Do you think that you can land the Space X Falcon lander ? Go ahead !

Dear reader and followers,

it is super hard to land a rocket on a platform in the middle of an ocean. Elon Musk has had to learn that the hard way, and now, you too can experience the crushing disappointment of trying to land the SpaceX Falcon 9 lander, thanks to a new internet game (completely unaffiliated with SpaceX). The game is simple; choose a level with your space bar, and use the arrow keys to gently guide the rocket onto the tiny floating platform before you run out of fuel. Or hit the ocean. Or hit the platform and explode violently. You could also succeed, but only if you are a secret genius/wizard.

SpaceX Falcon 9 Lander is a fun twist on the classic Lunar Lander game that has you trying to perfectly balance thrust, rotation, descent, and your remaining fuel to safely land a rocket ship back on a floating platform.

Playing it is slightly less stressful than trying to land the real Falcon 9 since you’re not out millions of dollars every time you crash–but only just. If you’re looking for a way to relax and kill some time this afternoon, this isn’t it. But if you want to feel as frustrated as Elon Musk does, definitely give it a shot. 

Due to the hardness to land in the middle of the ocean, Space X change its approach, next time a SpaceX rocket touches down, it will be on solid ground. Actually, After its next launch, SpaceX hopes to fly a Falcon 9 booster back to a landing site on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, making its first attempt to bring a booster down on land rather than on a platform in the ocean.

Play the game here. Good luck!

Space X plans to land these rockets at Cape Canaveral instead of on an ocean platform

Dear readers and followers,

Next time a SpaceX rocket touches down, it will be on solid ground. Actually, After its next launch, SpaceX hopes to fly a Falcon 9 booster back to a landing site on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, making its first attempt to bring a booster down on land rather than on a platform in the ocean.

SpaceX has attempted to land a rocket gently before, but those attempts were made on giant floating platforms in the ocean (which just missed). Then, last week, competitor Blue Origin managed to land it's own reusable rocket safely on the ground, amping up the public pressure on SpaceX to successfully land their own rocket.

Since one of their rockets exploded in June, SpaceX has been grounded as they troubleshoot. The company is also upgrading their rockets with new engines that can carry heavier loads.

SpaceX's next launch could happen in the coming week, as early as December 15th 2016, but that remains unconfirmed.

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Press conference of The French Space Agency about the safety and the location of Philae after its landing

Dear readers and followers,

after the successful touch-down of the lander Philae on the comet 67P Churyumov Gerasimenko yesterday! The french space agency is doing a conference from Toulouse, France, to clarify all the technical points and the safety of the Philae spacecraft since the landing! Sorry for English people, the video is in french.

Credit image: +CNES 

Touchdown was planned to take place at a speed of around 1 m/s after its separation from Rosseta, with the three-legged landing gear absorbing the impact to prevent rebound, and an ice screw in each foot driving into the surface.

But during the final health checks of the lander before separation, a problem was detected with the small thruster on top that was designed to counteract the recoil of the harpoons to push the lander down onto the surface. The conditions of landing, including whether or not the thruster performed, along with the exact location of Philae on the comet are being analysed.

The lander seems be close to a kind of cave which stop its moves after two bound since its this touch-down. 8/10 scientific instruments are working normally for the moment. The two other stay off for the moment because they need to move and drill the comet. For safety of the lander, engineer are still working and analyzing data to determine if they will activate the 2 last instruments.

Credit image: ESA/ROSETTA/PHILAE/CIVA

Source: +European Space Agency, ESA & +CNES


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Touch Down on the comet !! confirmation!!

Dear readers and followers,

Today the lander Philae did the touch down on the comet !!! After a 10 year journey of some seven billion kilometers, the Rosetta mission is now the new step : landing and exploration of the comet land !

This morning, Philae separated from Rosetta. Seven hours later, it arrived today at 17:04 CET at the surface of the comet. Hopefully, Philae survived the landing, and will begin to return data from the comet.

Touchdown was planned to take place at a speed of around 1 m/s, with the three-legged landing gear absorbing the impact to prevent rebound, and an ice screw in each foot driving into the surface.

But during the final health checks of the lander before separation, a problem was detected with the small thruster on top that was designed to counteract the recoil of the harpoons to push the lander down onto the surface. The conditions of landing, including whether or not the thruster performed, along with the exact location of Philae on the comet are being analysed.

The first pictures taken by the Philae have been released. The first one shows the comet few hours before to land. The second one has been taken on the land of the comet. The third one has been taken approximately 10 km before landing

ESA/Rosetta/Philae/DLR

ESA/Rosetta/Philae

ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA

Source: +European Space Agency, ESA

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Live video of the Philae landing on the comet 67P Churyumov Gerasimenko

Dear readers and followers,

today you can follow in live the landing of the Rosetta's lander Philae on the comet 67P Churyumov Gerasimenko. After a 10 year journey of some seven billion kilometres, the Rosetta mission is now heading towards its next major milestone : setting the lander Philae on a comet.  

