The red planet’s brush with Comet Siding Spring was a close encounter of the best kind for science, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to study a pristine remnant of the solar system’s birth 4.6 billion years ago as it makes its first and possibly last visit to the warmth of the inner solar system.
An Ariane 5 launcher fired into space from French Guiana, hauling two commercial satellites destined to broadcast television to Latin America for Intelsat, DirecTV and Argentina’s national telecom company.
The third satellite for India’s regional navigation network is set for liftoff to join a growing fleet of spacecraft providing independent tracking and positioning services over India and its neighbors.
A new satellite launched Aug. 1 has joined the U.S. Air Force’s GPS navigation network to help guide everything from bombs to road trippers to their destinations, with final preparations on track to send up another GPS spacecraft at the end of October.
A $26 million science instrument carried to the International Space Station by SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule has been switched on and is measuring winds over the world’s oceans to help forecasters track the intensity of tropical cyclones, NASA officials said.