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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Category:History
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 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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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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Delta II – ICESat-2 Launch Highlights
Here we have the launch highlights video for the final Delta II launch – ICESat-2. This early morning flight was a beautiful end to the nearly 30 year Delta II program and was, as expected, a complete success. This marked the 100th successful Delta II flight in a row, also setting a world record for …
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1 Year Ago: The End Of The Cassini Mission
In an interesting coincidence, today marks the 1 year anniversary of Cassini’s Grand Finale – its final plunge into the atmosphere of Saturn, the planet it spent its life studying. It was one hell of an event – after being in space for nearly 20 years (originally launched in 1997 on a Titan IV) and …
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ICESat-2 Successfully Launches On The Final Delta II Rocket
It’s mission complete for the Delta II rocket – today at 6:01 A.M. Pacific Time the final Delta II booster launched on the last mission of the program to deliver ICESat-2 into a polar orbit to begin its mission of studying the Earth’s cryosphere. This launch marks the 155th Delta II launch, the 100th successful …
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The Final Liftoff Of Delta II
At 6:01 A.M. Pacific Time the final Delta II rocket launched from LC-2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base carrying ICESat-2 and a small compliment of CubeSats into orbit. This mission is still underway – as I write these words we’re only 30 minutes into the mission, in a coast phase between burns of the second …
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Delta II ICESat-2 Mission Profile
As is standard fare for a United Launch Alliance flight we have here the ICESat-2 mission profile video. What isn’t standard fare is that this is a Delta II launch. Not just any Delta II launch, but the final flight of the Delta II booster. Yes. That’s it. This will mark flight 155, and the …
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The Launch Of The Parker Solar Probe
After multiple delays, eventually resulting in a scrub for the original planned August 11th launch date, the Parker Solar Probe successfully began its mission mission to “touch the Sun” this morning at 3:31 AM . Yeah, quite early, but early enough that I could easily just stay awake to watch it, and I’m glad I …
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Dave From EEVBlog Takes A Look At The Merlin Game From 1978!
Here’s a video that kind of showed up out of nowhere but is too perfect not to share; an EEVBlog video – number 1111 to be precise – which happens to be a quick tear down of the Merlin handheld game from 1978. It’s interesting because of a fact I didn’t know – the core …
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Skylab, A Scientific Harvest – 1974 NASA Film
I mention in my previous article about the launch of Skylab 3 that I would hunt for videos related to the mission. Well, sure enough, I quickly found a solid one – Skylab, A Scientific Harvest is a 1974 produced NASA Film on the two month long Skylab 3 mission. The video goes into light …
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60 Years Ago: The Birth Of NASA
If there’s one thing anyone could gather from the bulk of my space related posts (both the positive ones and the not so positive ones) it’s this: I freaking love NASA. It’s funny then that it would come as a surprise to me today to see that today, July 29th, marks NASA’s 60th birthday. While …
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45 Years Ago: The Launch Of Skylab 3
On July 28th, 1973, a Saturn 1B rocket launched from Launch Complex 39-B at Kennedy Space Center carrying astronauts Alan Bean, Owen Garriott, and Jack Lousma into orbit for the Skylab 3 mission. This mission was, as you would expect, a direct follow up to the 28 day Skylab 2 mission. Skylab 3 would remain …
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49 Years Ago: The Apollo 11 Lunar Landing
Today marks 49 years since the first crewed landing on the Moon – the mission of Apollo 11. For fans of space stuff, today is kind of the top day in the history of things, much like October 4th and April 12th. These are days we celebrate for their importance to humanity – the days …
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