The year 2017 was a big one for NASA. From astronaut Peggy Whitson’s record-shattering spaceflight to the daring death-dive of Cassini into Saturn and a pledge to return astronauts to the…
After 13 years in the Saturn system, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft had become an icon. The probe’s data and imagery reshaped scientists’ understanding of the ringed planet and its 60-plus…
It’s been a busy, exciting and bittersweet year in spaceflight. The private spaceflight industry made some big leaps, the Trump administration announced a familiar destination for U.S….
Front Page / Titelseite
International Spacestation (ISS) /
Internationale Raumstation
The prime crew for Expedition 54-55 consists of Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (left), Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos (center) and Scott…
The International Space Station’s three newest crew members are beginning their second week familiarizing themselves with the orbital lab’s operations and systems. They and the other three…
Six Expedition 54 crew members will spend Christmas orbiting Earth sharing a traditional meal and opening goodies delivered on recent cargo missions to the International Space Station….
As millions of people on Earth celebrate Christmas with their families and friends today (Dec. 25), exchanging gifts and sharing elaborate meals, astronauts at the International Space…
Two NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) share some of their favorite Christmas memories in a new holiday video. Expedition 54 flight engineer Joe Acaba recalled a…
Filled with trash, the unpiloted ISS Progress 67 Russian cargo ship undocked from the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station at 8:03 p.m. EST. Just after…
Earth / Erde
Mitte Dezember hat das Satelliten-Duo GRACE Follow-On (GRACE FO) seinen ersten Schritt zur Reise in die Erdumlaufbahn gemacht. Es flog per Luftfracht in die USA, wo es im Frühjahr 2018 von…
Solar System / Sonnensystem
Mehrere Sonden, dazu die Rover Opportunity und Curiosity: Die Nasa ist auf dem Mars bereits stark vertreten, schickt aber trotzdem weitere Geräte. 2018 soll der Lander InSight zum Roten…
Ice on Jupiter’s moon Europa may drift across the satellite’s surface from the equator to the poles, or vice versa, at a literally glacial pace, a new study finds. Potential future…
Three times further away from the sun than the Earth lies an enormous lump of metal. Around 252km in diameter, the metallic “M-class” asteroid 16 Psyche is the target of NASA’s next mission…
Dawn’s mission is managed by JPL for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate’s Discovery Program, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight…
The last picture taken of the Mars lander Beagle 2 showed it being successfully ejected from Mars Express on Christmas Day in 2003. But sadly, we never got a signal back from the lander and…
Beyond Solar System / Milchstraße & Kosmos
Four years ago, on 19 December 2013, Gaia was launched from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The mission’s operations teams led by Spacecraft Operations Manager David Milligan…
esa.intPolitics / Politik
Keith’s note: With government shut down issues and an evaporating calendar, it is unlikely that Rep. Bridenstine nomination to be NASA Administrator will come up in 2017. Right now the…
Could the Pentagon’s new R&E head take over military space programs? “We haven’t laid flat the final responsibilities there, but what’s really exciting about next year is we’ve got Mike…
Technology / Technologie
GLASSBORO, New Jersey – RSC Energia of Moscow said Dec. 27 that the satellite it built for Angola has stopped sending telemetry data after separating from the rocket upper stage that took…
Successfully placed into orbit by a Zenit-3F rocket, Angola’s first communications satellite appears to have hit major trouble shortly after separation from its launch vehicle Wednesday…
A Russian-Ukrainian Zenit rocket lifted off from Site 45/1, Baikonur Cosmodrome at 19:00:03 UTC on December 26, 2017, carrying into orbit the AngoSat 1 communications satellite for the…
A Russian-Ukrainian Zenit rocket lifted off from Site 45/1, Baikonur Cosmodrome at 19:00:03 UTC on December 26, 2017, carrying into orbit the AngoSat 1 communications satellite for the…
SpaceX capped a historic year with yet another successful launch by a pre-flown rocket. A two-stage Falcon 9 booster lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California tonight (Dec….
