Category: Space News

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August 12, 2019

Launching the Dark Sky Project

During the nationwide observance of Matariki, on a mild winter morning in Takapō (Tekapo), the Dark Sky Project was launched. The Dark Sky Project, formally..
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July 24, 2019

2022 Is When SpinLaunch Aims To Begin Commercial Launch Operations

In May this year the potentially disruptive company, SpinLaunch broke ground on its new facility in New Mexico at Spaceport America. They aim to compete..
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April 5, 2019

Highlights from the last few days about space and what’s coming up

Beresheet spacecraft entered lunar orbit and further speculation of the future of the SLS and commercial involvement in the Moon programme. The announcement that the Event Horizon Telescope may give us the first ever picture of the event horizon around the Super Massive Black Hole at the centre of our galaxy
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March 28, 2019

NASA’s Exploration Mission 1 (EM1) and Who Might Launch it.

The Vice President of the US announced that the administration wants the US to return astronauts to the Moon by 2024. For this to happen there needs to be a way of getting them there and the SLS will probably not be ready.
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March 25, 2019

What’s Happening in Space (and on Earth)

There's a Rocket Lab Electron due to lift off on Wednesday, Beresheet is going to land on the Moon on the 11 April and SpaceX's Starhopper might make it's first tentative lift off with its one Raptor engine.
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March 20, 2019

NASA Astronauts to the Moon – powered by SpaceX

NASA acknowledged that a commercial rocket might be an option to get Exploration Mission 1 off the ground. Could the first flight of the Orion Spacecraft be on a Falcon Heavy?
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March 11, 2019

Brashear Telescope Restoration

The Brashear Telescope is a masterpiece of the Victorian age technology. It stands 9 m tall with a refracting lens of 18 inches (45.72 cm)..
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January 22, 2019

OSIRIS-REx Arrived at Bennu Late Last Year – What’s Next?

OSIRIS-REx has been at Bennu for about a month on its mission to examine the asteroid and get a sample to bring back to Earth in 2023.
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January 9, 2019

Starship and Super Heavy, the next phase of BFR from Elon Musk’s SpaceX

The Starship/Super Heavy combination that is the new name for SpaceX's BFR (Big Falcon Rocket) is taking shape in Texas with construction of a test vehicle known as Starhopper.
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December 27, 2018

The Kuiper Belt’s Ultima Thule and the New Horizons Flypast on New Years Day

Hot on the heals of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 8 trip to the Moon we have the real time fly past of Ultima..
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November 25, 2018

News from the Solar System

The burden of too much information is heavy, come and find out with us and Julian Priest, artist in residence at Space Place what you can do about it, if only complain, The Royal Society of New Zealand warns about blue light at night, NASA will land Mars 2020 at Jezero, an ancient delta on Mars, gravitational waves might or might not exist, the king is dead, Kepler run out of power, long live the king, TESS is the new kid in town. And last but not least, InSight is due to land on Mars. 
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October 29, 2018

News from the Solar System

In New Zealand, Space Starts with Sheep; a new season is about to open for exoplanets as scientists discover an efficient method to predict microlensing; Earth's Moon to be used as a giant radio telescope; "Hello, Andromeda calling", gravitational waves might be used to carry information; 1500 km long water cloud appears on Mars after the planet-wide storm from last month, while InSider probe has only one month left hurling through space, and will land on Mars in November; scientists narrow down the landing sites for Mars 2020 rover;  change of plans, why not land among the clouds of Venus? Hubble and Chandra telescopes have been repaired, mostly by switching them on and off and stay tuned for the position of Uranus in the sky.
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October 18, 2018

What’s Going to Mercury?

BepiColombo is due to launch on Saturday on an Ariane 5 rocket. The mission will get to Mercury in 2025 helping us learn a lot more about the planet that is the closest to the Sun.
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October 14, 2018

Now Chandra has a glitch

The Chandra X-Ray Observatory has developed a glitch and gone into safe mode. The 19 year old spacecraft is well past it's design life but continues to produce incredible science so hopefully it'll be back to full serviceability very soon.
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