In French here:

Credit video: +CNES 

In English here:

Rosetta is a robotic space probe built and launched by the +European Space Agency, ESA to perform a detailed study of comet called 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko with both an orbiter and lander module (Philae).

This morning, Philae separated from Rosetta. Seven hours later, it will arrive at the surface of the comet. Hopefully, Philae will survive the landing, and begin to return data.

Credit image: +European Space Agency, ESA 

See below the different steps for the landing

The comet is really large, as you can see on the picture below with a comparison with Paris city:

Source: +CNES

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Counting down before the landing of Rosetta mission on the comet

Dear readers and followers,

After a 10 year journey of some seven billion kilometres, the Rosetta mission is now heading towards its next major milestone : setting the lander Philae on a comet. Rosetta is a robotic space probe built and launched by the +European Space Agency, ESA to perform a detailed study of comet called 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko with both an orbiter and lander module (Philae).

On November 12th 2014, a lander is scheduled to touch down on a comet for the first time in the history of spaceflight. “We don’t know exactly what awaits us there,” says lander Project Manager Stephan Ulamec from the +DLR, German Aerospace Center .

Philae’s landing site, currently known as Site J, is located on the smaller of the comet’s two ‘lobes’, with a backup site on the larger lobe. The sites were selected just six weeks after Rosetta arrived at the comet on August 6th, following its 10-year journey through the Solar System. Site J was chosen unanimously over four other candidate sites as the primary landing site because the majority of terrain within a square kilometre area has slopes of less than 30º relative to the local vertical and because there are relatively few large boulders.

Credit image: +European Space Agency, ESA 

Landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko will enable scientists to carry out experiments in situ for the first time. Comets are considered to be witnesses to the birth of the Solar System. Will the surface of the comet be in a primordial state? Do comets show evidence of prebiotic molecules and water, and did they therefore play a role in the origin of life on Earth? The Rosetta mission is expected to help answer such questions.

  Credit video: +DLR, German Aerospace Center 

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Source: +DLR, German Aerospace Center


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The US secret space drone finally came home

Dear readers and followers,

The US Air Force’s mysterious X-37B robotic space plane returned to Earth on Tuesday October 14th after nearly two years in space. But while it is no secret that the Air Force has sent the unmanned spacecraft into orbit at least three times, the service refuses to say what the machine has been doing up there. The spaceship was launched on December 11th, 2012, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

While most Air Force and industry officials refuse to talk about the program at all, sources familiar with the program indicated that the X-37B is designed to carry experimental payloads of sensors, like various high-tech cameras of various types, electronic sensors and ground-mapping radars.

The idea is that the X-37B carries “specialized” sensors packages that can be reconfigured as needed for each mission when the aircraft returns to Earth. That ability to reconfigure the robotic spacecraft makes the X-37B cheaper and more flexible than a satellite, which goes up once with one package of sensors and is eventually discarded. Satellites can often cost billions of dollars and cannot reconfigured or reused, unlike the X-37B. Further, the X-37B can maneuver more freely once it is in space. Unlike a satellite, which is placed into orbit with a finite amount of fuel, the X-37B can be topped with more fuel for its thrusters when it returns to Earth. It can even change orbits. That ability gives the spacecraft much more flexibility than a traditional satellite. 

The X-37B returned to Vandenburg Air Force Base in California, according to the Air Force. 

Ever since the X-37B made its first flight back in 2010, outlandish rumors and bizarre conspiracy theories have dogged the Boeing built space drone. Some wags suggested in the past that the X-37B would be used to tap into the communications of foreign satellites, however the Pentagon has other easier and more effective means to listen in on those spacecraft. 

An even more outlandish theory was that the X-37B would be used to physically interfere with foreign satellites, maybe even abducting those machines from orbit. However, the possibility that Air Force would have designed the X-37B for that kind of mission was extremely remote. It would be very easy to trace that sort of activity back to the U.S. government since governments and amateurs alike can easily track the X-37B.

Another theory that was batted around was that the X-37B was some kind of orbital bomber that could strike at foreign lands with only a few moments notice. Technically, that could be semi-feasible—and indeed the Pentagon is working a weapon that would be able to hit targets anywhere on Earth in less than an hour that could be launched from within the continental United States.

However, the X-37B is not likely to be designed for that so-called “conventional prompt global strike” mission, though it is not entirely inconceivable that it could carry a weaponized payload. But any sophisticated foe like Russia or China has the ability to track the X-37B in orbit very easily and it may not be particularly useful in such a capacity.

