Artists’ Concept of a Third Generation Chinese Station. Image Credit Xinhuan.net Following the success of Tiangong 1, China announced last year that after another round of development with the follow on Tiangong 2 station, that it is planning to open up its considerably more advanced third generation station to international astronauts. Unfortunately, an ongoing ban on […]
Image Credit SpaceX The SpaceX CRS-3 Dragon made a safe, on time splash down today in the Pacific ocean, drawing its 28 day mission to ISS to a highly successful conclusion. For all the news lately regarding U.S./Russian relations and the future U.S. access to space, it should not go unnoticed that the SpaceX Dragon […]
Following what might be called a “testy Tuesday” which saw a contentious hearing featuring NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Congressman Frank Wolf turn personal, Wednesday brought the arrival of a wave of bipartisanship in both the House and Senate, at least where the nation’s space program is concerned. First, the House Science, Space and Technology […]
Innerspace.net regularly reports on the phenomenon of Tesla Motors for two reasons. The first, and most obvious is the connection between Tesla and SpaceX in Elon Musk. Given the SpaceX founder’s role in both companies, it is impossible for the fortunes of one not to influence the fate of another. With Tesla already a publicly […]
Apparently there is no need to compose “Ode to a Rover Dying Young.” At least not yet. Chinese new service Xinhuan.ner has confirmed that the Yutu, or “Jade Rabbit” Moon rover is coming back to life after surviving the deep cold of the two week lunar night. Shortly before going into a planned hibernation mode, the […]
Source: Xinhuanet.com China’s Shenzhou-10 mission lifted off successfully this morning at 5:38 a.m. EDT, (5:38 p.m. local) sending the crew of three on what is expected to be a 40 hour rendezvous with the awaiting Tiangong-1 space station. During what the Chinese space agency has described as an “applications oriented flight,” the astronauts will conduct both a manual and an automatic docking […]
Coming right on the heels of a two-day summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and American President Barack Obama, China has announced the imminent launch of its next crewed spaceflight mission, scheduled for 5:38 p.m Beijing time, 5:38 a.m. EDT, from the Jiuquan Launch Center. The three person crew of the Shenzhou-10 mission consists of Nie Haisheng, who […]
Source: Xinhuanet China conducted its second launch of the year yesterday, only a week after it kicked off its 2013 flight campaign. Yesterday’s launch from the Xichang Launch Center in Sichuan Province was carried out by a Long March-3B booster and carried the Zhongxing-11 communication’s satellite to orbit. The 3B is a three stage booster consisting of hypergolical fueled first […]
On Friday, China conducted its first space launch of the year when a Long March 2D rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The primary payload was the Gaofen-1 remote sensing satellite, the first of a fleet of six such spacecraft China plans to launch before 2016. Also aboard were three smaller satellites […]
For what is now the fourth time, a Space Exploration Technologies Dragon spacecraft has successfully returned from Earth orbit to a well executed landing in the Pacific ocean. Following its release from the International Space Station, which took place in the early morning hours, the SpaceX CRS-2 Dragon performed three inital burns, followed by a sustained 10 minute de-oribit burn […]
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