The Skybot F-850 robot has arrived in the international space station – News of September 3, 2019 – Last Tuesday, after a few adventures, a Soyuz spacecraft docked at the International Space Station. Russia usually uses its Soyuz spaceships to take cosmonauts, while the Progress spaceships take care of the freighter. But in this Soyuz,…
Read more
Whether you use your eyes, binoculars or a telescope, there is a lot to see at the end of the year. Click on your location: Northern hemisphere | Southern hemisphere Northern hemisphere Star map from November to December in the Northern hemisphere 1) NGC 663 Observation hours: all night. This young star cluster of a…
Read more
The SOFIA telescope plane observes space at 12 km altitude – News of September 1, 2019 – When astronomical observations are made, we have to deal with the Earth’s atmosphere, which disturbs the light and absorbs part of the electromagnetic spectrum, especially in the infrared. We can choose to overcome this by placing an observatory…
Read more
AI SpaceFactory wins $500,000 thanks to its 3D printed martian home – News of September 1, 2019 – The works of AI SpaceFactory are very interesting concerning the 3D printing of buildings on the Martian surface. They were awarded a US $500,000 prize by the US Space Agency after creating a one-third scale Martian base…
Read more
Focus on terraforming planets (Mars, Venus …) On August 15, 2019, Elon Musk tweeted a strange idea : atomize the planet Mars, not as an act of war but as an attempt at terraforming. According to the SpaceX leader, exploding nuclear bombs above the Martian polar ice caps would release large amounts of carbon dioxide…
Read more
Discover and observe some of the most beautiful celestial objects in the Milky Way Welcome to the Milky Way ! Our solar system is a part of it, but how many times have you gone outside to observe and explore it ? Just like a big city, our galaxy is full of emblematic monuments,…
Read more
SN2016iet, a supernova like no other – News of August 27, 2019 – The core of the stars is the place of a perpetual struggle between the radiative pressure of the thermonuclear reactions that grow outwards and the gravity that seeks to bring everything back to the center of the star. The equilibrium point is…
Read more
New dock on the International Space Station – News of August 27, 2019 – A Dragon cargo spaceship launched on July 25 has enabled the installation of a new dock on the international space station. It is here that the new American crewed spaceships, called the Crew Dragon and the CST-100 Starliner, can dock. There…
Read more
Earth observation satellites help monitor the evolution of giant fires in the Amazon – News of August 24, 2019 – The Amazon rainforest is currently undergoing gigantic fires, generating unprecedented tensions over the climate and international relations. Smoke and fires from the Amazon rain forest in Brazil taken from space on August 20, 2019 French…
Read more
Rocket Lab wants to create a reusable launcher – News of August 20, 2019 – Faced with the arrival of a competition at low cost, the players already installed are forced to innovate to maintain an advantage. Rocket Lab, which has been operating the Electron launcher for more thant two years, now wants to make…
Read more
Arianespace places Ariane 6 in the smallsats market – News of August 20, 2019 – Arianespace announced the establishment of dedicated services to launch smallsats. The European company has thus dedicated a launch of Ariane 6 to small satellites in 2022. Ariane 6 must allow Arianespace to exist in a competitive space segment – News…
Read more
iSpace reaches low orbit ! – News of August 20, 2019 – The smallsats market is booming. It attracts the greed of many private space companies on all continents. On July 25, iSpace became the first Chinese private company to reach orbit. Its Hyperbola-1 launcher successfully placed five small payloads in low orbit. A few…
Read more
The LinkSpace demonstrator rises 300 meters above sea level – News of August 20, 2019 – The Chinese company LinkSpace made an impressive demonstration on August 9th. Its RLV-T5 demonstrator climbed 300 meters in the air before returning to land on its launch pad like SpaceX, with a margin of error of only 7 cm.…
Read more
The tardigrades brought by Beresheet may have survived on the surface of the Moon – News of August 20, 2019 – Last April the Israeli lander Beresheet crashed on the surface of the Moon. The mission failed a short distance from the finish. SpaceIL, the company that built the lunar lander, now wants to project…
Read more
Astronaut Jean-François Clervoy is addicted to weightlessness ! “Billy-Bob” (his nickname at NASA) did 3 missions in space aboard the US space shuttles, he created the 0G flights in Europe and he is currently chairman CEO of Novespace. We asked him your questions during this exciting interview.
