Category: spacecraft

Stuck Antenna Freed on Jupiter-Bound Spacecraft

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—A crucial radar antenna on a European spacecraft bound for Jupiter is no longer jammed. Flight controllers in Germany freed the 52-foot (16-meter) antenna Friday after nearly a month of effort. The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, nicknamed Juice, blasted off in April on a decade-long voyage. Soon after launch, a…


Spaceport Slated for Australian State Attracts Global Interest

Imagine a major international airport with rockets and satellites instead of planes and a commute 10 hours from the nearest major city.   That’s the vision put forward by Space Centre Australia’s James Palmer as representatives from NASA and the Australian Space Agency gather in far north Queensland.  Planning is underway for Australia’s next spaceport at…


European Spacecraft on Way to Jupiter and Its Icy Moons

A European spacecraft rocketed away Friday on a decadelong quest to explore Jupiter and three of its icy moons that could hold buried oceans. The journey began with a perfect morning liftoff by Europe’s Ariane rocket from French Guiana on the coast of South America. But there were some tense minutes later as controllers awaited…


Uncrewed Russian Spacecraft That Leaked Coolant Lands Safely

MOSCOW—A Russian space capsule safely returned to Earth without a crew Tuesday, months after it suffered a coolant leak in orbit. The Soyuz MS-22 leaked coolant in December while attached to the International Space Station. Russian space officials blamed the leak on a tiny meteoroid that punctured the craft’s external radiator. They launched an empty…


Studies Show How Asteroid-Bashing Spacecraft Was ‘Phenomenally Successful’

  WASHINGTON—NASA’s DART spacecraft slammed into the asteroid Dimorphos at a spot between two boulders during last September’s first test of a planetary defense system, sending debris hurtling into space and changing the rocky oblong-shaped object’s path a bit more than previously calculated. Those were among the findings revealed by scientists on Wednesday in the…


Russian Soyuz Spacecraft Docks at ISS to Bring Back Stranded Crew

A Russian spacecraft on a mission to bring back to Earth a crew stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) has docked at the station, Russian space agency Roscosmos said early on Sunday. The Soyuz MS-23, which lifted off from Baikonour space centre in Kazakhstan on Friday, is to bring back Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev…


Russia Launches Rescue Ship to Space Station After Leaks

Russia launched a rescue ship on Friday for two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut whose original ride home sprang a dangerous leak while parked at the International Space Station. The new, empty Soyuz capsule should arrive at the orbiting lab on Sunday. The capsule leak in December was blamed on a micrometeorite that punctured an…


Russian Spacecraft Leaks Coolant, ISS Crew Safe

An uncrewed Russian cargo spacecraft docked at the International Space Station on Saturday has leaked coolant, but the incident does not pose any danger to the station’s crew, according to Russia’s space agency and NASA. Engineers at the Russian Mission Control Center outside Moscow first detected depressurization inside the Progress MS-21 cargo ship’s coolant loop,…


NASA Spacecraft Buzzes Jupiter Moon Europa, Closest in Years

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—NASA’s Juno spacecraft has made the closest approach to Jupiter’s tantalizing, icy moon Europa in more than 20 years. Juno on Thursday zipped within approximately 219 miles (352 kilometers) of Europa, thought to have an ocean flowing beneath its thick frozen crust, raising the possibility of underwater life. Scientists hailed the flyby as…


Operation Space Clean Up: Researchers Develop Novel Garbage Collection Methods

Australian researchers have set their sights on cleaning up the outer space junkyard orbiting Earth to avoid a chain reaction of self-sustaining debris collisions, using lasers and artificial intelligence technology. Space debris expert Don Kessler, from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), was reported by The Age,  as the first to notice that space is…