Spaceflight101

Spaceflight101

@blau

Tiangong-1 Re-Entry Updates

Tiangong-1 – a ten-meter long, pressurized space station module from China – is approaching an uncontrolled re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere in March or April 2018 after suffering a fatal power failure in late 2015, marking the start of a slow descent toward its eventual demise. The re-entry of Tiangong-1 is considered a ‘high-risk event’ by those tracking events such as this because fragments of the module will survive and impact the ground; however, the risk for any individual being hit is minuscule, well below the probability of getting hit by lightning – contrary what tabloid press will be writing in the lead up to the spacecraft’s fiery plunge.

Live Coverage - ExoMars 2016 Arrival

ExoMars 2016 arrives at its destination on October 19, 2016, attempting to land the Schiaparelli demonstrator on Mars to achieve Europe's first successful touchdown on the red planet. While Schiaparelli makes its adventurous, six-minute landing maneuver, several hundred Kilometers overhead, the Trace Gas Orbiter will fire its rocket engine to become the second European spacecraft to be placed in orbit around Mars.

Live Coverage - Hurricane Matthew hits Forida's Space Coast

Collecting updates, photos and news on Hurricane Matthew's impact on Florida's Space Infrastructure.

Spaceflight101 Coverage of Rosetta's final Dive to Comet 67P

More than 700 million Kilometers from Earth, in the dark regions of our Solar System, ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft placed itself on a collision course with comet 67P to put the exclamation mark behind a remarkable mission of discovery, beginning to unlock the secrets from a distant past. Rosetta’s twelve-and-a-half-year odyssey comes to an end on Friday, when, at around 11:20 UTC, when the orbiter will make a gentle touchdown on the surface of Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko which it explored for the past two years to help understand the conditions under which the solar system was formed and how the ingredients of life may have been delivered to Earth.

Re-Entry of Russian Submarine-Tracking Satellite