This morning marked the final launch of the “Evolution Storable” or ES variant of the amazing Ariane 5 rocket. Without going into great detail on the history of the Ariane 5 launch vehicle and its variants, the “ES” variant combines an improved core stage of the still-flying ECA variant with the older storable propellant second […]
Here we have a rather beautiful video the European Space Agency published today, showing a montage of the final images from the Rosetta mission, an orbiter – lander combination which operated on / around Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for 12 years, from 2004 to 2016. These images are from the ending of the mission as Rosetta began […]
Coming a week after the launch of a Minotaur-C, we have the launch of a very similar looking booster – the European Space Agencies Vega rocket, this time carrying the Mohammed VI-A satellite for the Kingdom of Morocco. This booster, of course, launched from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. At first glance, one […]
We’re reaching the last moments of the Cassini mission. September 14th, 2017 marks the last full day of Cassini operations. Today, it will take it’s final photos, send the last bit of recorded data, prepare for “real time” data transmission, and then, about 29 hours from when I write this article, it will finally make […]
It’s getting to the point where there are so many rocket launches day in, day out, that I can’t keep up. In this case, we have a rocket that I’ve never covered before, the ESA’s “Vega” booster, and a pretty nice launch from the Guyana Space Centre. Vega is a somewhat unique rocked in that […]