Magnetic Fields Could Help Spacecrafts Fly in Formation
	Many space missions today cannot be carried out mostly because the involved spacecrafts would have to fly in a precise formation, such as NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder mission or the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, which is supposed to detect distortions in the matter of space-time known as gravitational waves. The problem is that in order for a fleet of spacecrafts to keep in formation, they would have to be positioned with th ... [read more >>]
	07 May 2008, 03:11GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Self-Healing Computers Put Space Ships Back on Track
	Losing touch with a space ship at landing can cause serious issues that can even result in losing the spacecraft. Hardware components are more likely to deteriorate while in space, probably because they are more exposed to cosmic radiation than inside Earth's atmosphere. The situation is increasingly complicated, as hardware engineers don't usually travel with spare components for the computers installed aboard, in order to k ... [read more >>]
	29 April 2008, 09:59GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Watch Out, It's Raining Rocket Parts
	The Russian Roskosmos agency was recently sued by an inhabitant of Russia's Altai region for 42,000 US dollars, in compensation for the fact that a 3 meters piece of metal from one of its space rockets fell on his property, near the outdoor toilet. Shepherd Boris Urmatov lives in a area which is located right in the flight path of the spacecrafts being launched from the Baikonur launchpad, in Kazakhstan. Urmatov said in ... [read more >>]
	27 March 2008, 06:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Astronomers Defend the Potential Disaster
	The incident in which the spacecraft Rosetta was mistaken last week-end with a Near Earth Object, that had an incoming trajectory which missed the Earth, determined the astronomers to defend the system that failed to make the difference between a rock and an artificial spacecraft. The fact that the Distant Artificial Satellites Observations, could not even identify one of the tracked objects in the sky, raises serious questions about the c ... [read more >>]
	14 November 2007, 04:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Romanian Hacker Charged for Breaching NASA Computers, Disrupting Spacecraft Communication
	A Romanian hacker was charged, after a joint operation of the Romanian police and the FBI, with hacking into NASA computers. The US space agency notified in July the Romanian police that its servers had been breached by unidentified people who accessed secure networks from computers based in Romania. Victor Faur, 26, from Arad, was charged with breaking into NASA servers and even disrupting communication with spacecraft, which forced t ... [read more >>]
	09 July 2007, 05:01GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Is Space Travel Just a Commercial Stunt?
	Space tourism is becoming increasingly popular and some people hope it will become the next big attraction and maybe the ideal family vacation, sometime in the near future. Current private trips to space may cost around $20 million, so it's not an affordable ride for mere mortals, but more and more companies announce their intention to offer space tours "really soon." But are they for real, or is it just a commercial stu ... [read more >>]
	06 July 2007, 08:21GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

This Sunday, NASA Will Launch New Mission, Toward the Two Largest Asteroids in the Solar System
	This weekend, NASA will launch a new mission, the Dawn spacecraft, which will venture into the asteroid belt to rendez-vous with two of the largest asteroids in the solar system, Ceres and Vesta. The asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter, is the largest concentration of asteroids in the solar system, where 98.5% of asteroid orbits can be found. Ceres is the largest asteroid about the size of Texas, recently classif ... [read more >>]
	06 July 2007, 06:36GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Orbital Express Satellites Successfully Reunited
	The two satellites of the Orbital Express mission, the Autonomous Space Transport Robotic Operations (ASTRO) vehicle and a prototype modular next-generation serviceable satellite (NEXTSat) successfully reunited after they were separated by 7 kilometers. One of the main purposes of the mission is to test the ability of future spacecraft to couple in space without human intervention. Autonomous docking technologies are vital fo ... [read more >>]
	03 July 2007, 06:17GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Private Company Launched a Space Station Prototype into Orbit
	A privately owned and built prototype space station was successfully launched into orbit from a Russian missile base Yasny, by a Dnepr booster. The base is a former strategic launch area for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs – nuclear weapons), converted to a spacecraft launch site for private companies. Bigelow Aerospace is an example of private company and this week they launched Genesis 2, an inflatable module ful ... [read more >>]
	29 June 2007, 04:28GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Ares V, NASA's Next Moon and Mars Rocket
	Ares V is the new Cargo Launch Vehicle under development at NASA, part of the Project Constellation, aimed to out people on the Moon, again and on Mars, for the first time. Though the rocket is still on the drawing board, scientists are thrilled about what it could carry into space. "The Ares V rocket will be able to launch missions whose volume or mass or both can be handled no other way," says Philip Stahl, an in ... [read more >>]
	27 June 2007, 05:52GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

