In the 1990s, NASA designed an experimental space plane that was intended to be a cost-effective alternative to expensive rockets. This was called the X-33 and was based on a concept called SSTO, which stands for “single stage to orbit.” SSTO does away with the rocket stages of conventional spaceflight, where rockets contain engines and … Read more
The past decade has seen rapid expansion of the commercial space industry. Rival nations compete for key military and economic positions beyond Earth. Public and private entities clamor to mine the Moon, and a growing halo of space debris litters low Earth orbit. In a 2023 white paper, a group of concerned astronomers warned against … Read more
A simulated image of a satellite collision and the resulting debris.ESA / ID&Sense / ONiRiXEL, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO NASA’s TIMED satellite narrowly avoided a collision with the dead Russian spacecraft Cosmos 2221 this week. At its worst, the collision would have thrown 7,500 pieces of debris into low Earth orbit. Satellite collisions are becoming … Read more
The year 2023 turned out to be a big year for lunar science. India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft landed near the moon’s south pole, a huge achievement for a country relatively new to space travel, especially after the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft crashed in 2019. At the same time, NASA is preparing for a large number of moon-related missions, … Read more
Since the beginning of the Space Age – the launch of Sputnik I in 1957 – humans have placed more than 15,000 satellites into orbit. Just over half are still functioning; the rest, after running out of fuel and ending their useful life, have either burned up in the atmosphere or are still orbiting the … Read more
Since the beginning of the Space Age – the launch of Sputnik I in 1957 – humans have placed more than 15,000 satellites into orbit. Just over half are still functioning; the rest, after running out of fuel and ending their useful life, have either burned up in the atmosphere or are still orbiting the … Read more