And then there would be the political backlash. Space-based weapons are a hugely controversial topic and the U.S. is not likely to deploy such systems given the proclivities of the Obama administration. It’s one of the many reasons why informed observers—like Brian Weeden, a former officer with the U.S. Air Force’s Space Command, have long considered the space plan to be an orbital spy. And it’s probably no coincidence that the X-37B’s orbit takes it over North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and China. There are some items in those countries that the Pentagon might want to see from space.

Source

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Russian spacecraft Foton-M4 lands successfully but all geckos lost

Dear readers and followers,

Yesterday, September 1st the, troubled satellite with live geckos and other scientific experiments onboard landed in Southern Russia, according to the Russian space agency, Roskosmos. 

However all geckos were found dead after the capsule had been opened. They must be bead because of cold, annonced the Russian space agency. The touchdown of the Foton-M4 spacecraft occurred at 13:18 Moscow Summer Time. The mission of Foton-M4 thus lasted 44 days instead of 60 days, which it was expected to fly at the time of the launch.

Credit images: Russian Space Agency

The agency's press-release also claimed that an average altitude of the satellite's orbit had been 575 kilometers, exceeding that of the International Space Station, ISS. This "piece of information" was likely copied from a pre-launch announcement, because, in reality, the orbit-correction engine onboard Foton-M4 had failed to deliver the spacecraft to its planned orbit shortly after its liftoff on July 19.

However, July 24th, Russia’s space agency has re-established communication with its Foton-M4 satellite in Earth’s low orbit, three days after losing contact.

Source

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The Chinese spacecraft is in Lunar orbit

Dear followers,

few days ago, China sent its third spacecraft for a Lunar mission with the support of the European Space Agency for the communication with the spacecraft. 

Last Friday, so, less than five days after leaving Earth, the China's Chang'e 3 spacecraft reached lunar orbit to prepare for an historic landing on the Moon. The landing should take place in the moon's Bay of Rainbows, a dark lava plain on the upper-left quadrant of the moon's near side, around December 14th 2013.

Credit: China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation

The spacecraft is now flying in orbit 100 km above the Moon. This week it plans to move down and lost its altitude. The spacecraft, Chang'e 3, will use its main engine to make a soft landing in the Moon ground. In order to guide its landing, the spacecraft will use some terrain recognition sensors. Around 1 meter above the moon, the lander will autonomously cut off its engine and drop to the lunar surface.

Stay tuned for the live landing in the next days.

ESA collaborates with China for its mission to the Moon

Dear followers,

as you know, few days ago, the China National Space Administration sent its first rover, called Yutu, to the Moon. For this mission, China is helped by the +European Space Agency, ESA . Actually, after the liftoff of the China’s Chang’e 3 spacecraft, the ESA's network of tracking stations is providing a crucial support during all the Lunar cruise of the spacecraft. This mission is the third Chinese mission to the moon after the Chang'e 1 and Chang'e 2 lunar orbiter flights, launched in 2007 and 2010, respectively.

Credit: CCTV

After its liftoff from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the country's Sichuan province, the ESA’s station in Kourou, French Guiana, started receiving signals from the spacecraft and uploading commands on behalf of the Chinese control center. This tracking is operated during the voyage to the Earth's moon. Next, during the descent and after the landing some other ESA's space stations will follow the rover Yutu mission.

Credits: ESA

The landing of Yutu is planned to be in the Sea of Rainbows on December 14th 2013. This landing will be the first since Russia’s Luna-24 in 1976. This mission is the second step of the China's lunar exploration program. That program consists of three major steps: Orbit, land and finally return some Moon rock samples to Earth by 2020.

 Credits: China National Space Administration

Stay tunes for the next news during the phases of descend and landing on December 14th.

Successful landing of Soyuz with the expedition 37 crew

Dear followers,

Last week, the Soyuz took-off with success from Baikonur, Kazakhstan with three astronauts and the Olympic torch. This Monday, November 11th, the Soyuz spacecraft has performed its reentry in the atmosphere and it landed in Kazakhstand. The Russian spacecraft brought the member of the expedition 37 crew members, the Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, the European astronaut +Luca Parmitano and the American astronaut Karen Nyberg.

Credits: +SpacevidsTv1

Video summarizing SpaceShip Two flight (prepare/take-off/powered rocket/landing)

After one day of the test flight a video of the SpaceShip two play has been released by +Virgin Galactic.
The video summarizes of the different steps of the flight:

• Taxiing
• Take-off from Mojave
• Powered rocket
• The landing at the Spaceport in Mojave, California, USA

Enjoy the video 

(Credit : +Virgin Galactic )