What Mysterious Force Is Making the Pioneer Spacecraft Change Its Course?
	It’s been years since NASA last heard from either of its two Pioneer probes hurtling out of the solar system, but scientists are still debating the source of an odd force pushing against the outbound spacecraft. A new study of the "Pioneer anomaly" suggests that there is an unknown but conventional force acting on the space probe and making it drift from the established flight path. Some physicists say the law of gr ... [read more >>]
	22 June 2007, 15:31GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

New Orion Spacecraft Tested in the World's Largest Vacuum Chamber
	Orion is a spacecraft design currently being developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Each spacecraft of this type will be able to carry a crew of four to six astronauts and will be launched by the new Ares I launch vehicle. It is part of Project Constellation, the pride of NASA's future space plans that will send humans back to the Moon by 2020 and probably even on Mars. But before it carr ... [read more >>]
	21 June 2007, 12:57GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Samba and Tango in Space
	Samba and Tango are the names of two of ESA's four satellites in the Cluster mission that are now orbiting in formation, separated by only 17 km, the closest two ESA satellites have ever been. It is hoped that this tight formation will allow new scientific discoveries about the Sun and the solar wind. The Cluster mission is a European Space Agency (ESA) unmanned space mission to study the Earth's magnetosphere using ... [read more >>]
	21 June 2007, 12:22GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

NASA Is Considering Evacuation from the ISS
	After all six main control computers on the Russian side of the ISS shut down at the same time, leaving the space station almost "dead in the water," NASA is considering the options of a general evacuation in case of emergency. A malfunction caused the shutdown of two key computers that control navigation and oxygen production on the Russian side of the International Space Station. Later, all six main control compute ... [read more >>]
	16 June 2007, 04:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

