First set of beautiful images of Earth from Chandrayaan 2 mission released

Hari VishnuChandrayaan, Earth Observation, ISRO, space exploration

The first set of images of Earth captured by the Chandrayaan 2 moon-exploration program of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) have been released. The tweets by ISRO’s official handle show the beautiful images taken on August 3rd. Chandrayaan-2 is India’s second foray to the Moon. It was launched on the 22nd of July using the Geosynchronous launch vehicle (GSLV- … Read More

Mercury farthest east of sunset May 6

Earthzinespace exploration

These evenings in May, 2015 are a good time to look the planet Mercury. It reaches its greatest elongation – greatest angular distance, east of the sun – on May 6 (or May 7, depending on time zone). That means this world can now be spotted in the sunset direction as dusk ebbs into darkness. Cloudy tonight? No worries. Look … Read More

Rosetta: Comet probe starts work

Earthzinespace exploration

Originally Published by BBC – A week after arriving at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Europe’s Rosetta probe is busy acquiring the information needed to select a landing site.

Fresh Hope for an Abandoned NASA Spacecraft

Amanda Lewanspace exploration

Originally Published by IEEE – News of ISEE-3’s demise may be a bit premature. A months-long bid to bring the 35-year-old International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 back into the vicinity of Earth seemed to have met its end this week, when the citizen group attempting to “reboot” the mission failed to get the thrusters to produce much more than a burp.

This date in science: First woman in space

Amanda Lewanspace exploration, Would You Believe?

Originally Published by EarthSky – June 16, 1963. Under the call name “Chaika” (Seagull), Valentina Tereshkova launched solo aboard Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963 to become the first woman in space. Part of her mission was to compare how the female body reacted in space to data collected in two years of male-only missions. She spent nearly 71 hours in space, orbiting the Earth 48 times.

Liftoff timelapse

Earthzinespace exploration

Originally Published by ESA – This time-lapse video shows the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft during roll out from the MIK preparation building, raise into vertical position on the launch pad, and lift off on 28 May 2014 from the Russian Baikonour cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.