October 4th is one of my favorite days of the year for one awesome reason – it’s the day in 1958 where the Soviet Union successfully orbited the worlds first satellite – Sputnik 1. The first in a string of amazing achievements for humanity (not just on a national level) and our first steps out …
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Author:Chris
Parker Solar Probe Makes Its First Venus Flyby
This morning the Parker Solar Probe made a flyby of the planet Venus as a part of its path to the Sun. The Parker Solar Probe is using the gravity of Venus to slow it down in such a way as to take it closer to the Sun on each successive orbit, eventually bringing it …
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The Hayabusa2 MASCOT Rover Lands On The Asteroid Ryugu
The next stage in the Hayabusa2 mission occurred this morning with the release and successful landing of the MASCOT rover on the asteroid Ryugu. This comes as a part of the same mission which brought us the first photos from the surface of an asteroid and will culminate with a sample return from Ryugu in …
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Meet “The Goblin” – A Newly Discovered Dwarf Planet In Our Solar System
Coming right on the heels of NASA’s 60th anniversary of operations comes a finding that comes as a direct result of funding by NASA through Planetary Astronomy grant NNX15AF44G – the announcement of another dwarf planet orbiting the Sun! Now, these dwarf planets are nothing new. The most famous of which is, of course, Pluto, …
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Rosetta: The Story Continues
September 30th, 2018 marked 1 year since the end of the Rosetta mission to the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (67P). As a part of this anniversary, the European Space Agency produced this video title “Rosetta: The Story Continues” which takes a look into some of the discoveries already made about the nature of comets, and speculation of the …
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Happy 60th (Operational) Birthday NASA!
Haven’t we been down this road before? Didn’t I already do a 60th Birthday post for NASA earlier this year? Yes, yes I did. However, that post was for the July 29th, 1958 formation of NASA as an agency, the signing of the National Aeronautics and Space Act. In the 2 months following that date in 1958, …
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What’s Coming For October 2018 On Xadara
A new month means a new set of plans for what I’m going to do on the site. I rather enjoy setting up a basic plan at the beginning of the month, regardless of whether I actually stick to it or not it’s at least nice to have goals, and October is going to be …
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Yet Another Facebook Failure – The “View As” Security Breach
I was slightly concerned yesterday morning when I saw that I had to manually log in to Facebook. I normally keep my browsers set to automatically log me in, so any situation where I would need to log back in would be cause for some kind of alarm. I figured maybe someone got ticked by …
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October 2018 Xbox Live Games With Gold
It’s that time yet again – Octobers Games with Gold releases have been announced, and it’s… exactly what you would expect, honestly. Let’s get into it. First off on the Xbox One we have “Overcooked!” and “Victor Vran.” Oh boy. Overcooked. One of those games, take an idea like cooking, make a party game out …
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The First Photos From The Surface Of An Asteroid
Last week Japan’s Hayabusa 2 probe successfully delivered the first of 3 sets of rovers to the surface of the asteroid Ryugu, proving us the first photos from the surface of an asteroid. Hayabusa 2 is one of those many current space mission which I’ve simply never covered. It flew “under the radar” so to …
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The Home Stretch Of The “Entry A Day” Challenge
It’s September 27th, the tail end of September and the end of my self imposed “Entry A Day” challenge where, regardless of the content, I have to publish at least one entry to this site every day in September. So far I’ve had some close calls, writing and publishing some shorter articles within minutes of midnight, …
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The 100th Flight Of The Ariane 5 – VA243
The Ariane 5 launch vehicle made its 100th flight yesterday, September 25th, carrying 2 communications satellites (Horizons-3e and Azerspace-2/Intelsat 38) successfully into their respective geosynchronous orbits high above the Earth. Ariane 5 is another one of those rocket systems that could be described as a workhorse – it’s an incredibly capable booster in the European …
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Japan’s HTV-7 Is Successfully Launched Towards The International Space Station
The 7th of Japan’s “Kounotori” cargo supply crafts launched towards its resupply mission to the International Space Station on Saturday, September 22nd after several delays. Among the supplies being carried are more replacement batteries for the Space Station’s electrical systems, multiple cubesats for independant deployment and research purposes, and the first test of a samples …
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45 Years Ago: The End Of The Skylab 3 Mission
On September 25th, 1973 the Skylab 3 Command Module splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, bringing an end to the record-setting mission. Clocking in at 59 days, 11 hours flight time, this mission doubled the record for time spent in space on a single flight, the previous record having been set by Skylab 2. This …
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Making Life Hell For Refund Scammers
Here we have another wonderful anti-scammer video by our friend Jim Browning. This video demonstrates another refund scam in progress, with Jim all the while watching from behind the scenes. In this case, we have a situation where somehow a scammer has convinced the victim that he is entitled to some kind of refund and …
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