NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft steadily descends onto asteroid Bennu

NASA prepares for historic touchdown on asteroid Bennu with OSIRIS-REX mission where its robotic arm will collect rock samples during brief contact before launching back into space NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is getting ready to reach out its robotic arm and collect a sample from the asteroid Bennu’s surface 200 million miles away from Earth Tuesday evening … Read more

China quietly lands its ultra-secret experimental spacecraft

There are three major missions bound for Mars in the space of just 10 days this month – the UAE’s Hope orbiter, China’s Tianwen-1 craft and NASA’s Perseverance rover.  The countries are taking advantage of a period when Earth and Mars are favourably aligned for a relatively short journey.   July 20: Hope (UAE) The 3,000lb (1,350kg) craft (pictured) … Read more

NASA starts building its spacecraft which will explore a metal-rich asteroid

NASA has started work on a spaceship that will be sent to explore a metal-rich asteroid called Psyche that could be worth more than $10,000 quadrillion. There are so many precious metals buried within the asteroid that it could make every single person on Earth a billionaire if it were to be returned to the planet.  … Read more

Foam-spewing spacecraft could collect and burn space junk

Foam-spewing spacecraft could collect space junk ‘like a spider web’ and toss pieces into Earth’s atmosphere to burn Space junk in orbit continues to multiply and a Russian startup has a solution   Foam Debris Catcher is a series of small and autonomous satellites  Inside the device is a sticky polymer foam that it uses to catch … Read more

Three new Planet Earth-observation spacecraft to hitch a lift with SpaceX

Earth observation spacecraft, capable of photographing features on the planet 20inches wide, will hitch a lift into orbit with the next SpaceX Starlink satellites. The observation satellites are operated byPlanet, who say the three new spacecraft being launched on the Falcon rocket will bring their constellation up to 18. Planet’s SkySat network orbit 279 miles … Read more

NASA’s Juno spacecraft spots violent plumes on Jupiter’s moon Io 

Giant volcanic eruptions on Jupiter’s moon Io have been spotted by NASA‘s Juno probe. On Dec. 21, during winter solstice, four of Juno’s cameras captured images of the Jovian moon Io, the most volcanic body in our solar system, on the mission’s 17th flyby of the gas giant.  Stunned researchers say they hit the jackpot by … Read more