Apollo 10’s crew made history, yet their mission was only meant as a dress rehearsal for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s epic landing on Apollo 11. While astronaut John Young remained in his command module, Stafford and Cernan disembarked from the Lunar Module (LM) and descended to just above the Moon. It was a dress…
At night, the sky is dark blue due to atmospheric scattering of sunlight. Blue light scatters more readily than red light due to shorter wavelengths being more easily diffused into space. Answer is straightforward physics: as the Sun gets lower in the sky, more of its light passes through your atmosphere to reach you –…
The spacecraft bus serves as the primary system that supports all other spacecraft hardware. Designed to accomodate various mission specific payloads with high reliability, this structure supports all other spacecraft hardware. MagicBus platform currently enjoys flight heritage on several small satellite missions and has demonstrated multi-mission adaptability. Its modular design features lower part count and…
Not many can resist admiring a picturesque blue sky, yet few understand why its hue comes about. No, it doesn’t come from oxygen levels in the atmosphere or because sunlight emits blue rays; there’s another explanation. Light that reaches Earth’s atmosphere is scattered by gases and particles in the air, with blue wavelength light being…
Stern and his team struggled for years to launch their mission, facing an intense race against time: only four years were available for designing, launching and reaching Jupiter for gravity assistance. New Horizons would likely make its first encounter with Pluto and Charon during its trek through the Kuiper Belt – an outer region of…
On Thursday evening, parts of Queens were illuminated in an electric blue glow that caused quite the stir on social media, leading many people to speculate whether aliens were visiting. A spokesperson from Con Edison assured us it was more mundane. The mysterious blue light emanating from an electrical fire in a transformer substation near…
Everyone appreciates a lovely blue sky on a bright day, yet many savvy individuals have puzzled over why it should be that color. Rayleigh scattering, which occurs when light hits gases and particles in the atmosphere, accounts for this phenomenon. Light with shorter wavelengths such as blue is scattered more readily than other colors. Rayleigh…
Since its debut launch in 2010, the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle has spent more than 224 days in space – becoming one of the only unmanned spaceplanes used by the Pentagon. As its presence has raised suspicion, including allegations that it’s being used to spy on Chinese space station residents or interfere with satellites in…
34 years ago, NASA management and engineering were widely criticized after space shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into flight and killed seven astronauts aboard it. This event resulted in intense criticism against NASA. Christa McAuliffe was one of the victims and had been chosen by NASA as the inaugural teacher in space; her death…
