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Category: space – Page 900

Virgin Galactic’s Historic Space Trip Heralds a Coming Age of New US Human Spaceflight Leaps

Virgin Galactic just brought human spaceflight back to American soil after a seven-year hiatus, and other private companies are poised to make some giant leaps of their own.

Virgin’s VSS Unity suborbital spaceliner soared to a maximum altitude of 51.4 miles (82.7 kilometers) during a rocket-powered test flight over California’s Mojave Desert yesterday (Dec. 13).

The milestone marked the first U.S.-based crewed trip to the final frontier since NASA grounded its space shuttle fleet in July 2011. And it was the first spaceflight ever by a private vehicle designed to carry commercial passengers. (By one measure, anyway: Though many people place the boundary of outer space 62 miles, or 100 km, up at the “Karman Line,” the U.S. Air Force awards astronaut wings to personnel who reach an altitude of 50 miles, or 80 km.) [In Photos: Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Unity Soars to Space].

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Spots InSight Hardware on Mars

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter may not have managed to spot InSight under its parachute, but it has finally spotted the lander, its parachute, and its heat shield resting on the Martian surface. The images confirm the location of InSight’s landing site, a little to the north and west of the center of the landing ellipse.

First, the fantastic hardware images:

HiRISE images of InSight hardware on Mars

NASA’s Insight Lander on Mars Spotted from Space!

NASA’s newly arrived Mars lander has been spotted by one its orbiting cousins.

The space agency’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter used its supersharp High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera (HiRISE) to photograph the InSight lander, as well as the hardware that helped the stationary robot ace its Nov. 26 touchdown on the equatorial plain known as Elysium Planitia.

“It looks like the heat shield (upper right) has its dark outside facing down, since it is so bright (saturated, probably a specular reflection),” HiRISE principal investigator Alfred McEwen, of the University of Arizona, wrote in an image description today (Dec. 13). [Mars InSight in Photos: NASA’s Mission to Probe Core of the Red Planet].

How I discovered new worlds (and how you can, too)

Thinking of trying something new today? How does “discovering new planets while sitting comfortably at home” sound? Learn how ordinary citizens can make a WORLD of difference in the ongoing hunt for exoplanets.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to discover new planets? Learn how Planet Hunters TESS shows us how to find new worlds far away from our Sun.

Branson’s Virgin reaches edge of space

The latest test flight by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic successfully rocketed to the edge of space and back.

The firm’s SpaceShipTwo passenger rocket ship reached a height of 82.7km, beyond the altitude at which US agencies have awarded astronaut wings.

It marked the plane’s fourth test flight and followed earlier setbacks in the firm’s space programme.

“When we send astronauts to the surface of the Moon in the next decade, it will be in a sustainable fashion,” says NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine

“When we send astronauts to the surface of the Moon in the next decade, it will be in a sustainable fashion,” says NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstinee. Learn how we’ll expand partnerships with industry and other nations to explore the Moon and advance our exploration missions to even farther destinations, such as Mars: https://go.nasa.gov/2GeqhZL