Northrop Grumman Tests Space Tow Truck

In the early days, satellites didn’t stick around for very long. After it was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, it only took about three months for Sputnik 1 to renter the atmosphere and burn up. But the constant drive to push ever further into space meant that soon …read more

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Satellite swarms may impact exploration of the night sky

The introduction of 26,000 new megaconstellation satellites could have a significant effect on ground-based astronomy, according to a new study commissioned by the European Southern Observatory. Twice as many satellites could be visible to the naked ey… Continue reading Satellite swarms may impact exploration of the night sky

Russia’s Newest Weather Satellite May Have Be Killed by Space Junk

For humans and satellites alike, making a living is space is hard. First, there’s the problem of surviving the brief but energetic and failure-prone ride there, after which you get to alternately roast and freeze as you zip around the planet at 20 times the speed of sound. The latter …read more

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Open-Source Satellite Propulsion Hack Chat

Join us on Wednesday, December 11 at noon Pacific for the Open-Source Satellite Propulsion Hack Chat with Michael Bretti!

When you look back on the development history of any technology, it’s clear that the successful products eventually reach an inflection point, the boundary between when it was a niche product

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India's Chandrayaan-2 mission achieves lunar orbit ahead of Moon landing

Chandrayaan-2 pictured lifting off atop a GSLV MK-III rocket

India’s Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft has successfully made orbit around the Moon. The ambitious mission, which is comprised of an orbiter, a lander, and a rover, has the goal of shedding new light on the creation and evolution of Earth’s closest celestial neighbor.

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India Launched a Moon Orbiter, Lander, and Rover All In One Shot with Chandrayaan-2

On July 22nd, India launched an ambitious mission to simultaneously deliver an orbiter, lander, and rover to the Moon. Launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on a domestically-built GSLV Mk III rocket, Chandrayaan-2 is expected to enter lunar orbit on August 20th. If everything goes well, the mission’s lander …read more

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Snoopy Come Home: The Search for Apollo 10

When it comes to the quest for artifacts from the Space Race of the 1960s, few items are more sought after than flown hardware. Oh sure, there have been stories of small samples of the 382 kg of moon rocks and dust that were returned at the cost of something …read more

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ESA's reusable Space Rider capsule would carry equipment to orbit and back

The ESA has outlined Space Rider, a reusable capsule for experiments in low-Earth orbit

Space flight requires quite a lot of single-use machinery, and when you’re talking about multi-million dollar rockets that are used once, that gets pretty expensive and wasteful. Companies like SpaceX have made in-roads towards reusable rockets, and now ESA has outlined its own reusable Space Rider capsule, which would carry scientific equipment to the edge of space and back several times over.

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Engineering for the Long Haul, the NASA Way

The popular press was recently abuzz with sad news from the planet Mars: Opportunity, the little rover that could, could do no more. It took an astonishing 15 years for it to give up the ghost, and it took a planet-wide dust storm that blotted out the sun and …read more

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