orbital

Orbital's Antares rocket makes successful test flight

After multiple scrubbed launches last week, an Antares rocket finally lifted off the ground from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia as part of Orbital Sciences' bid to transport cargo to the International Space Station.

The rocket lifted off at 5 p.m. ET Sunday and achieved orbit smoothly. It launched an 8,400-pound mock Cygnus supply ship into orbit about 158 miles above Earth.

Antares is a medium-class, two-stage, 13-storey rocket designed to carry payloads of up to 6,500 kg (14,329 pounds). Along with SpaceX, Orbital was awarded a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contract to … Read more

NASA launches Landsat Earth observation satellite

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from California and safely boosted a new Earth-watching Landsat into a polar orbit today to kick off an $855 million mission. It's the latest chapter in a 40-year program to monitor the planet's resources, land use, and environmental changes.

The Landsat Data Continuity Mission, or LDCM, got underway at 10:02 a.m. PT when the Atlas 5's Russian-designed RD-180 first-stage engine thundered to life and throttled up to full power with a rush of brilliant exhaust.

The towering 192-foot-tall rocket, generating some 860,000 pounds of thrust, … Read more

Crave Ep. 105: How to clip your nails in space

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This week on Crave, we're back from CES with a look at some of the wackier stuff we spotted at the show. Then, Canadian astronaut Christopher Hadfield gives us a highly important grooming lesson on the safest way to clip our nails in outer space, and the Hal 9000 computer replica from ThinkGeek refuses to cooperate. … Read more

NASA sends Mona Lisa to the moon with lasers

I love it when engineers show off.

NASA scientists, having apparently nothing better to do, have shot an image of the Mona Lisa to the moon by piggybacking it on laser pulses. Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece was successfully received by an instrument aboard the agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) some 240,000 miles away.

"This is the first time anyone has achieved one-way laser communication at planetary distances," MIT's David Smith, head of the spacecraft's Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA), said in a release.

"In the near future, this type of simple laser communication might serve as a backup for the radio communication that satellites use. In the more distant future, it may allow communication at higher data rates than present radio links can provide." … Read more

E-ink smartphone on display at CES 2013

Wednesday's CNET Update from CES 2013:

It's day two of the 2013 International CES, and this is the place to see what gadgets could be in our future. There's lots to talk about, but here's a breakdown of the tech that has our attention:

- The YotaPhone has been the most interesting smartphone seen at CES, because it has an e-ink touch screen on its backside.

- Fulton Innovation is showing off technology that lets you wirelessly transfer power from device to device.

- TheEyeTribe has shown how future tablets and smartphones can be controlled with your eyes. … Read more

A made-in-the-U.S., audiophile-grade turntable for $150?

Great audio can be expensive, but Ben Carter's ambitious Kickstarter project aims to make a serious dent in the price of quality turntables. A $150 pledge secures an Orbit belt-drive turntable, fitted with an Ortofon phono cartridge. As I write this blog, and just a few days after the Kickstarter project was launched, Carter has already passed the halfway mark to reaching his $60,000 goal!

I spoke with Carter on Thursday; he has a background in marketing and consulting, and Bob Hertig is handling the engineering for the project. Orbits will be manufactured by U-Turn Audio in the … Read more

NASA sends NuStar black-hole hunter into space

A small X-ray telescope was boosted into orbit by an air-launched Pegasus XL rocket Wednesday, the first step in an ambitious low-cost mission to study supermassive black holes believed to be lurking at the cores of galaxies like Earth's Milky Way and probe the creation of heavy elements in the cataclysmic death throes of massive stars.

The innovative telescope, built around an extendable 33-foot-long Tinkertoy-like mast with nested X-ray mirrors on one end and sensitive detectors on the other, also will study the mechanisms responsible for stellar explosions and look for clues about what powers the energetic jets of … Read more

You spin my head right round, right round...

After only 15 minutes of play, I'm already disoriented and feeling queasy but I'm going back in; Hexagon is both dizzying and addicting.

Developed by Terry Cavanagh (known for VVVVVV), Hexagon throws you in an orbital endurance run where you must guide a triangle around a (you guessed it) hexagon and dodge collapsing obstacles. Sounds simple, right? Try surviving for even 20 seconds on your first couple of tries.

Each stage is separated by 10-second runs and themes itself after a shape. Each level throws faster, more-complex patterns to try and crush your three-sided friend. In addition to … Read more

Camera system creates 3D models, not quite home or office friendly

It might be a while before 3D printers make their way into people's homes, but it's definitely going to be a really long time before the OrcaM Orbital Camera System becomes a household appliance. And if it ever comes to that, you're probably going to need a bigger house.

Developed by a German company called Nek (site is in German), the OrcaM uses a system of seven cameras to create 3D models of any object placed inside its "reconstruction sphere."

Currently, the machine is limited to objects that are no larger than 31.5 inches … Read more

Space post office postmarks letters from orbit

China's main Space Post Office is actually on the ground in Beijing, but they're happy to route letters through the galaxy's only true "satellite" branch in orbit so you can bag a one-of-a-kind postmark.

Yes, thanks to cuts to NASA's funding, it seems the Chinese have now rocketed ahead of us in the postal space gimmick department. The idea is for space nuts to send e-mails to a computer aboard the Chinese spacecraft Tiangong-1, currently in orbit, which routes the message back to the main Space Post Office to be printed out, stuffed into a commemorative envelope with a special postmark, and sent on to its addressee.

The orbital philatelic experiment is meant to boost business for China's postal service, which has been suffering as people move online. Makes you wonder why the U.S. Postal Service didn't set up shop at Cape Canaveral years ago.… Read more