Orion EFT-1

Good morning readers. 

We live on a planet surrounded by billions of stars and probably millions of earth-like planets that in my life time we will never visit. Until recently we thought that NASA had abandoned any human missions out of our atmosphere due to money and materials constraints. But just this week the ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA have given us hope of one day soon traveling to the stars...

On Wednesday the 16th of January at 10:30 a.m. CST, NASA and ESA joined forces on signed off Program "ORION" producing an extra £350 million for the production.

ORION is the future of deep space travel. Replacing the design of Apollo lunar capsule, ORION will be the first manned mission back to the moon since the 70's and the very first vehicle to take humans to the surface of an orbiting asteroid. You might think that this will be in decades to come.. but the first mission of the ORION is due for launch in 2017.

To view an in depth video from NASA about the ORION program click the here:

Or you can view NASA's home page for the ORION at:  www.nasa.gov/orion

Concept visual of ORION and its main booster

ORION's main chassis made out of liquid formed solid metal

The jigsaw begins, slowly and carefully piecing the capsule together

Concept drawing of the Crew and Service Module

SoVibrant / Media

A Leap of Faith : Red Bull Stratos Update

Good morning readers.

A few months back we introduced you to an incredible man, Felix Baumgarner.

His name may be hard to remember but what he has achieved isn't. Felix is one of only 2 men to break the sound barrier while free-falling from space to land safely down on earth. 

In the 1960's this was achieved once by Joe Kittinger and since then this has never been achieved again... until now. Just this week Felix Baumgarner has taken a leap of faith and completed a free fall from 100,000 ft above the earth. After falling to earth a speed of 741mph  Felix landed safely 20 minutes later. 

This is the second of three jumps for the extreme sports athlete. The next jump is aimed to break the 1960's record set by Joe Kittinger, with Felix free-falling from 120,000ft. To give you an idea of how far that is; it is 4 times the height of Mount Everest!

Follow "A day in the life of Felix," below.

Felix prepares his body and mind for the trip ahead

Last minute checks before entering the pod 

 The pod is lifted as gas fills the huge balloon

 Misson control keeps a close eye on Felix as 

his body is pushed to the limit

The moment of truth. At 100,000ft 

Felix takes a leap of faith

The last view of Felix before the big jump

 

Touch down. Felix gets a hero's welcome.

Sadly the pod doesn't have the safest of landings..

SoVibrant / Technology

The rover has landed

Good afternoon bloggers. 

If you are British this has to be one of the most memorable weekends ever. However on the other side of the pond. a small group of people have been busy making history as well.

In the early hours of this morning. "CURIOSITY", NASA's mars rover touched down on the red planet; Mars. This monumental event may well be over-shadowed by the current excitement of London 2012 Olympics but the significance of this event cannot be underestimated and it is very much one of mans greatest achievements to date.

In the past NASA has launched and landed a number of missions to the red planet. While some of them landed safely sending back amazing images of the surface of mars, Most broke up on impact.

However. at 6:00am EST, after a 9 month journey, travelling 225 million km at a speed of 13,000mph, "CURIOSITY" successfully and safely landed, in fully working order. These are the first pictures from the red planet.

After a few hours of start-up tests Curiosity has now started its 2 year road trip around the surface of Mars carrying out experiments and searching for life. This is just the first stage in President Obama's long term aim to take humans to Mars by 2030.

Another giant leap for mankind and proof of the growing importance of continuing to explore our galaxy and beyond.