Nasa has just released a new video showing the return to earth of its Orion spacecraft. The 10-minute video is quite a trip for the capsule. It reminds me of the final sequences of the great Stanley Kubrick film 2001 A Space Odyssey. As Orion hits the friction created by the planets atmosphere at 20,000 mph the plasma builds up and changes colour due to temperature increases. The capsule uses the same heat shield tiles that the space shuttle developed. The video follows the craft as it splashes down in the Pacific Ocean. It has been incorrectly described as old technology, ... Read more »
Category: Science | Views: 1736 | Added by: James | Date: 25 December 2014 | Comments (0)

The date was 23rd May 2011 and the shuttle Endeavour is attached to the International Space Station. No photograph had ever been taken of both shuttle and ISS together. That is until Paolo Nespoli, a European Space Agency astronaut took the following image from a departing Soyuz TMA-20. The Soyuz landed in Kazakhstan later that day. On board were two other crew members that all had spent 159 days in space. There was Cady Coleman (NASA) and Dmitry Kondratyev (Russian cosmonaut and exhibition 27 commander)


Click the image to see the full majesty of the view

 

... Read more »
Category: Science | Views: 1215 | Added by: James | Date: 02 September 2014 | Comments (2)

Mars has played host to a number of rovers. All have lasted longer than they were expected to. Spirit and Opportunity have brought us some stunning images and have helped NASA understand elements of the geology that makes the red planet a possible location of some form of like years ago. Both rovers were made to last 90 days on the planets surface. Each rover landed on the Martian surface in 2004. Spirit lasted till March 2010 and even more incredible is that fact opportunity is still roving! One day, with the distance of the Sun and Earth increasing from Mars it will only be time before the components cannot store enough energy and it will fall silent. Until that time we have to hand it to those engineers that have made those rovers last for so long.
 
Category: Science | Views: 1333 | Added by: James | Date: 27 June 2014 | Comments (0)

Ustream has a great set of channels. I tend to watch the Nasa HD ones. They have just added a superb one. It is the ISS HD Earth Viewing Experiment.

Click on the image to see the live camera views

The channel has been active since the end of April this year. It comprises of a number of earth facing cameras mounted externally to the payload system. There a ... Read more »

Category: Science | Views: 1348 | Added by: James | Date: 06 May 2014 | Comments (0)

Space X is a organization that the great Elon Musk created with a philosophy I share -

‘Space X was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars if fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today Space X is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of enabling life on Mars’

Now I will explore Elon in more detail on a later blog as he is one of my inspirations. If only more pe ... Read more »

Category: Science | Views: 1220 | Added by: James | Date: 03 May 2014 | Comments (0)

Warning this blog post contains some spoilers not to mention my views on a terrible movie!

Nasa, Roscosmos, Space X and the European Space Agency have had incredible successes and most suffered through learning from terrible mistakes. All have done so in the glare of public life. It has helped harmonise warring countries in a mutual goal to live and learn in space. Following this progress I have only the greatest respect for what has been achieved.

Now, through Nasa TV, you can watch live lau ... Read more »

Category: Science | Views: 8127 | Added by: James | Date: 28 April 2014 | Comments (0)