Posted by Ray Katz in current, moon
India’s first lunar spacecraft, Chandrayaan-1, is nearing the moon.
The probe is taking an unusual path to the moon. It is flying in increasingly elliptical orbits of the earth, with each apogee (high point) getting closer and closer to the moon. On November 8, the craft is scheduled to fire its engines again—to slow down and setting into lunar orbit.
Nice going!
Comedian Stephen Colbert won as write-in candidate to have the new International Space Station section (currently called “Node 3″) named after him. Not NASA’s choice In second place was the name “Serenity”. The choice of the name “Colbert”, however, probably has people at NASA feeling less than serene. The contest is not binding, however, and [...]
Today is the anniversary of the launch of Apollo 13, a mission that failed to land on the moon, but is hailed for the ingenious problem-solving abilities of NASA. When there was an explosion aboard a spaceship headed to the moon, we managed to bring the three astronauts home alive. Difficult projects demand superior capabilities [...]
The first space walk—by Alexi Leonov in March 1965—and the first American space walk, by Ed White a few months later are pretty well-known. They’re firsts, and people were paying attention. But some amazing space walks are largely forgotten. Here are 3. 1. Al Worden takes a deep space walk. August 1971. Well, since his [...]
