Spaceflight Current Affairs, GK & News

SpaceX makes supply run for NASA

American aeronautical company SpaceX launched several experiments into the space on December 5th on board its Dragon Capsule. The SpaceX Dragon is a reusable spacecraft used for delivering cargo. This is the 19th supply run made by the company for NASA and it was launched from Cape Canaveral. It delivered the following to the International ..

Topics: Cargo spacecraft • Cimon • Commercial spaceflight • Dragon • International Space Station • NASA • Outer space • Rodent Research Hardware System • Spacecraft • Spaceflight • SpaceX • SpaceX Dragon

ISRO to launch Cartosat-3

Cartosat-3 ,  an advanced earth imaging and mapping satellite would be launch by ISRO  on Nov 25.   Cartosat-3 will be launch along with 13 commercial nano satellites from the US.  The 1,560 kg satellite will have 13 small U.S. customer satellites riding as secondary passengers. They will be placed in a polar orbit. The satellite ..

Topics: Cartosat • Cartosat-2A • Cartosat-2B • Indian Space Research Organisation • Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle • Satellite imagery • Satish Dhawan Space Centre • Space programme of India • Spacecraft • Spaceflight

NASA to send a new VIPER Lunar Rover to map water ice on Moon

To explore the moon’s mysterious South Pole, NASA is sending a new VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) Lunar Rover to map water ice in the region. The VIPER will land in September 2022 in search of water on the lunar surface. The mobile robot will spend 100 days collecting data and sampling the water ..

Topics: Apollo 15 operations on the Lunar surface • Astronomy • Exploration of the Moon • Lunar rovers • Moon • Outer space • Rover • Scarab • Spaceflight

Legendary Soviet Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov passes away

Alexei Leonov (85), the legendary Soviet Russian cosmonaut, has passed away in Moscow on October 11, 2019. On 18th March 1965, he created history by becoming the first human to conduct a spacewalk for 12 minutes and 9 seconds during the Voskhod 2 mission.

Topics: Alexei Leonov • Extravehicular activity • Heroes of the Soviet Union • Human spaceflight • In spaceflight • Leonov • Outer space • Spaceflight • The Age of Pioneers • Voskhod • Voskhod 2 • Voskhod program

NASA launches Icon satellite to explore where air meets space

NASA has recently launched its new Ionospheric Connection Explorer (Icon)  satellite  from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to explore the mysterious, dynamic region where air meets space. The refrigerator-size Icon satellite will study the airglow formed from gases in the ionosphere and also measure the charged environment right around the 360-mile-high (580-kilometer-high) ..

Topics: Airglow • ARGOS • Cape Canaveral Air Force Station • Electromagnetic radiation • Explorers Program • In spaceflight • Ionosphere • Ionospheric Connection Explorer • Plasma physics • Spacecraft • Spaceflight

Japan launchs world’s biggest transport space ship for space station

Japan has successfully launched an unmanned spacecraft “Kounotori8” towards the International Space Station (ISS) from the Tanegashima Space Center at Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in southwestern Japan. The acronym ‘Kounotori8’ stands for “white stork” in Japanese & intends to deliver about 5.3 tonnes of supplies to astronauts at the ISS.

Topics: H-II Transfer Vehicle • International Space Station • JAXA • Kounotori 2 • Kounotori 3 • Outer space • Space program of Japan • Spacecraft • Spaceflight • Tanegashima Space Center