Latest Spacecraft Stories
BOULDER, Colo., April 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has begun integration for WorldView-3, the next generation commercial remote-sensing satellite being built for DigitalGlobe, a leading global provider of high-resolution earth imagery solutions. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130408/LA90009)(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130108/LA39163LOGO) The third satellite in a series to employ the Ball Commercial Platform (BCP) 5000,...
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online NASA is reportedly planning to capture a small asteroid with a robotic spacecraft, and then move the space rock closer to Earth so that astronauts could travel there, analyze it and return home with samples. Those plans were announced Friday by US Senator Bill Nelson, the chairman of the Senate Science and Space Subcommittee. The Florida senator said that Present Barack Obama is requesting that approximately $100 million be added...
WASHINGTON, April 5, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Astrophysics Explorer Program has selected two missions for launch in 2017: a planet-hunting satellite and an International Space Station instrument to observe X-rays from stars. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) were among four concept studies submitted in September 2012. NASA determined these two...
[ Watch the Video: Pioneer 11 Animation and Archive Footage ] Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online NASA is celebrating the 40th birthday of the Pioneer 11 spacecraft. For the past four decades, Pioneer has been hurtling through space, capturing satellite images of the planets Jupiter and Saturn. As its predecessor, Pioneer 10 had launched just over a year before and was the first spacecraft to not only leave the inner Solar System, but make the trip to Jupiter as...
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online Thursday marked the 30th anniversary of the deployment of NASA’s first Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-A, which was carried into space as part of space shuttle Challenger’s maiden voyage on April 4, 1983. TDRS-A was deployed a day after the shuttle’s launch, as astronauts released the probe from Challenger’s cargo bay, officials from the US space agency said. Following 39 adjustment burns, it successfully achieved...
WASHINGTON, April 3, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA has selected 295 research and technology proposals from 216 American small businesses for negotiations that may lead to contract awards worth a combined $38.7 million. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The proposals are part of NASA's Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program. SBIR addresses specific technology gaps in agency missions while...
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Photos from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show how the parachute that helped NASA's Curiosity rover land on Mars last summer has subsequently changed its shape on the ground. The images were obtained by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Seven images taken by HiRISE between Aug. 12, 2012, and Jan. 13, 2013, show the used parachute shifting its shape at least twice in response to wind....
NORTH LOGAN, Utah and HONG KONG, April 3, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (AsiaSat) and GeoMetWatch Corp today announced that the two companies have entered into a strategic partnership to host the first of six Sounding & Tracking Observatory for Regional Meteorology (STORM(TM)) instruments on board a new satellite planned to be launched by AsiaSat in 2016. "We are pleased to have reached this cooperation agreement with...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) next asteroid exploring spacecraft, Hayabusa 2, will be launching in 2014 on a mission to bring back sand from an asteroid. Hayabusa 2 will travel through space for four years before arriving at asteroid 1999 JU3, and will not be returning to Earth until 2020. Once the spacecraft reaches its target, it will fire off fingertip-sized bullets into the surface of the asteroid at about...
NASA A rocket-powered, vertical-landing space-access technology demonstrator reached its highest altitude and furthest distance to date March 25 at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, Calif., using a developmental navigation system designed to land a space vehicle on other celestial bodies. Masten Space Systems’ XA-0.1B “Xombie” suborbital rocket lifted off the launch pad for an 80-second flight while being controlled by Charles Stark Draper Laboratory’s Guidance Embedded...
Latest Spacecraft Reference Libraries
Janice Elaine Voss was a NASA astronaut as well as an American Engineer whom flew in space five times placing her at first for holding the record for American women. Voss was born on October 8, 1956 in South Bend, Indiana. She attended Minnechaug Regional High School in Wilbraham, Massachusetts and graduated in 1972. She then attended Purdue University to receive her bachelor’s degree in engineering while concurrently working at the Johnson Space Center. After Purdue University, Voss...
John Grunsfeld is an American physicist and a former NASA astronaut. He was born John Mace Grunsfeld in October of 1958 in Chicago, Illinois. He remained in Illinois throughout his childhood and graduated from Highland Park High School in 1976. Upon his graduation, he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics in 1980. He then furthered his education at the University of Chicago, where he earned a Master of Science in physics in...
Léopold Eyharts is a Brigadier General in the French Air Force and an ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut. Eyharts was born April 28, 1957, in Biarritz, France. After completing his basic academics, he joined the French Air Force Academy of Salon-de-Provence in 1977 to study aeronautical engineering. Eyharts graduated in 1979 as an engineer. By 1980 he became a fighter pilot and was sent to the Istres Air Force Base in France. Initially he was assigned to an operational jaguar squadron...
Andrew Feustel is a NASA astronaut and an American Geophysicist. He was born Andrew J. (Drew) Feustel on August 25, 1965 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but grew up in Lake Orion, Michigan. He graduated from Lake Orion High School and subsequently received an Associate’s degree from Oakland Community College. During this time, he worked at International Autoworks as an auto mechanic. He then transferred to Purdue University, where joined the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and served as a...
Vladimir Dezhurov is a former Russian cosmonaut who has performed nine spacewalks. He was born Vladimir Nikolayevich Dezhurov on July 30, 1962 in Yavas, Zubovo-Polyansky District, Mordovia, Russia. Dezhurov attended the S.I. Gritsevits Kharkov Higher Military Aviation School, where he graduated with a pilot engineer’s diploma in 1983. After graduating, Dezhurov served as a pilot and senior pilot in the Russian Air Force. In 1987, he was assigned to the Cosmonaut Training Center, where he...
