NASA's Osiris-REx spacecraft has been successfully launched into a hyperbolic trajectory aboard an Atlas V rocket. The asteroid miner will spend the next seven years catching up with the Bennu asteroid, orbiting it and taking a sample from its surface, before returning to Earth. Lifting off at 7:05 PM local time …
Read More »Space X does it again, nails fifth booster landing
Space X continues to prove that its first stage recovery system for its Falcon 9 rocket launch, is a winning formula, as once again it has managed to return that booster to Earth via its drone barge. It successfully landed back home early Sunday morning, right after launching its satellite payload into orbit. …
Read More »Watch the Falcon 9 re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and touch down again
Last Friday saw Space X once again successfully touch down its Falcon 9 first-stage rocket on its automated-drone barge, after delivering its payload into orbit. The newly released video of the event shows off the entire descent, from re-entry burn, to suicide burn just above the landing pad. The video …
Read More »Space X lands Falcon 9 rocket on drone barge again
It was no fluke when Space X landed its Falcon 9 first stage rocket on its automated drone barge last month, as it's managed to do it again. This time following stage separation, sending the JCSAT-14 payload off into orbit, the first stage booster returned to Earth, landing smoothly on …
Read More »Space X landed Falcon 9 is finally home for testing
Although the big, scary and complex journey for the Space X Falcon 9 rocket was its launch and recovery on the drone barge earlier this month, it still had to take a trip to Space X's facility at the Kennedy Space Centre. After many days of travel on the back …
Read More »Space X Falcon rocket touches down… and then falls over
Space X has once again narrowly missed out on a successful drone-ship landing of its Falcon 9 first stage booster rocket. Although the orbital launch vehicle did manage to touch back down on the automated platform, it only stood upright for a few seconds before toppling over and exploding on …
Read More »Elon Musk: Falcon 9 will try to land on barge again this weekend
Although Space X spent much of 2015 not launching rockets after a singular failure, it's starting 2016 off with a bang by launching a new payload into orbit this weekend. Better yet, after proving that its Falcon 9 first stage booster can be landed back on land, it's going to …
Read More »Space X sticks the landing – Falcon 9 stage one lands safely
Space X made history in the early hours of this morning, when it launched its new and improved Falcon 9 rocket into Low-Earth Orbit, separating the first stage booster part-way through the ascent, and returning it safely to Earth. This is Space X's first successful landing of the first stage …
Read More »Space X’s next Falcon 9 rocket launch to take place today
“Punting 24 hours,” sounds like a very relaxed way to push back the launch of a $50 million rocket, but that's exactly what Space X CEO Elon Musk did on Sunday, via Twitter. His announcement means that the improved Falcon 9 rocket carrying 11 ORBCOMM satellites will instead head into …
Read More »Here’s Space X’s drone barge after rocket explosion
Space X's latest launch of a Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon supply capsule payload went off without a hitch last week. At least, in that it achieved orbit and successfully docked with the international space station to deliver much needed food, science experiments and other important tools for the …
Read More »TV news uses Kerbal Space Program footage for Space X landing
As much as Kerbal Space Program is a fun game and certainly quite realistic in terms of its orbital mechanics, nobody is quite ready to suggest it's an accurate simulator of the real world. Still, that didn't stop the US based, CBC News network from airing footage of the game as …
Read More »SpaceX to retry Falcon 9 barge landing at 8PM tonight
Yesterday's intended launch of a supply mission to the International Space Station was scrapped due to a thunder storm straying too close to the launch pad, but there's more at stake here than food and supplies for the astronauts aboard the world's only persistent, manned space craft. Yesterday's launch was …
Read More »Rosetta successfully releases Philae Lander for comet descent
Update: The confirmation has come through. Philae has successfully separated from the Rosetta Probe “flawlessly” and now begins its multiple hour descent. This is quite an emotional moment for the Probe's crew back here on Earth, as Philae and Rosetta have travelled through space inseparably for over 10 years and …
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