Tag Archives: orbit

On Wednesday (Aug. 13), NASA announced that the four satellites of its exciting new sun-studying mission, PUNCH, have successfully reached their stations in orbit around our planet. They all lie along Earth’s day-night line to earn a continuous view of our star. PUNCH, which stands for Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere, is meant to do precisely what its …

NASA is seeking solutions for a way to raise the orbit of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory despite the spacecraft being marked for termination after FY2026 under the agency’s budget proposal. The possible impending demise of the spacecraft, coupled with faster-than-expected orbital decay due to additional atmospheric drag caused by solar activity, makes Swift an ideal candidate for the potential …

To drive the development of key space-based capabilities for the United States, NASA is exploring an opportunity to demonstrate technology to raise a spacecraft’s orbit to a higher altitude. Two American companies – Cambrian Works of Reston, Virginia, and Katalyst Space Technologies of Flagstaff, Arizona – will develop concept design studies for a possible orbit boost for the agency’s Neil …

Obit Jim Lovell, the former US astronaut and commander of the Apollo 13 mission, has died at the age of 97. Jim Lovell reads a newspaper after the Apollo 13 mission (Pic: NASA) Lovell was selected as part of the second group of NASA astronauts in 1962, having missed out on becoming part of the original Mercury 7. The omission …

“We wanted to have a fuel system that was green instead of using hypergolics, so we could land it on a runway and we could walk up to the vehicle without being in hazmat suits,” Tom Vice, then Sierra’s chief executive, told Ars in late 2023. “That was hard, I have to say.” Apparently it still is because, according to …

If last year’s Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 was tried and true, this year’s Galaxy Watch 8 is a bit more like tried and fine. This isn’t overtly bad. Most smartwatch newbies will be delighted by the $349.99 Galaxy Watch 8 — provided they can stomach the new squircle design. It’s more that if you’ve been a fan of Samsung smartwatches, …

As part of the Expedition 73 crew began preparing for their return to Earth, science research and maintenance activities continued this week aboard the International Space Station (ISS). So did outreach efforts, as the outpost’s residents spoke to audiences in Las Vegas and South Korea. Orbital observation On Thursday (July 24), NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, a flight engineer on the …

A carbon dioxide-mapping satellite and four Earth-observation spacecraft launched successfully tonight (July 25) from South America. A Vega C rocket, operated by the French company Arianespace, lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on schedule tonight at 10:03 p.m. EDT (11:03 p.m. local time in Kourou; 0203 GMT on July 26). The four-stage, 115-foot-tall (35 meters) Vega C …

The Juno spacecraft was launched towards Jupiter in August of 2011 as part of the New Frontiers series of spacecraft, on what would originally have been a 7-year mission, including a nearly 5 year cruise to the planet. After a mission extension, it’s currently orbiting Jupiter, allowing for many more years of scientific data to be gathered using its instruments. …

In 2024, astronomers surmised that Betelgeuse might have a stellar “buddy.” If this hypothetical companion existed, it would help answer some questions about the red supergiant’s strange glowing patterns. As it turns out, these suspicions were correct. After numerous false signals and empty search results, astronomers with NASA’s Ames Research Center have confirmed that Betelgeuse does, in fact, have a tiny …