Nasa’s Juno spacecraft has begun to orbit Jupiter to probe the origin of the solar system, the US space agency has said. The US$1,1bn mission launched five years ago successfully entered the orbit of Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, after a 35-minute manoeuvre
Researchers in Stellenbosch have developed avionics for the two DebrisSats which will remove space junk in orbit around Earth. But a local satellite project – developed by CubeSpace, one of Stellenbosch
On Friday, 8 April 2016, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched a mission to deliver a spacecraft called Dragon with its payload of supplies and experiments into a trajectory towards the International Space Station (ISS). Most remarkably, the first-stage booster then landed
Last Friday, SpaceX achieved something incredible. It successfully landed one of its Falcon 9 rockets on a small barge bobbing in the ocean. This is after the rocket delivered a 1,5t supply payload for the International Space Station into orbit, and just nine minutes after it
There’s plenty of excitement at the announcement overnight that a new planet is potentially waiting to be found at the extremes of our solar system. The possible ninth planet is thought to be quite substantial, with a mass around 10 times that of Earth and a radius that’s two
Salty streaks have been discovered on Mars, which could be a sign that salt water seeps to the surface in the summers. Scientists have previously observed dark streaks (see image above) on the planet’s slopes which are thought to have resulted from seeps of water wetting surface dust. Evidence of salts left
When New Horizons phoned home on Wednesday morning after its close encounter with Pluto, there was jubilation and excitement. Now, as Pluto retreats into the distance, the slow
A US spacecraft became the first to fly past the dwarf planet Pluto on Tuesday, capping the exploration of the solar system, scientists said. Scientists at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Imagine launching a robotic spacecraft on a 10-year mission to land on a comet 600m kilometres from Earth knowing that you will not be able to make any physical repairs to the craft during the journey. This daunting engineering challenge has been the ultimate goal of the European Space Agency’s Rosetta
The aircraft industry is expecting a seven-fold increase in air traffic by 2050, and a four-fold increase in greenhouse gas emissions unless fundamental changes are made. But just how “fundamental” will those changes need to be
