“NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and private industry partners, Boeing and SpaceX, will make history in 2019 with the return of human spaceflight launches to the International Space Station from U.S. soil. Get ready for the rocket rumble!”
“NASA’s InSight has been busy. After landing on the Red Planet, the mission sent home pictures and sound, then placed its first instrument on the planet’s surface. Plus, find out what the Curiosity rover has been up to. “
“This 4K visualization shows the Moon’s phase and libration at hourly intervals throughout 2019, as viewed from both Northern and Southern Hemisphere. Each frame represents one hour. In addition, this visualization shows the moon’s orbit position, sub-Earth and subsolar points, distance from the Earth at true scale, and labels of craters near the terminator.”
“Human spaceflight, some consider the ultimate test. There is only one chance to do it right, no room for error. To prepare for this challenge, we expose the system to the same environments as they would be exposed to in flight. This approach of ‘Test Like You Fly’ is critical to the safety and success of Orion. Come learn about Orion and the testing campaign to prove out the safest system for human spaceflight.”
“Europe’s Vega launch vehicle operating from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, has a flawless record. Vega serves a wide range of missions and payload configurations, responding to different market opportunities. It is the ideal launcher for most scientific and Earth observation missions, benchmarked to loft 1500 kg into a 700 km-altitude circular orbit at 90° inclination.
Based on this success a more powerful Vega, Vega-C, now in development is set to launch in mid-2019 offering greater performance at no additional cost. Vega-C shares technology with Europe’s other new launcher Ariane 6. The P120C solid fuel motor will be used as the first stage for Vega-C and two or four will be used as strap-on boosters for Ariane 6.”
“Since the very first module Zarya launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 20 November 1998, the International Space Station has delivered a whole new perspective on this planet we call home. Join us as we celebrate 20 years of international collaboration and research for the benefit of Earth with ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst’s longest timelapse yet.
In just under 15 minutes, this clip takes you from Tunisia across Beijing and through Australia in two trips around the world. You can follow the Station’s location using the map at the top right-hand-side of the screen alongside annotations on the photos themselves.
This timelapse comprises approximately 21 375 images of Earth all captured by Alexander from the International Space Station and shown 12.5 times faster than actual speed.”