The Oort cloud is theorised to be a vast cloud of icy bodies beyond the boundary of the Solar System. It was proposed by the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort back in 1950. Interestingly, the Estonian astronomer Ernst Opik had published a very similar idea in1931. However, Opik’s earlier work was largely ignored and today we… Continue reading The Oort Cloud
Category: Space Tourism
Commercial Space Travel
Although a small number of extremely wealthy space tourists have paid millions of dollars for orbital spaceflight, by their very nature only a handful of people can take part in these spaceflights each year. It looks like Virgin Galactic will start commercial spaceflights aimed a larger audience soon. According to the Virgin Galactic Website Galactic… Continue reading Commercial Space Travel
First American crewed spaceflight since 2011
On May 27, SpaceX's Dragon 2 capsule will launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket sending NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station. The lift-off will mark the return of orbital human spaceflight from the USA for the first time since the Space Shuttle retired in 2011. To mark this event… Continue reading First American crewed spaceflight since 2011
Happy New Year 2020
Happy New Year! And happy new decade! 2020 could well be an important year for manned space flight. It might be the year that America finally puts humans back into space on American spacecraft. If this happens it will be on spacecraft designed and built by commercial companies rather than NASA. . The landing of… Continue reading Happy New Year 2020
American manned spaceflight in 2019
Since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in July 2011, America has been unable to put any astronauts into orbit around the Earth. Instead, it has been in the difficult situation of having to rely on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). This situation may change… Continue reading American manned spaceflight in 2019
Explaining Science 