Space Flight

Did a Piece of Mir Really Land in Massachusetts?

June 19, 2013

Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday on Twitter We love a good space debris mystery. Hey, who doesn’t, right?  Regular readers of Universe Today know that it’s a shooting gallery out there, from meteor fireballs caught on dashboard cams to rogue space junk reentries lighting up our skies.  Remove this [...]

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Final Construction Starts for Europe’s 2016 Methane Sniffing Mars Mission

June 18, 2013

Has life ever existed on Mars? Or anywhere beyond Earth? Answering that question is one of the most profound scientific inquiries of our time. Europe and Russia have teamed up for a bold venture named ExoMars that’s set to blast off in search of Martian life in about two and a half years. Determining if [...]

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Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova; 1st Woman in Space 50 Years Ago! Ready for Mars

June 16, 2013

50 Years ago today, Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova made history and became the first woman ever fly in space, when she launched aboard the Vostok-6 capsule on June 16, 1963. The then 26 year old Tereshkova blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome – following in the historic footsteps of Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human [...]

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Details of Yuri Gagarin’s Tragic Death Revealed

June 14, 2013

On the morning of April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin lifted off aboard Vostok 1 to become the first human in space, spending 108 minutes in orbit before landing via parachute in the Saratov region of the USSR. The soft-spoken and well-mannered Gagarin, just 27 years old at the time, became an instant hero, [...]

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Get Ready for the ATV-4 Docking with this Fun Music Video

June 14, 2013

Recall how during a space shuttle mission, the astronauts were awoken each day with music radioed up from Mission Control? Now, ESA has started a tradition of creating a music video to celebrate various events, such as the docking of their Automated Transfer Vehicle. The ATV-4, named Albert Einstein, will dock with the International Space [...]

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