News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
There is a moment in The Infinite, if you are standing in the right place at the right time, where you can find yourself in front of NASA astronaut Drew Morgan as he tries to describe what it is like to come on board the International Space Station for the first time. Try as he … Read more
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket for a record 11th time Saturday (Dec. 18), sending a new stack of Starlink satellites into orbit from California in a predawn liftoff. The previously flown Falcon 9 rocket blasted off at 7:41 a.m. EST (1241 GMT, 04:41 a.m. local time) from Space Launch … Read more
China’s 50th orbital launch of 2021 sent a new data relay satellite into orbit on Monday (Dec. 13) to support the country’s space station and crewed missions. A Long March 3B rocket lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China at (1609 GMT, or 12:09 a.m. local time Dec. 14), successfully sending … Read more
A Russian Proton rocket overcame a one-week delay to launch two communications satellites into space Monday (Dec. 13). The Express-AMU3 and Express-AMU7 spacecraft flew to space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:07 a.m. EST (1207 GMT or 5:07 p.m. local time). Russian space agency Roscosmos reported launch success and said the upper stage … Read more
LAST UPDATED Dec. 8: These dates are subject to change, and will be updated throughout the year as firmer dates arise. Please DO NOT schedule travel based on a date you see here. Launch dates are collected from NASA, ESA, Roscosmos, Spaceflight Now and others. Watch NASA webcasts and other live launch coverage on our webcast page. Find out what’s up in … Read more
When “Star Trek” captain William Shatner – James T. Kirk to we Trekkies – flew to space in October, the family of one of his co-stars played close attention. Shatner’s Oct. 13 flight on Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft inspired worldwide tributes and discussion about “Star Trek,” a series that embedded diversity into its framework … Read more
The James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful space observatory ever built, is finally set for launch in late December after decades of waiting. An engineering marvel, it will help answer fundamental questions about the Universe, peering back in time 13 billion years. Here are five things to know. 1. Giant gold mirror The telescope’s … Read more
On Nov. 10, 2013, Europe’s GOCE satellite fell to Earth. GOCE is short for Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer. Its mission was to map Earth’s gravitational field. GOCE did this for four years. Then it ran out of fuel. Controllers weren’t sure where GOCE would fall back to Earth or linger in … Read more
SpaceX successfully launched its 28th rocket of the year early Thursday morning (Dec. 9), ferrying an X-ray observatory into space for NASA. A used Falcon 9 rocket blasted off at 1 a.m. (0600 GMT) from Pad 39A here at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). The mission marked the fifth … Read more