spacecraft

Copper is typically more pliable than steel. However, MIT researchers discovered that when metal is struck by an object moving at a super high velocity, the opposite occurs: the hotter the metal, the stronger it becomes, and copper can be…

There’s a new technology under test at the Redwire Corp. facility in Longmont, CO. NASA hit a key technology milestone at the new facility with a successful deployment of one of four solar sail quadrants.   NASA considers solar sail…

Strong metal lattices are lighter than cork and have customizable mechanical properties. MIT researchers used kirigami, the art of Japanese paper cutting and folding, to develop ultra-strong, lightweight materials with tunable mechanical…

Many space missions re-use technologies. For example, Voyager probes have been around longer than most of my readers. Launched 46 years ago, the twin probes still send data back to Earth (when someone doesn't tilt its antenna the wrong…

NASA lost contact with Voyager 2 on July 21st after flight commanders sent an order that tilted the probe's antenna away from Earth, making it impossible to send and receive commands and data. Mission control tilted the antenna a mere 2%.…

What happens to NASA satellites after their useful life is complete? One NASA satellite that saw solar flares and helped scientists understand the sun’s powerful bursts of energy fell to Earth this week, approximately 21 years after launch.…

The Gaia space mission by the European Space Agency (ESA) is mapping our galaxy, providing unprecedented, detailed data that promises to revolutionize our knowledge of the solar system and beyond. Gaia, launched on December 19th, 2013,…

An F-104 Starfighter (hopefully named after the 1984 movie, the Last Starfighter or the Star Wars spacecraft) kicked off the grand opening of Gateway™: The Deep Space Launch Complex at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on the 15th.…