ESA’s Flight Dynamics team uses cutting-edge computational techniques to plan, determine and control complex spacecraft trajectories. They apply fundamental physics and mathematics to 21st century spacecraft orbiting Earth and voyaging deep into our Solar System.The
Adding another milestone to its achievements, Curiosity has successfully drilled a Martian rock, thereby obtaining sample from its interior. Curiosity is the first rover ever to perform such drilling on a rock beyond Earth, NASA reported on February 20, 2013. Powdered
A new study using observations from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope reveals the first clear-cut evidence that the expanding debris of exploded stars produces some of the fastest-moving matter in the universe. This discovery is a major step toward meeting one of
NASA’s Spitzer space telescope observed a rare phenomenon – an infant binary star behind a dense disk and envelope of dust 950 light-years away from Earth flashes at regular intervals. NASA report published on February 7, 2013 says such phenomenon has been observed
Near-Earth Objects, or NEOs, cross our planet's orbit on a regular basis, but only a handful are large enough to pose a threat. One of these objects is asteroid 1999 RQ36, a "leftover" from the formation of our solar system four-and-a-half billion…
A commercial Sea Launch rocket failed 40 seconds after liftoff from its floating launch platform in the Pacific Ocean on February 1, 2013 destroying the Intelsat IS-27 telecommunications satellite. Sea Launch already experienced one failure in January 2007.Sea Launch
On January 29, 2013, ESA revealed observations made by the spacecraft in August 2010, when it studied the effect of reduced solar wind on planet's ionosphere. Researchers found that planet’s ionosphere ballooned outward on the planet’s…
NASA is preparing to launch the first in a series of three third generation advanced Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, known as TDRS-K. This latest addition to the fleet of seven will augment a space communications network that provides the critical path for high
According to country’s media outlets Iranian Defense Ministry’s aerospace department issued a statement on January 28, 2013 confirming that Iran had “successfully launched a capsule, code-named Pishgam (“Pioneer”), that contained a monkey.” The statement said the
ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft orbited at 66 000 km above the Venus south pole and captured bright and dark cloud bands wind around the poles of Venus, staring down into the south polar vortex. Venus Express has been orbiting the planet since 2006. It carries seven
