Name an ESA Space Mission

The European Space Agency (ESA) has a mission for you, should you be willing to accept, and perhaps have a creative flair. They would love for you to give their mission a name in a challenge imaginatively titled “Name That Mission.” The mission will be an ESA astronaut (shouldn’t the Europeans have a different name […]

Why Do DoD National Security Space Launch Programs Costs Keep Rising?

On March 5, 2014, the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee held a hearing about National Security Space Launch Programs. The hearing was a session with SpaceX’s Elon Musk, and the United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Michael Gass concerning the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program and contract with the Department of Defense (DoD) and the program’s rising […]

Asteroid Deflection: So Easy, a 9-Year Old Understands It?

Planetary Resources linked this Youtube video of Neil de Grasse Tyson answering a few penetrating questions about why “bumping” asteroids out of the way is so hard. The thing is, the questions were asked by a 9-year old named Jacob. Jacob obviously is worried about asteroids hitting the Earth. Props to Mr. Tyson for actually […]

A Chinese Direct Ascent GEO AntiSatellite Test in 2013?

Brian Weeden, from The Space Review, has written up a fairly well thought-out and long story about the May 2013 launch of a “sounding rocket” (according to the Chinese) from Xichang Satellite Launch Center. The story, posted on 17 March 2014, gives some pretty good reasons to suspect that perhaps the Chinese were not telling […]

Can Satellites Help Find Lost Aircraft? Can You? Maybe!

“The mystery surrounding the unfortunate Malaysian Flight MH370 has caused some of the more astute reporters to ask questions about satellites. Specifically, were there any satellites over the area the airplane disappeared in? And if there were, would they, or could they have picked up anything to help find the missing airplane? Ultimately, can satellites help […]