Latest Spaceflight Stories
NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite known as TRMM measured Cyclone Mahasen's rainfall rates from space as it made landfall on May 16. Mahasen has since dissipated over eastern India. Tropical Cyclone Mahasen hit southern Bangladesh on May 16, causing the reported deaths of at least 13 people and the destruction of many homes. Mahasen brought heavy rains and tropical storm force winds when it came ashore, but the winds quickly weakened. NASA's TRMM satellite had two very...
ARLINGTON, Va., May 17, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Aerospace Industries Association, in partnership with Challenger Center for Space Science Education, sponsored a first-of-its-kind crowd funding campaign to place a trailer before Star Trek Into Darkness beginning May 17 to educate the public - most especially young people - on the exciting human spaceflight programs now underway. The trailer will play in more than 50 cities nationwide. "With the end of the Space Shuttle...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online According to the Associated Press, NASA confirmed on Thursday that the ammonia leak its astronauts fixed on the International Space Station last week is officially plugged up. Astronauts aboard the space station had to quickly repair the leaky pump during an impromptu spacewalk over the weekend. The leak forced one of the station's seven power channels to go offline. "Right now, we're feeling pretty good. We definitely got the...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online It took nine years traveling around the surface of the Red Planet, but NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has finally surpassed a record set by Apollo 17 astronauts over 40 years ago. In 1972, astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt drove their Lunar Roving Vehicle 22.21 statute miles over a three-day period. At the time, this was the farthest total distance for any NASA vehicle driving on a stellar body other than Earth....
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The European Space Agency (ESA) successfully launched its Vega rocket on May 7 carrying multiple payloads. The launch was meant to demonstrate the versatility of the agency’s VESPA multiple launch adapter. After last week’s early morning lift-off, Vega deployed three spacecraft into orbit: Estonia’s ESTCube-1, Vietnam’s VNREDSat-1 and the prime payload Proba-V. ESA’s Proba-V, a next-generation "Earth Watcher" designed to...
JOHANNESBURG and PARIS, May 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of their commemoration of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD), Eutelsat Communications and MultiChoice Africa announce the return of the DStv Eutelsat Star Awards for 2013. The awards inspire innovative thinking among secondary and high school students in Africa, to create awareness on how science and technology can be applied to everyday life and showcase the many ways that satellites already...
[WATCH VIDEO: OSIRIS-REx To Investigate Asteroid Bennu] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online NASA said it is moving forward with its plan to send a spacecraft to an asteroid to bring back a sample to Earth. The space agency's Origins-Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission to sample asteroid Bennu is moving ahead in preparation for its launch in 2016. After launch, OSIRIS-REx will rendezvous with the asteroid in...
Boeing-built ViaSat-2 will support fast-growing Exede Internet services with unparalleled combination of capacity, service, coverage and flexibility CARLSBAD, Calif., May 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- ViaSat (NASDAQ: VSAT) has executed a contract with Boeing (NYSE: BA) to build ViaSat-2, which is based on ViaSat's next generation, Ka-band satellite technology and architecture. ViaSat-2 is expected to be, by far, the world's highest capacity satellite at the time of launch (scheduled for...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NASA announced yesterday that its Kepler space telescope is stuck in standby mode, but one professor is already coming up with ideas to try and revive the observatory. Scott Hubbard, a consulting professor of aeronautics and astronautics, helped guide the Kepler mission when he served as director of NASA Ames Research Center. He has devised a few plans for the space agency that could potentially help bring the planet-hunting spacecraft...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online NASA and the US Air Force (USAF) Research Laboratory said they are looking for four companies to research and develop high-performance spaceflight computing capabilities. The new Air Force Next Generation Space Processor Analysis Program seeks to find companies to perform a yearlong evaluation of advanced, space-based applications that would use spaceflight processors for the 2020 to 2030 time frame. NASA decided to join the Air...
Latest Spaceflight Reference Libraries
Stephanie Wilson is an American engineer, a NASA astronaut, and the second African American woman to go into space. She was born Stephanie Diana Wilson on September 27, 1966 in Boston, Massachusetts. An astronomy professor she interviewed during middle school became her first inspiration to pursue a career in space. She graduated from Taconic High School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 1984, and then attended Harvard University, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering...
Dick Scobee was an American astronaut. He was born Francis Richard "Dick" Scobee on May 19, 1939 in Cle Elum, Washington. He was raised in Auburn, Washington and attended Washington Elementary, Cascade Middle School, and Auburn Senior High School, where he earned his high school diploma in 1957. That same year, he enlisted in the United States Air Force and initially served as an engine mechanic at Kelly Air Force Base in Texas. During his time off, he studied at San Antonio College, and...
Sunita Williams is an American astronaut and a United States Navy officer who holds the record for the longest space flight by a woman. She was born Sunita Pandya Krishna on September 19, 1965 in Euclid, Ohio to parents of Indian and Slovenian decent. She graduated from Needham High School in Needham, Massachusetts in 1983, and then went on to receive a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical science from the United States Naval Academy in 1987. She was immediately commissioned as an Ensign in...
Terry W. Virts, Jr. is a Colonel in the United States Air Force and an active American astronaut. Virts was born on December 1, 1967 in Baltimore, Maryland. He attended Oakland Mills High School in Columbia, Massachusetts and graduated 1985. He enrolled in the United States Air Force Academy, where he graduated with honors in 1989, receiving his Bachelor of Science in mathematics. He then attended the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, where he once again graduated with honors in 1997,...
Roberto Vittori is an ESA astronaut as well as an Italian Air Force Officer and a test pilot for the United States. Vittorri was born on October 15, 1964 in Viterbo, Lazio, Italy and attended the Italian Air Force Academy, graduating in 1989. While working towards his graduation from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Maryland in 1995, Vittori operated the Tornado GR1 along with the 50th Wing of the 155th Squadron in Piacenza, Italy from 1991 to 1994. During this time, he...
