Since the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957, we launched thousands of spacecraft into Earth orbit and beyond. A fraction of them are still functioning, but what happened to the vast majority of them? “The Curious Droid” published another informative video titled “What happens to old spacecraft?”
Continue reading Watch: What happens to old spacecraft?Category Archives: Space Exploration
Apollo 11 Lunar Module ascent stage photographed from Command Module by Michael Collins
A beautiful photo from the Moon’s orbit – Apollo 11 Lunar Module ascent stage photographed from Command Module by Michael Collins on July 21, 1969.
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Beresheet, Israel’s first moon mission spacecraft sends back selfie with Earth
Beresheet (which means “Genesis” in Hebrew), Israel’s first Moon mission spacecraft has sent an amazing selfie with Earth in the background today.
In the photo, a plaque on the side of moon lander features the flag of Israel and phrases “Am Yisrael Chai” (which means roughly “The Jewish nation lives” or “the people of Israel are still alive”) and “small country, big dreams”.
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Yes, buddy, that’s your Mother Earth. Isn’t she beautiful?
American astronaut Anne McClain, who is a part of Expedition 58/59 to the International space station, shared the beautiful (and cute) photo below on her Twitter account, saying “Yes, buddy, that’s your Mother Earth. Isn’t she beautiful?”.
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The First Commercial Crew Mission Arrives at the ISS
On March 3, 2019, at 10:51 UTC (05:51 EST), SpaceX Demo-1 Crew Dragon autonomously docked to the International Space Station’s Harmony module forward International Docking Adapter (IDA), becoming the first commercial crew spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station (ISS). Here’s the video of the docking process.
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Amazing Footage of 2nd VSS Unity Spaceflight
Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity (Virgin Space Ship Unity) made its second flight into space, reaching an altitude of 55.87 miles (89.9 kilometers) on February 22, 2019. The American space company released amazing footage of the flight.
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Mars weather service by NASA’s InSight Lander
NASA’s InSight lander has started providing a daily Mars weather report everyone can see. The American space agency has created a dedicated web page on the NASA InSight mission website to share that information.
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Driving Distances on Mars and the Moon: Out-of-This-World-Records
This chart, prepared by NASA illustrates comparisons among the driving distances by various wheeled vehicles on the surface of the planetary bodies other than Earth (as of February 13, 2019, only the moon and Mars). Opportunity rover, which declared dead after record-breaking 15-years on the Martian surface also holds the off-Earth roving distance record after accruing 45.16 kilometers (28.06 miles) of driving on Mars.
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It’s time to go home, Oppy by Rostislav Shekhovtsov
An amazing work by the Uzbek artist Rostislav Shekhovtsov, titled “It’s time to go home, Oppy”. The digital painting shows two future astronauts finding the dust-covered Opportunity rover on Mars.
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Opportunity Rover’s first and last images from the Martian surface
The first and the last images of NASA’s Opportunity rover from the Martian surface. The first photo (on the left) was acquired on Sol 1 (at approximately 14:58:27 Mars local solar time on January 25, 2004). The last photo (on the right) was taken on Sol 5111 (on June 10, 2018 ), before the rover entered hibernation due to