Category: Space
Watch Curiosity Land ⇢
Lots of good options, considering the probe will be in its “Seven Minutes of Terror.”
On Curiosity ⇢
NASA’s new Mars rover is pretty sweet. The car-sized, 1-ton robot is set to land on the Red Planet today.
Sally Ride Dies at 61 ⇢
Ride was the first American woman in space, flying on STS–7 in 1983.
Nixon’s Contingency Plan for a Failed Apollo 11 ⇢
This is chilling to read; but, thankfully, the plan never had to be used.
The Venera Project ⇢
Did you know that starting in the early 1960s up until 1984, the Soviet Union landed probes on Venus?
NASA’s Shuttle II ⇢
David S. F. Portree at Wired:
Although the fact is mostly forgotten today, NASA launched plans to replace the Space Shuttle even before the first Space Shuttle mission in April 1981. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan formalized these by signing a directive ordering the U.S. civilian space agency to develop a Space Shuttle successor. Notably, this occurred before the January 1986 Challenger accident laid bare the Space Shuttle’s frailties. NASA has attempted to develop a Space Shuttle successor ever since, but for a wide range of reasons it has not succeeded.
The Voyager Golden Records
The whole Voyager program is mind-blowing, but the contents of the tapes are wild, too.
SpaceX Capsule Splashes Down
The unmanned SpaceX Dragon capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off Baja California on Thursday, completing the first commercial flight to the International Space Station, NASA and company controllers reported. The SpaceX Dragon capsule landed at 8:42 a.m. (11:42 a.m. ET), controllers said. SpaceX founder Elon Musk was on hand at the company’s mission control center near Los Angeles as operators monitored the descent.
It’s a new day in space. While I’m not sure how I feel about private companies flying capsules (and eventually, manned flights), I have to give the SpaceX guys a hand for a successful mission.
‘Shuttlecock’
Neil Armstrong tells it how it is.
The Ring of Fire
Boston.com has some awesome shots of yesterday’s eclipse — and of people enjoying it.
Happy Solar Eclipse Day
Viewable from China to Texas, today’s solar eclipse will be viewable from much of the United States.