Space & Spaceflight

Get a Great View of a Comet with Binoculars, Starting Monday

Comet Lulin, photographed here about 100 million miles away, will be passing within 38 million miles of Earth from February 23rd to mid-March, which apparently puts it within binocular range. Some quick facts about Comet Lulin: it was discovered in July 2007, and is frequently visible to the naked eye (though seeing it through binoculars…

Skylon Rocket/Jet Hybrid Is, Scientifically Speaking, Super Cool

The Skylon reusable space plane takes off from an airport runway, burns atmospheric oxygen, switching to liquid oxygen and hydrogen to hit escape velocity and attain orbit. At least, it will in 10 years. The plane will be designed to carry 12 tons of payload into orbit and return safely, without having wasted $100 million…

British Government to Launch Satellites Into Orbit on the Back of Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo

Looks like the WhiteKnightTwo won’t be all play after all, as the British government wants to use Virgin Galactic‘s spacecraft to send some state satellites into low orbit. https://gizmodo.com/first-virgin-galactic-white-knight-ii-photos-5029950 According to Flight Global, The Government wants to develop a rocket, dubbed “LauncherOne,” to sit on the back of WhiteKnightTwo and when the craft reaches the…

Exclusive Clip: Futurama’s Creators In Zero Gravity For Fun and Profit!

This exclusive extra off the last of four Futurama movies shows Matt Groening and David X. Cohen bouncing around in simulated zero-G like a meatspace Bender and Fry. Are you excited for the for the movie? All signs point to it being great, and I’m going to (hopefully) be seeing a screening of it tonight…

Satellite Collision Could Doom the Hubble Telescope

It appears that the Hubble might end up as collateral damage from the recent collision between an Iridium and Russian satellite. Without another service mission, the Hubble may meet its end within a year or two. https://gizmodo.com/it-finally-happened-two-satellites-crash-in-space-5151985 The collision has sent more than 600 pieces of debris whizzing around the Earth at 17,500 mph. At…

The World’s Coolest-Looking Observatories

Until they make an actual porno in space, io9s list of the world’s coolest looking observatories and shots from the Hubble will be the only space porn in town. https://gizmodo.com/virgin-galactic-turns-down-1-million-offer-to-make-fir-5058749 Hit up io9 to check out the giant gallery. [io9]

First Greenhouse Gas-Monitoring Satellites Going Into Orbit, Secrets of Global Warming Imminent?

Both the Japanese and American Space agencies, JAXA and NASA, are about to launch satellites into orbit which measure Earth’s carbon dioxide and methane levels, hoping to glean insight into global warming‘s effects. According to the Economist, the Japanese satellite, Ibuki, will circle the Earth every 100 minutes, collecting data from 56,000 points around the…

It Finally Happened: Two Satellites Crash In Space

The AP is reporting that two satellites just crashed 500 miles above Siberia in the first-ever in-orbit collision of two spacecrafts. “We knew this was going to happen eventually,” Johnson Space Center orbital debris scientist Mark Matney told reporters, in what I imagine was the most Onion-esque quote from a NASA scientist this year. One…

Decades-Old NASA Concept Art Imagined Slightly More People Living On Space Stations By Now

In the 1970s, NASA conducted a number of summer studies to create artwork depicting the future of space colonies. At 10,000 people, these colonies housed slightly more people than the current three-person ISS crew. That said, progress is being made. What, with six crew members scheduled for ISS duty in the near future, Earth will…

The Abominable Snow Shuttle

Spotted at the MTU Winter Carnival, the snow shuttle flies great until you fire up the rockets or some dog pees on the stabilizers. [Picasa Thanks Aaron!]

Perspective: The Space Shuttle Runs on only 1MB of RAM [popsci]

Iran Puts Its First Satellite Into Orbit

On the 30th anniversary of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, Mahmoud and friends have put their first functional satellite into orbit, carried there from a domestically-made Safir 2 rocket. AP brings us Iran’s state television footage: Named Omid, or hope, the satellite weighs around 60 pounds and is primarily a “data-processing satellite” according to IRNA, the state…

Canadian Students Call Astronauts With Hand-Built Radio

Four students at the Humber Institute of Technology just completed their term project: to build a radio from scratch and call the International Space Station. You know, in space. After one hopeful transmission, the team only heard static. A second attempt was met with a response from space lady Sandra Magnus, who, sitting 220 miles…

NASA Wants You To Tell Them Where to Point the Hubble Space Telescope

We’re no stranger to the Hubble telescope here at Gizmodo, but our relationship up until this point has been a passive one. Today, however, NASA is asking the public where to point it. There are six targets in all, and NASA is currently conducting a poll to figure out which one to survey using the…

The Hamster Rocket Is a Blast!

Most hamsters are content to hang out on a wheel all day. The intrepid prefer a ball. But the truly courageous, they long to go where no hamster has gone before. The Hamster Rocket Ship Funhouse allows your furry little rodent to pretend he has all the opportunity of a NASA astronaut, while simultaneously making…

Photo of SpaceShipOne’s Slick Cockpit

In direct contrast to the overloaded interface of the shuttle is SpaceShipOne’s cockpit. Sure it’s a simpler machine, but the UI is better. Until the screen goes out at 4:40 in this old video: https://gizmodo.com/insane-ui-high-res-space-shuttle-cockpit-control-photo-5140736 Stuff like this happens when you build space ships in your garage. [discovery]

Insane UI: High Res Space Shuttle Cockpit Control Photo

Next time you’re about to complain about a gadget UI, think about trying to handle an in flight situation at the controls of the space shuttle. [NASA via BoingBoing Gadgets]

Kim Jong Il’s Plan to Bring the Moon to North Korea Isn’t Actually Real…Right Guys?

Breaking news from The Onion: Kim Jong Il will transport the moon to North Korea by 2015. And it’s a plan that’s so damn crazy that it just might work. [via bbGadgets]

NASA Electric Lunar Rover Looks Silly In Obama’s Inaugural Parade

Call me old-timey, but I prefer my lunar rovers on the moon or—barring that—on some sort of rocky facsimile, not rolling up Pennsylvania Avenue. Only thing worse? Dudes wearing spacesuits on earth. [More at Jalopnik]

New NASA Carbon Material Could Make Space Elevators Possible

The idea of an elevator that could transport humans into space with ease has long been a fantasy of science fiction writers. However, a new form of carbon ribbon could actually make it possible. Motivated by a $4 million funding prize from NASA, the team at Cambridge University developed a light, flexible ribbon that is…