (also known as a Jupiter-C rocket), which was basically a modified Redstone ballistic missile, roared to life on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, in Florida. Seconds later, at […]
30 Years of Progress
Published on 21 Jan 2008 at 8:24 pm.
2 Comments.
Filed under space exploration, space station.
Thirty years ago yesterday, January 20, 1978, a Soyuz rocket booster lifted off from the Soviet Union carrying a craft that looked very similar to a Soyuz manned spacecraft. However, this craft had no crew, nor was it designed to ever hold crew members. It could never return to Earth intact. Instead, […]
Mercury, finally.
Published on 13 Jan 2008 at 12:49 pm.
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Filed under Mercury, planets, space exploration.
The MESSENGER spacecraft is now nearly to Mercury. It will pass that planet tomorrow, Monday, January 13, 2008, at about 1:05pm, Central Standard Time. I have published two other postings about MESSENGER (here and here). I am not going to restate all of that, so you can go back and read them […]
MESSENGER to Mercury
Published on 2 Jan 2008 at 6:52 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under planets, space exploration.
The MESSENGER spacecraft was launched on its way to Mercury in August of 2004. It is now just about to pass by that desolate planet (in about a week and a half). This will be the first mission to Mercury since Mariner 10, which was launched towards Mercury in November of 1973, flying […]
EPOXI Passing
Published on 30 Dec 2007 at 6:56 pm.
2 Comments.
Filed under NASA, space exploration.
Tomorrow a spacecraft will pass Earth. But, not to worry, it is one of our spacecraft. The passing craft is the EPOXI spacecraft.
EPOXI is the former Deep Impact craft that got so much press attention on July 4, 2005, when it plunged an impactor into Comet Tempel 1 (9P/Tempel). The impactor created […]
They’re calling it Altair
Published on 22 Dec 2007 at 3:04 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under NASA, space exploration.
In the 1960s, NASA furiously worked to design and build a lunar exploration program. Apollo was the result of that effort. The Apollo program was a wonder. A giant rocket, the Saturn V, lifted the moon craft on its way. Rather than land the entire craft, a Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), […]
