All systems are go as SpaceX and NASA are counting down to the launch of a Falcon 9 booster and Dragon capsule to the International Space Station. Liftoff is scheduled for 12:45:23 AM EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. In a rare occurrence, a number of Kennedy Space Center […]
After completing a successful static test fire on Saturday morning, SpaceX is ready to begin the countdown in earnest to Sunday evening’s planned launch of its Dragon spacecraft on the CRS-9 mission. And while the robust little spaceship will be loaded with nearly 5,000 lbs of research and support equipment for the orbiting outpost, none […]
One of the more noticeable themes in planetary science over the last few years has been the discovery that our solar solar system, and presumably many others as well, is a very wet place, brimming with water, ice and snow in some of the most unexpected locations, such as possible subsurface ocean on Pluto. But […]
A paper published in Geophysical Research Letters concludes that in addition to whatever ice reserves the dwarf planet Ceres may harbor under its surface, (and they could be substantial, including even a subsurface ocean) the largest body in the main asteroid belt has also likely accumulated quite a bit of water ice in permanently shadowed […]
It is in many ways high summer for NASA’s fleet of robotic spacecraft deployed throughout the solar system. On Monday evening, as the fireworks were lighting up the night sky across much of the United States, the space agency’s latest probe, Juno, arrived in orbit around Jupiter. Coming nearly five years after it launched from […]
NASA’s Juno spacecraft has entered Jupiter’s magnetic field on its way to a July 4th orbital insertion around the solar system’s largest planet. The Juno spacecraft, which launched on August 5th, 2011 will spend 20 months looking deep into the gas giant’s atmosphere, hopefully yielding a treasure trove of information regarding its origins, and inner […]
Recent Comments