News tagged with space orbit

Dragon arrives at space station in historic 1st (Update 2)

The privately bankrolled Dragon capsule made a historic arrival at the International Space Station on Friday, triumphantly captured by astronauts wielding a giant robot arm.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 25, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (11) | comments 20

IBEX spacecraft measures 'alien' particles from outside solar system

(PhysOrg.com) -- Using data from NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft, an international team of researchers has measured neutral "alien" particles entering our solar system from interstellar ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jan 31, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Engineers fight for stranded Mars probe after 'sign of life' (Update)

Engineers fought desperately on Wednesday to save Russia's Phobos-Grunt spacecraft after the Martian probe sent "a first sign of life" more than two weeks after being stranded in orbit.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 23, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (18) | comments 15

'Odd couple' binary makes dual gamma-ray flares

(PhysOrg.com) -- In December 2010, a pair of mismatched stars in the southern constellation Crux whisked past each other at a distance closer than Venus orbits the sun. The system possesses a so-far unique ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jun 29, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (4) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Team aims to use Android smartphone in orbit to control satellite

(PhysOrg.com) -- A British team of engineers is planning to send a mobile smartphone into orbit on a satellite for the first time to test its ability to control the satellite and take photographs in the hostile ...

Technology / Engineering

created Jan 25, 2011 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (7) | comments 10 | with audio podcast report

Japanese space probe Hayabusa close to home

(PhysOrg.com) -- Hayabusa, the Japanese space probe launched in 2003, is returning home from its five-billion-kilometer round-trip journey to collect samples from the asteroid 25143 Itokawa.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jun 08, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (12) | comments 2 | with audio podcast report

Largest Ring Around Saturn Discovered

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered an enormous ring around Saturn -- by far the largest of the giant planet's many rings.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Oct 07, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (32) | comments 12

NASA's LCROSS Reveals Target Crater For Lunar South Pole Impacts

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA has selected a final destination for its Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, after a journey of nearly 5.6 million miles that included several orbits around Earth ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Sep 11, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (8) | comments 2

Gravity wells could provide 'parking lots' for spaceships

Nature has provided five huge rest stops far out in space for the convenience of spacecraft traveling from Earth. Some NASA folks call them "parking lots" in space.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jul 15, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (20) | comments 22

Mars Orbiter's Computer Reboots Successfully

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter properly followed commands today to shut down and restart, a strategy by its engineers to clear any memory flaws accumulated in more than five years since Odyssey's ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 12, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Beam them up: Ashes of 'Star Trek' actor in orbit

(AP) -- James Doohan, Scotty from "Star Trek," spent his acting career whizzing through the cosmos. Gordon Cooper was one of America's famous Mercury seven astronauts. And Bob Shrake spent his work life anonymously ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 22, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (4) | comments 3

Space weather expert has ominous forecast

A stream of highly charged particles from the sun is headed straight toward Earth, threatening to plunge cities around the world into darkness and bring the global economy screeching to a halt.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 08, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (9) | comments 7

Finding ET may require giant robotic leap

(Phys.org) -- Autonomous, self-replicating robots -- exobots -- are the way to explore the universe, find and identify extraterrestrial life and perhaps clean up space debris in the process, according to a Penn State engineer, ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Apr 18, 2012 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (7) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Cassini to dip into Enceladus spray again

(Phys.org) -- Less than three weeks after its last visit to the Saturnian moon Enceladus, NASA's Cassini spacecraft returns for an encore. At closest approach on April 14, the spacecraft will be just as low ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Apr 16, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Envisat - biggest environment satellite - goes silent

The European Space Agency said Thursday it had lost contact with Envisat, the biggest Earth-monitoring satellite in history.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Apr 12, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1