MISSION VIEJO, Calif. – SpaceX’s launch of a Falcon 9 rocket Friday night (Dec. 22) was by all accounts a dazzling sight (and for some, an unsettling one) in the night sky and the photos…
Update: Check out more amazing SpaceX launch photos by our readers here: UFO? No, It’s a SpaceX Rocket! These Falcon 9 Launch Photos Are Just Amazing MISSION VIEJO, Calif. – Wow! Talk about…
A flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket lit up the evening sky over California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base on Friday to deploy ten more Iridium-NEXT communications satellites to take the largest…
BROOMFIELD, Colo. – In a break from its now-standard practice, SpaceX will not attempt a landing of the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on its next launch this week, the company…
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from SLC-4E at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base at 1:27:34 UTC on December 23, 2017 with the fourth group of ten Iridium-NEXT communications…
Residents in Southern California were given a remarkable show in the late afternoon skies on Friday when SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket soared toward orbit with the fourth group of Iridium-NEXT…
Two days after placing an Earth-imaging satellite into orbit, China was in action again on Monday for the country’s fourth launch of the month and the final expected Chinese mission in…
China sent the second satellite of the LKW constellation into orbit on Saturday via a Long March 2D rocket, coming less than three weeks after the first LKW satellite reached orbit in what…
Keith’s note: Elon Musk could have some serious citizen science fun with this. I was thinking back to the ISEE-3 Reboot Project and all of the amateurs – many with home made satellite…
NASA has selected two ambitious finalists for its New Frontiers robotic mission program: a flying lander to soar over the surface of Saturn’s big, potentially habitable moon Titan and a…
Japan’s H-IIA rocket leapt off its sea-side launch pad on Tanegashima Island at 10:26 a.m. local time, 1:26 UTC on Saturday, soaring into orbit with a high-profile climate observation…
Japan’s H-IIA rocket is gearing up for its sixth and final launch of the year, set for a Saturday liftoff from the picturesque Tanegashima Space Center to send a pair of very different…
Japan’s H-IIA rocket thundered off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 1:26:22 UTC on December 23, 2017 with the GCOM-C climate observatory and the SLATS Super-Low Altitude Test Satellite….
Japan’s H-IIA rocket thundered off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 1:26:22 UTC on December 23, 2017 with the GCOM-C climate observatory and the SLATS Super-Low Altitude Test Satellite….
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe – which will fly closer to the sun than any spacecraft in history – recently passed an important prelaunch test of its solar panels with flying colors. Well, one…
Entertainment / Unterhaltung
A new crowdfunded documentary will look at the crowd behind the Apollo moon landings. “When We Were Apollo,” which achieved its funding goal on Kickstarter, aims to address “what was it…
World / Welt
Das ESA-Programm zur Weltraumlageerfassung Das Programm zur Weltraumlage-Erfassung (SSA – Space Situational Awareness) ist ein optionales Programm der Europäischen Weltraumorganisation und…
The maiden launch of NASA’s new heavy-lift rocket now has a mission patch. The agency finalized its insignia representing Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), the first flight of the Space Launch…
A Kansas museum is giving new meaning to the “spirit of Apollo” with the debut of a new boutique wine. The Cosmosphere partnered with Holman Cellars to offer Moonwalker, a wine featuring…
Elon Musk is really sending his Tesla Roadster to Mars. On Friday (Dec. 22), Musk, the CEO and chief technology officer of SpaceX, posted photos to his Instagram account revealing the…
Science / Wissenschaft
Ein Jahr lang lebte und arbeitete die Geophysikerin Christiane Heinicke mit fünf Kolleginnen und Kollegen unter extraterrestrischen Bedingungen. Sie teilten sich eine circa 100…
Keith’s note: Fast forward to 28:45 for an interview with deaf student astronaut Julia Velasquez in ASL who is currently at HI-SEAS Mars analog habitat in Hawaii. In a previous life I…
History / Geschichte
Paul Sutter is an astrophysicist at The Ohio State University and the chief scientist at COSI science center. Sutter is also host of “Ask a Spaceman” and “Space Radio,” and leads…
