ASTRONAUTICAL NEWS Monday 18 April 2022
Astronautical News
ASTRONAUTICAL NEWS Monday 18 April 2022
A daily roundup of space news
SpaceX Falcon 9 launches NROL-85 mission from VandenbergThe National Reconnaissance Office successfully launched the NROL-85 mission aboard a
reflown SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
China’s Chang Zheng 3B/E launches ChinaSat 6DChina has successfully launched the ChinaSat 6D satellite into geostationary transfer
orbit Friday via the Chang Zheng 3B/E rocket.
When will we explore Enceladus to find alien life?While NASA will launch Dragonfly later this decade to Titan, another potentially habitable
moon of Saturn, no space agency is currently funding a mission to Enceladus.
Hubble confirms largest comet nucleus ever seenThe Hubble Space Telescope has determined the size of the largest icy comet nucleus
ever seen by astronomers. The estimated diameter is approximately 80 miles across,
making it larger than the state of Rhode Island. The nucleus is about 50 times larger
than found at the heart of most known comets. Its mass is estimated to be a staggering
500 trillion tons, a hundred thousand times greater.
What is China doing at the lunar distant retrograde orbit?The orbiter from China’s Chang’e-5 lunar sample return mission continues operations well
after it returned samples to Earth. Kristin Burke explores why that spacecraft may now
be operating in a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon.
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