The essentials about the sun Beside the sun, the planets and moons of the solar system seem insignificant. The sun accounts for 99.86% of the mass of the solar system. It consists mainly of hydrogen and helium that has been continuously fusing for 4.5 billion years. The size of the sun will change a lot.…
Read more
The essential about Earth Earth is probably the jewel of the solar system. Endowed with incredible diversity, it is remarkable in many ways. Earth is the densest planet in the solar system. Some experts consider it a double planet. Earth is indeed the only rocky planet in the solar system to have a massive satellite.…
Read more
Satish Dhawan Space Centre (also named Sriharikota Range – SHAR) is the main rocket center base in India, located in the Sriharikota island. ISRO launches its PSLV and GSLV rockets from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. Enjoy the experience of a rocket launch in India ! Where is the Satish Dhawan Space Centre ? Address…
Read more
In 1957, the USSR became the first nation to place an object in Earth orbit. But far from being satisfied with this feat, two years later the Soviet federation launched its first space probe to the Moon. Despite a high failure rate of its first space adventures, the ideological competition with the United States pushed…
Read more
Wallops Flight Facility is a NASA launch site located in Virginia, U.S.A. Many types of light rockets are launched from the Wallops Flight Facility, like sounding rockets for example. Sometimes you can also see a large scale rocket launch, like an Antares rocket. Enjoy the amazing experience of a rocket launch in this regional spaceport…
Read more
Vandenberg is a US Air Force base located in California. Its mission is placing satellites into polar orbit using rockets like SpaceX Falcon 9, ULA Delta, Orbital Sciences Minotaur V… Vandenberg is the place to see rocket launches from the West Coast of the U.S.A. ! Where is the Vandenberg Air Force Base ? Address…
Read more
The Chinese space station Tiangong 2 burned in the atmosphere – News of July 23, 2019 – In April 2018, Tiangong 1, the first Chinese space station, went into the atmosphere in an uncontrolled way. Although largely burned, some small debris may have reached the ocean in the South Pacific. For China, Tiangong 1 was…
Read more
Tiangong 3 is dependent on the resumption of launches of the rocket Long March 5 – News of July 23, 2019 – The Tiangong 2 space station has just been consumed in the Earth’s atmosphere, which was planned. For China, this marks the beginning of a period without a space station. Tiangong 1 and Tiangong…
Read more
Blue Origin successfully tests the engine of the Blue Moon lunar lander – News of July 23, 2019 – Blue Origin is one of the companies that could manufacture the lunar lander of the Artemis program. For more than three years now, the company has been developing the Blue Moon lunar lander. Designed initially to…
Read more
The Breakthrough Listen project concludes a partnership with the VERITAS observatory – News of July 23, 2019 – The quest for an intelligent extraterrestrial life is an activity that is often summed up by the acronym SETI. Since we have measured the size of the cosmos and have the tools to study it, it seems…
Read more
Old school VS modern astronomy Modern astronomy does not have much to do with what was practiced a few decades ago. The methods of observation of celestial objects have evolved considerably in recent years. Many of us have completed the equipment and tools that astronomers used to navigate the night sky with computer equipment that…
Read more
Space rockets have launched into space from Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center since the 1950’s. Legendary space missions such as the Apollo missions on the Moon were launched from Cape Canaveral, in front of thousands of spectators. Feel the space history and enjoy the visual and physical experience of a rocket launch only a…
Read more
The Brazilian space agency wants to open a commercial spaceport – News of July 21, 2019 – Space programs of rising powers such as China and India are regularly mentioned. Although there is a Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), Brazil does not yet have such a developed space program. But as the ninth world economy, Brazil…
Read more
Discovering of the asteroid that orbits the fastest around the sun – News of July 21, 2019 – 2019 LF6 is a very small asteroid whose discovery was announced at the beginning of July 2019. Its very short period of revolution makes it special. This piece of rock barely a kilometer in diameter orbits the…
Read more
How was the thick atmosphere of Titan formed ? – News of July 21, 2019 – Titan is the only moon in the solar system with a thick atmosphere. However, there is still no consensus on the cause of this exception. The large quantities of nitrogen found there could be brought in the form of…
Read more
