All Space articles – Page 10
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News
Flightglobal reshapes Flight International leadership team
After an amazing 14 years leading Flight International, Murdo Morrison is moving to a new role within Flightglobal to fully exploit his skills and enormous market knowledge across the aerospace sector.
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The Right Stuff: Top ten firsts in human spaceflight
Got any plans for 12 April? Don't forget International Human Spaceflight Day
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NASA details concrete steps on 'Journey to Mars'
NASA this month has taken two more steps to fleshing out its vision for space exploration through the mid-2030s, outlining its mid-term plan for asteroid study and selecting commercial partners to devise key technologies to enable astronauts to survive for extended periods in deep space – ultimately as far as ...
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Zero-G flying means high stress for an old A310
Repeatedly pulling 1.8g in fiercely steep climbs and dives is no way for an airline to treat its customers, but for one of the world’s most specialised operators, that’s exactly what they’re paying for.
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Analysis
ANALYSIS: Solar Orbiter mission heats up for the European Space Agency
To get a sense of the challenge in designing the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter mission, consider that the surface temperature on the planet Mercury gets up to 427°C – nearly twice the melting point of tin.
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Analysis
ANALYSIS: On Asteroid Day, take a minute to look skyward
Anybody inclined to look at deep-space exploration mission proposals and their associated budgets and ask “why?” could do worse than consider the problem of so-called Near Earth Objects; that’s jargon for big chunks of rock that orbit the Sun – until they actually hit us. As long as they are ...
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News
UK spacecraft project completes major review
Reaction Engines has completed the first development milestone of a hybrid rocket engine to power the single-stage-to-orbit Skylon spacecraft.
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Analysis
ANALYSIS: In Russia's space programme, the state strikes back
While a number of recent events in spaceflight have underscored the rising significance of private sector competition, 2014 concluded with a maiden flight that serves to remind us all of the enduring presence of big, state-driven programmes.
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News
Virgin Galactic announces first new pilot since fatal spaceship crash
Virgin Galactic has hired a new test pilot for the SpaceShipTwo commercial spacecraft from the company that designed the suborbital ship.
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Analysis
ANALYSIS: Lynx 'set to roar' in 2015
While Virgin Galactic waits for the results of an NTSB investigation into the 31 October 2014 fatal crash of SpaceShipTwo, another Mojave-based suborbital hopeful is making steady progress towards first flight of a very different concept.
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Analysis
ANALYSIS: Where next, Virgin Galactic?
A 2014 that opened with great expectations that the era of privately funded personal spaceflight would finally begin ended with a crash, nowhere near space
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Analysis
ANALYSIS: Space Station maintaining orbit – for now
The International Space Station has been the focal point of human spaceflight activity for so long now that the outpost can seem like a permanent, if remote, feature of our planet.
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Virgin Galactic takes pragmatic approach to fatal spacecraft crash
Virgin Galactic is focusing its efforts on the development of its next sub-orbital tourist spacecraft following the fatal crash of the previous model in October 2014.
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Sierra Nevada loses appeal against NASA Commercial Crew choice
The US Government Accountability Office has put an end to Sierra Nevada Corporation’s dream of providing NASA with a lifting body spaceplane as part of the agency’s plan to replace the Space Shuttle’s astronaut-transport capability with spacecraft provided by the private sector.
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News
FORECAST: In space, nobody can hear you on Mars
The most exciting thing to watch in spaceflight in 2015 won’t, of course, actually happen – in 2015 or, probably, in anything resembling the foreseeable future. Sorry, space people, but nobody is going to Mars.
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News
NASA Ikhana UAV to monitor Orion test module's descent
NASA will deploy its General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Ikhana unmanned air vehicle to survey the descent of the Lockheed Martin Orion Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) module after its first planned 4.5h space mission that is expected to take place on 5 December.
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Comet update: Philae running on last scraps of battery power
Philae, the washing-machine-sized lander that the European Space Agency has successfully delivered to the surface of a comet, looks destined to complete just a fraction of its scientific agenda as it counts down the final hours before its batteries run out after an landing system malfunction left its solar panels ...
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Robospace: Star moments in robotic space exploration
At the end of a week that saw the European Space Agency turn heads the world over by achieving the first-ever soft landing on a comet, we look at the most dazzling achievements in five decades of robotic space exploration.
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News
Scientific work on hold as ESA determines comet lander's condition
European Space Agency scientists have determined that their robotic lander Philae is on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, but it is not anchored as it should be and it is not sitting level. Philae, the washing machine-sized lander, may have come to rest on the steep rim of a crater ...
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Comet chaser peers deeper into origins of life with successful touchdown
European Space Agency scientists are attempting to determine exactly where their robotic lander Philae has come to rest on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, but have confirmed that the first-ever soft landing on a comet was a success.