First Pictures from Venus Sent by Messenger Spacecraft
	Today, NASA published the first pictures of Venus, as seen by the Messenger probe, heading for Mercury. In a rehearsal for the big event of meeting Mercury up close, the Messenger space probe is swinging by Venus in a slingshot maneuver that will propel it towards the smallest planet in our solar system. NASA's spacecraft Messenger (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging) is a mission launched Augus ... [read more >>]
	15 June 2007, 03:31GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Europe Proudly Presented the First Space Tourism Vehicle
	This week, Astrium, a wholly owned subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS, the largest European aerospace corporation, presented a revolutionary new vehicle for space tourism the size of a business jet. The Astrium space jet will be able to carry four passengers 100 km up into space, providing an exciting experience of near weightlessness, more than the three minutes provided today by other subsp ... [read more >>]
	14 June 2007, 09:16GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Atlantis Space Shuttle Takes Off after a Long Break
	Vacation is finally over for the US space program and on Friday, the space shuttle Atlantis took off at 7:38 p.m. EDT (2338 GMT), with seven crew members aboard, from its seaside launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It's the first space shuttle flight of 2007 and puts the space program back on track after months of delays caused by technical problems, bad weather and a love triangle scandal. "We’ve ... [read more >>]
	09 June 2007, 04:49GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Messenger Rendez-Vous with Venus
	In a rehearsal for the big event of meeting Mercury up close, the Messenger space probe is going to swing by Venus in a slingshot maneuver that will propel it towards the smallest planet in our solar system. NASA's spacecraft Messenger (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging) is a mission launched August 3, 2004, designed to study the characteristics and environment of Mercury from orbit. Specifically, [ADMAR ... [read more >>]
	05 June 2007, 02:53GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Atlantis Space Shuttle Ready for Launch
	Finally, after months of delays and technical problems, like the pierced fuel tank because of a freak hail storm, the space ship Atlantis is ready for launch, said NASA bosses. They hope for a June 8 launch and a successful mission to the international space station. "We’ve just been focused on our training and are ready to go," said Atlantis commander Rick Sturckow. He also said that he and his crew haven’t been distracted f ... [read more >>]
	04 June 2007, 02:56GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Shields Up! - ISS Now Has Space Shields
	This week, two Russian cosmonauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) walked out into space and climbed on the station to install deflector shields, in fact protective panels designed to shield the orbiting station from dangerous space debris and small meteorites. It took the spacewalkers five and a half hours to complete this mission, and commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Oleg Kotov, the two astronauts that di ... [read more >>]
	31 May 2007, 08:16GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Mysterious Black Holes on Mars
	There are many strange formations on Mars whose images sparked the imaginations of many people around the world and many have come with theories until the official scientific explanations. Among them is an image of a spooky anomaly, first observed in 1976 by Viking, called the Mars Face, or pictures of "dust-devils" mini tornadoes that spin on the Martian surface with no obvious tornado clouds to generate them. New photograph ... [read more >>]
	28 May 2007, 10:31GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Dream Chaser – The New Suborbital Space Tourism Vehicle
	In recent years, space tourism has been a refreshing alternative and even if for the moment the pioneers pay around $20 million for a trip to the International Space Station, future trips will get more affordable, as many companies are trying to get a piece of the space cake. One of them is Benson Space Company of Poway, California, whose CEO, Jim Benson, announced a new design of the company's first space tourism veh ... [read more >>]
	26 May 2007, 06:30GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Atlantis Space Shuttle Back on Track
	The space shuttle Atlantis is the fourth operational shuttle built and one of the three fully operational shuttles remaining in the fleet. It took two and a half months to repair its external fuel tank and today it began the slow journey back to the launch pad. On June 8, the shuttle is programmed for a flight to the International Space Station for construction and repair works, after the March launch was postponed and NASA managers or ... [read more >>]
	15 May 2007, 09:03GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How to S**t in Space – The Space Toilet
	Astronauts are humans after all... so, no matter how great their achievements are, they are still bound by nature's "smelly" laws. You don't hear, nor see, anything about it on the news, when they successfully take off or land, but physical limitations are of great concern for NASA. The famous question was popped by prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II of the UK, when he was taking a tour of a space ... [read more >>]
	14 May 2007, 17:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Early Moon Photos Revealed More Than Was Presented
	The first images of the far side of the Moon were taken by the Russian Luna 3 and Zond 3 spacecraft in October 1959 and July 1965, respectively. These were the first to present the Moon's face that we never see, because of the fact that it has a rotation time around its axis equal to the revolution tine around Earth. Now, amateur astronomer Ricardo Nunes re-processed the old blurry, shaky and noisy images and came up with a theory ... [read more >>]
	14 May 2007, 11:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Space Race: Our Solar System Flies like a Bullet
	It seems that nothing is standing still in this Universe. Not even our solar system. The phrase "faster than a speeding bullet" appears to be characterizing very well our solar system. New data sent in by NASA's two Voyager spacecraft gave astronomers a whole new perspective. The two probes are now the most distant human made artifacts in space. The unique perspective given by the enormous distance enables the probes ... [read more >>]
	11 May 2007, 03:04GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Does Ion Drive Propulsion Work?
	The ion engine is the best electric propulsion system available for spacecraft so far. It's the engine which can produce the best electric power to thrust conversion rate. It also has the highest specific impulse, of about 3000secs (around 30,000 km/s or 18,600 mph) and the longest operational lifetime. It surpasses every conventional chemical or nuclear engine available. The principles of Ion thrusters go back to the concepts develo ... [read more >>]
	10 May 2007, 17:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The First Space Postal Service
	How do you send a package from space down to Earth without using expensive rockets and fuel? You drop it from space and hope it won't land in the ocean? Well, not exactly, but close enough. The answer is called YES2 (Young Engineers Satellite) and it's a joint project involving almost five hundred students from the most prestigious universities and the European Space Agency. "YES2 represents a whole collect ... [read more >>]
	10 May 2007, 06:59GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

New Filter May Develop Smaller Fuel Cells for Laptops and Cellphones
	Fuel cells differ from batteries in that they consume reactants, which must be replenished, while batteries store electrical energy chemically in a closed system. Additionally, while the electrodes within a battery react and change as a battery is charged or discharged, a fuel cell's electrodes are catalytic and relatively stable. A fuel cell is an electrochemical energy conversion device. It produces electricity from external sup ... [read more >>]
	24 April 2007, 04:02GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Milky Way Street Sweeper
	The nature of the interstellar medium has received the attention of astronomers and scientists over the centuries. It is not at all a void; on the contrary, there are many particles floating in space. The interstellar medium (or ISM) is the name astronomers give to the gas and dust that pervade interstellar space. While the ISM refers to the matter that exists between the stars within a galaxy, the energy, in the form of electromagnet ... [read more >>]
	20 April 2007, 04:44GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Caves Detected on Mars
	After water, Mars comes with other surprises, too. Images from Nasa's Odyssey spacecraft, launched in April 2001 to hunt for past or present water on Mars, have revealed to astronomers what could be seven caves on the Red Planet's surface. The potential caves are located on the flanks of the Arsia Mons volcano and are deep enough that their floors cannot be watched through the opening. Mars Odyssey's Themis instr ... [read more >>]
	17 March 2007, 06:58GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia