Roscosmos 2010

In 2010, Russia has made almost a half of all launches in the world! 31/74.

Russia - 31; USA - 15; China - 15; ESA - 6; India - 3; Japan - 2; South Korea - 1; Israel - 1; and 4 - unsuccessful launches.

Europe launcher puts Spanish and S. Korean satellites into orbit

An Ariane 5-ECA heavy rocket lifted off from Europe's space base on French Guiana Wednesday and put into orbit the South Korean Koreasat 6 and Spanish Hispasat 1E telecommunications satellites. The launch from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou was the Ariane 5 launcher's sixth and last mission of the year. Lift-off was delayed by about 24 hours because of high winds. 

"It is the 41st successful mission in a row of Ariane 5. In 2010 we launched 12 satellites from a world total of 20." said Arianespace chief Jean-Yves Le Gall.

Galileo pathfinder GIOVE-A achieves five years in orbit

ESA's GIOVE-A satellite - the first prototype of Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system - is still working well after five long years in space. It was launched on 28 December 2005 from Kazakhstan.

On 27 April 2008 GIOVE-B joined older brother, equipped with an ultra-precise passive hydrogen maser design.

"Both satellites had a design lifetime of 27 months each", said Valter Alpe, managing GIOVE activities for ESA. "It is a pleasent surprise, therefore, to have GIOVE-A still fully operational after 60 months in orbit. GIOVE-B, meanwhile, is showing no sign of problems after 33 months in space."

GIOVE-A, Image credit: ESA

NASA TV!

From now, you can relax and enjoy in NASA space TV channel on STARFAR!

Taking on Titan! Carrie Anderson

True life story of Carrie Anderson. When she was little girl she dreamed of becoming an astronomer. Now, as a space scientist at NASA GODDARD Space Flight Center, Carrie studies the atmosphere on Titan: one of Saturn's moons, second largest moon in the solar system, just behind moon Ganymede, Jupiter's follower. Let's see what Carrie want us to hear..

WISE Sees an Explosion of Infrared Light

WISE - Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer saw a circular rainbow around an exploded star. When massive stars die, they explode in BIG blasts, called supernovae, which send out shock waves. The shock waves sweep up and heat surrounding gas and dust, creating supernova remnants like the one pictured  here. The supernova in IC 433 happened somewhere between 5000 and 10000 years ago. More about this topic on www.nasa.gov.

This oddly colorful nebula is the supernova remnant IC 443 as seen by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

New Topographic Map of Moon

Let's first see how LOLA (Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter) works. LOLA sends a pattern of five laser pulses to the lunar surface, and computes distance and elevation by measuring how long takes for the pulses to return. Credit: NASA/Goddard/Chris Meaney

Now check new topographic map comparing to an old one - much better!

Expedition 26 Holiday Message!

The Expedition 26 crew sends holiday greetings to Earth from the International Space Station. Watch...