September 2016 – Spaceflight Now

Rosetta mission ends with comet touchdown

September 30, 2016 Stephen Clark

Europe’s Rosetta mission ended its 12-year mission Friday with a slow-speed belly-flop on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, concluding an interplanetary odyssey that gave humanity a first close-up introduction to a class of objects which has stimulated imaginations for millennia.

Live coverage: Rosetta’s final hours

September 30, 2016 Stephen Clark

Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft closed out a historic 4.9-billion-mile journey Friday with a slow-speed crash into the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the tiny world it has studied for the last two years, capturing some of the mission’s best science data to help unravel the inner workings of the comet. Confirmation of the crash landing arrived on Earth at 1119 GMT (7:19 a.m. EDT).

Video: Rosetta scientist Matt Taylor on the end of mission

September 29, 2016 Spaceflight Now

Astronomy Now speaks with Matt Taylor, Rosetta project scientist, at the European Space Agency’s mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, about the plan to crash land the spacecraft on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

Rosetta spacecraft heads for comet crash landing

September 29, 2016 William Harwood

The European Space Agency’s $1.6 billion Rosetta spacecraft closed in Thursday for a deliberate crash landing on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko early Friday, a slow-motion kamikaze plunge to bring the enormously successful mission to an end after more than two years of unprecedented close-range observations.

China developing mission to return samples from far side of the moon

September 29, 2016 Stephen Clark

If China’s lunar exploration program goes according to plan, scientists could send a robotic lander to pick up samples from the far side of the moon and return them to Earth by the early 2020s, a top Chinese space official said.

Russian space station crews to be smaller next year

September 28, 2016 Stephen Clark

Russia’s space agency has decided to cut the size of its crew complement on the International Space Station beginning in March 2017 to reduce operating costs until a new Russian science lab is activated on the complex in early 2018, officials confirmed this week.

SpaceX’s Elon Musk announces vision for colonizing Mars

September 27, 2016 Stephen Clark

SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk on Tuesday outlined an ambition to send humans to Mars with methane-fueled reusable spaceships and the largest rocket ever built, an effort he said will likely require government support and initially cost billions of dollars to develop and test.

Watch live as Elon Musk unveils his vision for missions to Mars

September 27, 2016 Stephen Clark

SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk will unveil his plans for human missions to Mars on Tuesday in a presentation at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico. Watch the speech live at 2:30 p.m. EDT (1830 GMT).

Possible water plumes spotted above Europa

September 26, 2016 William Harwood

The Hubble Space Telescope has again spotted what appear to be towering plumes of water vapor erupting from Jupiter’s moon Europa, hinting that future spacecraft may be able to sample the hidden sea, a possible abode of life, without having to drill through miles of rock-hard ice, researchers said Monday.

India declares success on PSLV’s most complex mission

September 26, 2016 Stephen Clark

Eight satellites blasted off Monday on top of an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, including an instrument to track tropical cyclones, a pathfinder for a U.S.-owned commercial Earth observation fleet, and multiple spacecraft for Algeria.