Space: March 2008 Archives

Astronauts in seven-hour ISS construction session

Space Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) astronauts have completed a seven-hour spacewalk and robot-arm session, in which a number of construction and assembly tasks were completed. Part of Japan's "Kibo" ISS module was plugged in, a malfunctioning 12-foot tall 1.5-tonne Canadian robot was hopefully whipped into shape, and a Passive Common Berthing flange was pulled off.

and Cassini, too:

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has survived an "in your face" flyby of Saturnian moon Enceladus designed to collect data on geysers spewing water vapour and other matter from giant fractures at the body's south pole. Cassini on Wednesday skirted the geysers' plumes at a tad over 51,000km/h (32,000mph) at a height of 200km (120 miles), passing just 50km (30 miles) above Enceladus's surface at closest approach.

I'm enjoying the Cassini stuff becasue it takes years for this sort of spacecraft to get into position.