Satellites
Hurry-Up Satellites
These Pentagon mavericks want to launch spacecraft within a week of taking the order. Wish them luck.
July 2012 |
By Todd Neff
SETI Plugs the Phone Back In
The Allen Telescope Array is back online.
December 08, 2011 |
By Heather Goss
Where Were You?
In this 50th anniversary year of human spaceflight, we ask you to remember your own space milestones, and record where you were, and how you felt.
November 22, 2011 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Europe to Launch First Soyuz from South America
When a Soyuz lifts off from French Guiana on Thursday, it will be the first one to launch outside of Russia or Kazakhstan in the rocket's 44-year history, and the first step in assembling Europe's new GPS system.
October 19, 2011 |
By Heather Goss
Storm Coming
These days, with so many satellite sensors looking down constantly from orbit, and so many ways to slice their data, it’s hard to remember that hurricanes used to arrive without much warning. Hurricane Irene is currently bearing down on the Turks and Caicos Islands, and may hit the east coast of the United States by [...]
August 23, 2011 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Life As We Didn't Know It
Score another one for the extremophiles.Biologists had already discovered organisms that can survive everything from high levels of radiation to vacuum to total darkness. Now they've found one that uses arsenic as a substitute for phosphorus, one of the six elements (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxy...
December 02, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
SETI @ 50: Are We Getting Anywhere?
Most people date the modern Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) to Frank Drake's Project Ozma, conducted in 1960 using the giant dish at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia.Today through Wednesday, at an NRAO workshop, SETI-ologists will review where th...
September 13, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Aliens Confirmed Dead
In researching a reader's letter about "Department of Flying Saucers" in the Sept. 2010 issue, I came across a report on the Web site, UFO Casebook, which claimed that General Omar Bradley had been flown overseas to view alien beings retrieved from a UFO crash site in the Arctic Circle. The report ...
August 31, 2010 |
By Pat Trenner
Roswell, "The Genesis Story of U.S. UFOs"
"It was 58 years ago today that the Roswell incident occurred," said Roger Launius, a National Air and Space Museum Space History curator who could also be considered NASM's chief skeptic. (An earlier talk of his concerned people who refuse to believe the Apollo program landed men on the moon.) Hi...
July 07, 2010 |
By Pat Trenner
IKAROS Unfurled
We had hoped that Japan's IKAROS solar sail would work as advertised, and it did. Here's an animated image of the fully deployed sail, taken by a "separation camera" from a short distance away.In other happenings:
The Hayabusa asteroid sample return capsule came home in spectacular style last wee...
June 17, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Spin Doctors
For that satellite dish on your roof and the phone calls you make to Japan, you can thank Harold Rosen.
September 2009 |
By Guy Gugliotta
Secret Space Shuttles
When you’re 200 miles up, it’s easy to hide what you’re up to.
August 2009 |
By Michael Cassutt
SpaceX joins the big leagues
It's probably premature to declare SpaceX an established launch company on the basis of yesterday's successful orbiting of Malaysia's Razaksat satellite (see video below). I doubt they'll want to gloat too long, given the technical and financial risks inherent in the rocket business, and the diffic...
July 14, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Hubble Favorites
A National Air and Space Museum astronomer picks some of his favorite images from the storied telescope.
May 22, 2009 |
By Rebecca Maksel
What would you say to an alien?
In 1982, the year E.T. The Extraterrestrial ruled at the box office, another, less heralded movie about aliens came out—John Carpenter's remake of The Thing, starring Kurt Russell. In the first film, a kind-hearted, magical being appears on Earth, works miracles, then ascends into the heavens with ...
May 18, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
How to build a satellite in three days
Small satellites used to be all the rage. Now, to be really cutting edge, they have to be fast, too, as in fast to build, test, and launch."Operationally responsive" is military-speak for fast: Field commanders want spacecraft that can return images and other data quickly from some hot spot they'd ...
April 28, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
A Smashing Success
How the Ranger probes’ moon crashes helped pave the way for Apollo.
January 21, 2009 |
By Paul Hoversten
India Aims for the Moon
A U.S. scientist reports from the scene of India's first lunar launch.
October 21, 2008 |
By Paul D. Spudis
