NASA Successfully Lands on Mars

Late last night millions of people around the world sat in awe as NASA successfully carried out one of their most complicated and futuristic missions of all time. The program, called Curiosity, is one of the most advanced and most adventurous trips to mars and many believe it might be the mission that proves whether or not life is sustainable on mars.

The mission has been in the spotlight for a while now after NASA announced their incredibly complex 7 minutes of terror landing but initial reports and live telemetry showed that thins went off without a hitch. NASA reports that not only did the landing go well, the entire mission went well as they successfully hit their target, landed on time, and had absolutely no major malfunctions.

The curiosity rover is expected to explore the surface of mars for quite some time which will likely send back plenty of information about mars. While there have been multiple rovers on mars this is the by far the most complicated and the most powerful and advanced one yet. NASA is hopeful that curiosity will find something valuable and impressive but for now they are simply happy to report that the mission is a complete success so far and will likely begin exploration of the surface in the very near future.

SpaceX Capsule Successfully Returns to Earth

This week SpaceX reached new levels of success for the privatize space industry that will bring great advances to the entire industry. This is absolutely great news because it shows just how powerful and how successful private industries can become if the opportunity is available. More importantly this success also shows that private industry will be able to make space travel cheaper and more available in the near future which should bring plenty of research opportunities.

This entire mission was a massive success which is great news in every way. The success came in parts as SpaceX not only completed the first major privately funded space launch but also the first successful docking with the international space station. The fact that SpaceX was so successful is absolutely great news for the ISS program because it means there is still a method available to continue brining goods and supplies thanks to a small private American company.

For the average person this project might not exactly be amazing news. But in the grand scheme of things it is absolutely great news for the science and space industries as a whole. It will only be a matter of time before private space launches begin to become more and more common which means that some day soon space travel may eventually become a very real possibility for the average person.

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Chinese Space Capsule Docks with Station: Credit-AP

hina has been working hard to develop a strong and successful space program and it seems that the hard work may be paying off finally. This week China successfully completed their most difficult and challenging projects yet; successfully docking a space craft with an orbiting object. Much like the International Space Station, China used their own specific space lab to test the docking ability and the test was a success.

Overnight in China the earth based crew worked diligently to monitor all necessary systems and information; after hours of work and waiting the Shenzhou 8 space craft was successful in its attempts to dock with the space lab. For those working on the Chinese space program and the Chinese public in general this is a major milestone as it means they are in fact ready to begin building their very own orbiting research station similar to ISS.

No word yet on when China is planning to begin launching their own space station but analysts say it could be soon. This milestone in space is one of the largest most countries have even faced and it is truly amazing that China was able to accomplish this given how young the country’s space program is. The future of space travel from China is very bright and this is just another sign that the Chinese space program is going to continue growing rapidly as the research continues to develop successful methods and successful craft.

Giffords Attends Space Shuttle Launch

Just one week into the New Year Arizona Representative, Gabrielle Giffords, was shot in an attempted assassination. Through the past 5 months she has been undergoing substantial surgeries and treatments to help expedite her recovery and today Giffords showed the best sign of recovery yet.

What Giffords did today is gaining all sorts of press conference not because of the miraculous recovery but simply because she was able to attend Space Shuttle Endeavor’s final launch. Giffords’ husband, Mark Kelly, was commanding Endeavor as it lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for the last time and up until recently Giffords’ doctors were not sure if she would be able to attend.

The original schedule for Endeavor’s final launch would have made it much more difficult for Giffords to attend but after nearly 2 weeks of delays she had absolutely no trouble making to Florida to see the launch in person. Overall doctors say it is a very good sign that Giffords has recovered enough to accomplish such a feat.

Of course recovery is not over for Representative Giffords either. Doctors are planning another incredibly important surgery which will replace a large portion of her skull that was removed. At this time doctors have not yet chosen an exact surgery date though overall most medical analysts agree that Giffords’ long term outlook for recovery looks very good. 5 months ago many doctors and medical experts believed she had little chance of survival but she has proven them wrong today by showing how much she has recovered.

Friday’s Shuttle Launch Looking Good

NASA is planning to launch Space Shuttle Endeavor on its final mission this Friday and currently the outlook is good for the flight. This is scheduled to be the second to last space shuttle launch ever and as a result there is quite a bit of attention surrounding the upcoming launch. Even better news is that Representative Giffords will reportedly be attending the launch.

Giffords’ husband is one of the crewmembers for this final launch of Space Shuttle Endeavor and ever since the tragic shooting doctors were unsure if Giffords would be able to attend to watch her husband leave for space. Fortunately she has been recovering remarkably well and as a result will be attending the launch.

Besides Giffords’ miraculous recovery this shuttle launch is also gaining plenty of attention thanks to the fact that it is brining the NASA Space Shuttle era to an end. Currently there is no alternative launch vehicle so obviously NASA and others are sad to see the project coming to an end.

NASA is also hopeful that the experiments being conducted during this mission will reveal some critical information about the universe and how it works. The flight is scheduled to last 14 days which will be spent primarily at the international space station where they will be conducting various experiments, upgrades, and tests. No word on exactly when the final shuttle mission will occur though it will likely draw even more attention as the space shuttle program officially draws to a close.