NASA awards Launch Services Contract for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
Washington DC (SPX) Dec 18, 2014 -
NASA has selected SpaceX to provide launch services for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. TESS will launch aboard a Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle, with liftoff targeted for August 2017 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
The total cost for NASA to launch TESS is approximately $87 million, which includes the launch service, spacecraft processing, payload ...
more
Asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs nearly knocked off mammals
Albuquerque NM (SPX) Dec 18, 2014 -
The extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago is thought to have paved the way for mammals to dominate, but a new study shows that many mammals died off alongside the dinosaurs.
Metatherian mammals--the extinct relatives of living marsupials ("mammals with pouches", such as opossums) thrived in the shadow of the dinosaurs during the Cretaceous period. The new study, by an internatio ...
more
Rosetta Orbiter to Swoop Down On Comet in February
Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 18, 2014 -
The European Space Agency's orbiting Rosetta spacecraft is expected to come within four miles (six kilometers) of the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in February of next year. The flyby will be the closest the comet explorer will come during its prime mission.
"It is the earliest we could carry it out without impacting the vitally important bound orbits that are currently being ...
more
Venus Express goes gently into the night
Paris (ESA) Dec 18, 2014 -
ESA's Venus Express has ended its eight-year mission after far exceeding its planned life. The spacecraft exhausted its propellant during a series of thruster burns to raise its orbit following the low-altitude aerobraking earlier this year.
Since its arrival at Venus in 2006, Venus Express had been on an elliptical 24-hour orbit, traveling 66 000 km above the south pole at its furthest po ...
more
India launches biggest ever rocket into space
Bangalore, India (AFP) Dec 18, 2014 -
India successfully launched its biggest ever rocket on Thursday, including an unmanned capsule which could one day send astronauts into space, as the country ramps up its ambitious space programme.
The rocket, designed to carry heavier communication and other satellites into higher orbit, blasted off from Sriharikota in the southeast state of Andhra Pradesh.
"This was a very significant ...
more
US Space Launcher to Get 60 Russian Engines in $1Bln Deal
Moscow (Sputnik) Dec 18, 2014 -
Russian design bureau Energomash has signed a contract with the US-based Orbital Sciences Corporation for the delivery of 60 RD-181 rocket engines to be used to power the Antares rocket's first stage, Russia's Izvestiya newspaper reported Wednesday.
"We have committed to deliver a total of 60 engines. Currently, there is a firm contract for 20 engines which we have begun moving forward wit ...
more
Taiwan's ailing economy major challenge for leadership hopefuls
Taipei (AFP) Dec 17, 2014 -
As baker Lin Hsiao-an sits hoping for more customers to save her beloved but shrinking business she rails against Taiwan's leaders for the slowing economy that has turned many angry voters against the government ahead of presidential elections.
Lin, 36, opened her Taipei cake shop 10 years ago with high hopes for her creative designs. But after a promising start she was forced to lay off fou ...
more
