by Matt Wilson | Sep 30, 2016 | ESA, exploration, Satellites, Science, Technology
On 30 September 2016, at 1119 GMT the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), Darmstadt, announced that the Rosseta probe had completed its de-orbit manoeuvre to land/crash on to the surface of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, sending its last telemetry packet at...
by Matt Wilson | Sep 28, 2016 | Commercial human spaceflight, exploration, Personal spaceflight, SpaceX, Technology, test
On 23 September, SpaceX released a statement explaining the progress they had made in the investigation into the cause of the Falcon 9 “anomaly” in the run-up to the AMOS-6 mission. It stated that “…the Accident Investigation Team (AIT),...
by David Todd | Sep 27, 2016 | exploration, NASA, SpaceX, Technology
At the International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2016) in Guadalajara, Mexico, Elon Musk, the billionaire founder and Chief Technical Officer of the launch provider and manufacturer SpaceX, revealed his plan to put mankind onto the planet Mars, in effect becoming THE...
by David Todd | Sep 13, 2016 | commercial launch services, Launches, Seradata News, Technology
Jeff Bezos, head of Amazon and Blue Origin rocket entrepreneur, has released an image showing how his new LOx/Methane powered New Glenn rocket series stacks up in its two- and three- stage versions. And boy, are they big. The rocket series is named in honour of John...
by David Todd | Sep 9, 2016 | History, On a Lighter Note, Science, Seradata News, Technology
Yes – there really is a Captain James Kirk but he is not a star ship captain. He has just taken command of the US Navy’s newest ship, the USS Zumwalt. While it has a crew of only 147 sailors and is formally called a destroyer, it actually has the tonnage...
by David Todd | Aug 30, 2016 | On a Lighter Note, Technology
While this column does not like to stray into on-Earth politics too much, we note that an attempt to ban full-body “Burqini” swimsuits from the beach by the Mayor of Cannes has now been overturned by a French court. And rightly so – assuming that...
