Hasta La Gadget!

More than four years after winning a contract (along with Space X) to resupply the International Space Station, Orbital Sciences has finally docked its Cygnus capsule with the space outpost. The achievement makes it the second private outfit to have run a resupply mission to the station, with Musk and Co. beating them to the punch last October. Achieving the rendezvous with the ISS didn’t go without a hitch, however: a data format bug delayed the planned September 22nd berthing until a software fix was applied. Once Monday morning rolls around, the craft’s hatch will be opened to reach 1,300 pounds worth of supplies, which include clothing, food and student experiments. In 30 days’ time, the cargo vessel will detach and head for a destructive reentry over the Pacific Ocean.

[Image credit: NASA, Instagram]

Filed under: Transportation, Science, Alt

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Source: NASA, Orbital Sciences

See this cute little space dino, floating like it’s the most natural thing in the world? Well he was made by hand, with love, in orbit. And you can never have him because he belongs to Earth’s luckiest three-year-old boy. Aren’t you green with envy?

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So much of real science is publishing articles and peer-reviewed studies, so it’s always great to see that crazy, fluorescent, glowing space-plane, movie-type science is really out there too. And NASA is doing it with the best of them.

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The folks over at the European Space Agency (ESA) have been doing some serious thinking lately, and they certainly have some interesting and creative ideas when it comes to exploring different planets. This time around, there will be nothing to do with a snake robot to explore the nooks and crannies of other planets, but rather, a CO2-powered hopping rocket robot which will be able to draw its fuel from the Red Planet’s atmosphere.

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European Space Agency Works On Rocketbots To Explore Planets original content from Ubergizmo.

We are so, so close to commercial orbital tourism. We sit on the cusp of a new space age—an age of convenience rather than exploration, where anybody—really, anybody—can become an astronaut.

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