NASA sets one of its own spacecrafts on fire as first stage of experiment
In space, no one can hear you burn. NASA has been conducting experiments with fire in space, hoping to gain a better understanding of any potential future hazards. Having previously only worked with tiny little flames, NASA has increased the scale this time around.
Venus Express Gathers Crucial Data About Venus' Atmosphere While Trapped in Low Orbit
Before plummeting beneath the clouds forever, the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Venus Express unearthed a few more secrets about our sister planet. Its final months in low orbit revealed the planet to be much colder and far less dense than expected.
NASA's Juno Spacecraft Breaks Record As Humanity's Most Distant Solar-Powered Explorer
NASA launched the Juno mission to Jupiter in 2011, and now it has broken the record to become humanity's most distant solar-powered spacecraft. At 7 pm on Wednesday 13th January, Juno's distance from the sun was confirmed at 493 million miles, which is over four times that of Earth (92.96 million miles for reference).
NASA's Inflatable Heat Shield Passes Its Biggest Test Yet
Having travelled to a distance some 450 kilometres above the Atlantic Ocean and outside of Earth's atmosphere, before detaching from its launch rocket, inflating itself with nitrogen and proceeding to fall through Earth's atmosphere at hypersonic speeds, NASA's test of the latest iteration of inflatable heat shield has been a huge success.