SpaceX’s swanky new crew capsule made an old-fashioned splashdown in the Atlantic on Friday, ending a six-day test flight to the International Space Station. The Dragon capsule pulled away from the orbiting lab early Friday. Six hours later, the capsule carrying a test dummy parachuted into the ocean, a couple hundred miles off the Florida…
Red-Hot Voyage To Sun Will Bring Us Closer To Our Star
A red-hot voyage to the sun is going to bring us closer to our star than ever before. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will be the first spacecraft to “touch” the sun, hurtling through the sizzling solar atmosphere and coming within just 3.8 million miles (6 million kilometers) of the surface. It’s designed to take solar…
NASA Sending Robotic Geologist To Mars To Dig Super Deep
Six years after last landing on Mars, NASA is sending a robotic geologist to dig deeper than ever before to take the planet’s temperature. The Mars InSight spacecraft, set to launch this weekend, will also take the planet’s pulse by making the first measurements of “marsquakes.” And to check its reflexes, scientists will track the…