Latest Atmospheric entry Stories
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online NASA’s Orion crew module has passed a month-long series of static load tests designed to mimic the stresses of long-term spaceflight, officials from the US space agency announced on Thursday. The module, which is scheduled to launch as part of Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) in September 2014, will travel farther from Earth than any spacecraft built for human use in over four decades. Orion will fly approximately 3,600 miles...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online An article coming out in the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets pitches ideas to attempt to remove orbital debris with less risk. The article, authored by Kerry Nock and Dr. Kim Aaron, of Global Aerospace Corporation (GAC), and Dr. Darren McKnight, of Integrity Applications Incorporated, Chantilly, VA, compared in-orbit debris removal options regarding their potential risk of creating new orbital debris or disabling working satellites...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Today we remember a tragedy that took the lives of seven astronauts, ten years ago, when space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over the Texas sky upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. Ten years ago from today, at 7:59 a.m., reports started coming in of a loud explosion and what seemed like fiery debris coming down from the East Texas sky. Crew members of the STS-107 mission had just wrapped up 16-days in orbit, and were heading...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online If all goes well in the next test, alien soil could be a key ingredient to a new generation of heat shield being developed. Scientists are about to start an important test next week to see if whether a heat shield made up of soil from the moon, Mars or an asteroid would be able to protect a spacecraft from Earth's atmosphere. NASA is looking into the possibility of creating a heat shield with alien soil so that future spacecraft...
