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December 17, 2012

China Makes First Asteroid Fly By
Beijing (XNA) Dec 17, 2012
China's space probe Chang'e-2 has successfully conducted a maneuver in which it flew by the asteroid Toutatis, about seven million km away from the Earth. Travelling in deep space, Chang'e-2 made the flyby on Dec. 13 at 16:30:09 Beijing Time (08:30"09 GMT), the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) announced on Saturday. The flyby was the first time an unmanned spacecraft launched from Earth has taken such a close viewing of the asteroid, nam ... read more

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Rocket Burn Sets Stage for Dynamic Moon Duos' Lunar Impact The lunar twins of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission have each completed a rocket burn that has sealed their fate. The burns modified the orbit of the formation-flying ... more		No plans of sending an Indian on moon India has no plans to put an astronaut on the moon, as of now. Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday said this. The minister also said ... more		Asteroid Toutatis Slowly Tumbles by Earth Scientists working with NASA's 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., have generated a series of radar data images of a three-mile-long (4.8-kilometer) asteroid th ... more
				NASA Progressing Toward First Launch of Orion Spacecraft Recent engineering advances by NASA and its industry partners across the country show important progress toward Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), the next step to launching humans to deep space. ... more		New member of the exclusive space club The successful launch of North Korea's Unha-3 rocket on December 12, 2012 became the top news in the world of cosmonautics. Even the previous day's story of the United States launching, for the thir ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Curious About Life: Interview with Darby Dyer The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover has 10 science instruments, and each will be used in the coming weeks and months to help characterize the environment of Mars and determine if the planet ... more		Research: Tiny robots may think as a group A U.S. researcher says a swarm of tiny robots could be a better solution to accomplishing tasks than one big one and has made "ping-pong" ball-sized examples. ... more		Sharp rise in GPS jamming in aviation over Baltic Sea: Sweden Putin vows to carry on fighting in Ukraine, if peace deal not reached Israel vows to inflict biblical plagues on Yemen's Huthis		ASU researchers propose new way to look at the dawn of life One of the great mysteries of life is how it began. What physical process transformed a nonliving mix of chemicals into something as complex as a living cell? For more than a century, scientis ... more
				ISRO planning 10 space missions in 2013 The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to accomplish 10 space missions in the next one year, parliament was informed on Wednesday. Minister of State in the Prime Minister's ... more		Opportunity Checking Out Some Rocks At Matijevic Hill Opportunity is located at a place named "Matijevic Hill" (named in honor of Jake Matijevic) at the inboard edge of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater. On Sol 3153 (Dec. 6, 2012), the rov ... more

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NASA Gravity Probes Prepare to Hit the Moon A pair of NASA spacecraft that have been studying the Moon's gravitational field are being prepared for a controlled descent into a mountain near the Moon's north pole. Impact is expected at about 2 ... more		NASA Awards Commercial Crew Certification Contracts NASA announced Dec. 10 the next step in its plan to launch American astronauts from U.S. soil, selecting three companies to conduct activities under contracts that will enable future certification o ... more		Pixxel expands Firefly fleet advancing global hyperspectral satellite imaging Metop SGA1 begins delivering atmospheric data weeks after launch Searchers retrieve bodies as Afghan quake toll expected to rise		Fast20XX research project - ideas for travelling at hypersonic speed The vision is enticing - board in Europe, sit back, and disembark 90 minutes later on the other side of the world, in Australia. But before the SpaceLiner, which is being developed by the Institute ... more
				Hat Trick for X-37B The third launch of the US Air Force's X-37B robot spaceplane opens new challenges to this robust spacecraft. For the first time, an X-37B mission is underway with a used vehicle. The spaceplane tha ... more		North Korea launches long-range rocket North Korea launched a long-range rocket on Wednesday, in defiance of UN sanctions threats over what Pyongyang's critics insist is a disguised ballistic missile test. ... more

ISRO planning 10 space missions in 2013

ULA Launch Monopoly to End

Russia works to fix satellite's off-target orbit

Opportunity Checking Out Some Rocks At Matijevic Hill

Curious About Life: Interview with Darby Dyer

Curiosity Rover Nearing Yellowknife Bay

NASA Gravity Probes Prepare to Hit the Moon

No plans of sending an Indian on moon

Rocket Burn Sets Stage for Dynamic Moon Duos' Lunar Impact

Halfway Between Uranus and Neptune, New Horizons Cruises On

Dwarf planet Makemake lacks atmosphere

Keck Observations Bring Weather Of Uranus Into Sharp Focus

	Curiosity Rover Nearing Yellowknife Bay The NASA Mars rover Curiosity drove 63 feet (19 meters) northeastward early Monday, Dec. 10, approaching a step down into a slightly lower area called "Yellowknife Bay," where researchers intend to ... more		Student Team Provides Real-Time Video of Asteroid Toutatis An asteroid that some day might threaten Earth is passing relatively close by on the night of December 11-12, and its gliding path among the stars will be tracked by a team of high-school students a ... more		Cassini Spots Mini Nile River on Saturn Moon Scientists with NASA's Cassini mission have spotted what appears to be a miniature, extraterrestrial likeness of Earth's Nile River: a river valley on Saturn's moon Titan that stretches more than 20 ... more		Big Asteroid Tumbles Harmlessly Past Earth This week, NASA's Goldstone radar is tracking a large asteroid as it passes by Earth, and obtaining images of unprecedented clarity. "At closest approach on Dec. 12th, asteroid 4179 Toutatis will be ... more

Beijing shows off drones, missiles and lasers in military parade

New wave: sea power turned into energy at Los Angeles port

'Mockery of science': US experts blast Trump climate report

Thales Makes Second Attempt to Adjust Yamal Orbit		US sends futuristic plane back into space		China patent office becomes world's largest: WIPO		ULA Launch Monopoly to End		Mining ancient ores for clues to early life
Russia saves satellite after launch glitch		Apollo's Lunar Dust Data Being Restored		What happens to plant growth when you remove gravity?		Medical Ops, Fan Checks for Space Crew; New Trio Checks Soyuz		Charitum Montes: a cratered winter wonderland

Search for life extends to the stars

Opportunity Continues Rock Studies

Custom robots could do Fukushima cleanup

To reach final frontier, NASA can't go it alone: analysts

Russia works to fix satellite's off-target orbit

US to launch anew secretive space plane

To the moon and back for less than 2 billion dollars

N. Korea replacing faulty rocket stage: report

Khrunichev Completes Nauka Space Station Module

Orbiter Spies Where Rover's Cruise Stage Hit Mars

Scientists say NASA's budget inadequate for its goals

What is Creating Gullies on Vesta?

Speeding Space Junk Poses Risks for Spacecraft

What trends will take upper hand in space exploration?

Elbit Systems to Provide Space Camera for the Italian OPTSAT 3000 Observation Satellite

Russia Set to Launch Telecoms Satellite for Gazprom

SES And ESA To Collaborate On Electra To Develop First All-Electric Small/Medium Sized Satellite Platform In Europe

Six degrees of inclination

NASA's GRAIL Creates Most Accurate Moon Gravity Map

Can life emerge on planets around cooling stars?

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