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rockets

Latest News

Rockets and fun-filled virtual sessions for ArKe Sure Start kids

It’s blast-off for Armagh Observatory and Planetarium’s community outreach Delivering fun-filled Zoom sessions has proved to be a ‘Sure Start’ way to spark an interest in learning about space and the Moon for children living in Armagh. This month, the education team at Armagh Observatory and Planetarium (AOP) delivered a Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 4 yearsMay 5, 2021 ago
Rockets

The Biggest Rockets That Never Were – Part 2!

From the fertile imaginings of the 1950s and 60s in the American aerospace industry came a wealth of Space-launcher ideas in all seemingly conceivable (and sometimes, inconceivable) shapes and sizes. So as we continue to investigate some of the ‘biggest rockets that never were’ and cannot examine them all, let’s Read more…

By Nick Parke, 5 yearsSeptember 18, 2020 ago
Rockets

The Biggest Rocket There Ever Was!

Various nations have produced rockets of different shapes and sizes down through the years, but a question that often comes to the fore is which was the biggest of them all? As it takes objects with a large mass a considerable amount of energy to move against the pull of Read more…

By Nick Parke, 5 yearsApril 17, 2020 ago
Latest News

Santa to visit AOP

For the first time ever Santa is coming to Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, but it’s a real Code Red! Due to demand we have added an extra date – Friday 20 December. Tickets available here Join our E.L.F. crew on Mission Santa and blast off on a brand new Christmas Read more…

By Sinead Mackle, 6 yearsNovember 15, 2019 ago
Concept Spacecraft

“We should become a multi-planetary civilisation” – Elon Musk

An update from Elon Musk on SpaceX’s vision for the future.

By Tom Watts, 6 yearsSeptember 30, 2019 ago
Robot Exploration

How Did New Horizons Get to Pluto so Quickly?

Our Solar System is vast. We on Earth cruise around the Sun in an orbit with a radius of about 150 million km (93 million miles), but the most distant planet, Neptune, is about thirty times further from the Sun. Enormous distances and the limitations of rocketry means reaching the Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 10 yearsJune 5, 2015 ago
Concept Spacecraft

XS-1: Spaceplane of the Future?

The good news first: a major aerospace contractor is researching how to build a reusable spaceplane that could dramatically cut the cost of accessing low Earth orbit. Now the bad news: it is purely for military users and cannot carry people.     Aerospace giant Northrop Grumman has won a Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 11 yearsAugust 20, 2014 ago
Human Exploration

Apollo 11: the First Lunar Landing

In July 1969, those who could gathered around available television sets and radios for the moment that human life would leave their first trace on the Moon. At 0256 GMT Neil Armstrong stepped out of the Lunar Module Eagle. As his left foot touched the lunar surface, he declared the Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 11 yearsJune 26, 2014 ago
UFOs and Fringe Science

Was NASA Technology Predicted in Ancient Indian Writings?

Is it possible that ancient cultures 7000 years ago knew how to create flying machines to traverse the sky and beyond using a technology that NASA engineers are still trying to harness today? The first artificial satellite launched famously into orbit was the Russian satellite Sputnik, in 1957. Prior to Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 11 yearsMay 28, 2014 ago
Armagh Planetarium

St Patrick’s Academy Rockets Ahead

“Encouraging school children to enter the world of aerospace, engineering and science” This is the motto for the Aerospace Youth Rocketry Challenge which takes place across the globe.  The prize, if you accept the challenge, is an all-expenses paid trip to Paris and Toulouse for the final fly-off against teams from Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 11 years ago
Human Exploration

Dreamchaser: Everything You Need to Know About the Mini-Shuttle

It is almost three years since NASA’s Space Shuttle program flew its last mission in July 2011, after providing a mode of transport into space for various crews over a 30 year career. The retired fleet of four orbiters (Challenger, Endeavour, Discovery and Atlantis) are now pride of place in Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 11 years ago
Armagh Planetarium

A Launchpad into the Space Industry

Teachers from across Northern Ireland have come together to learn how to build and launch their own rockets. It’s all part of an initiative deriving from a new ‘Space Science Technology’ qualification developed by local exams body, the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA).     According to Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 11 yearsJanuary 17, 2014 ago
Space Flight

Visiting Kennedy Space Center

When most people take their vacation for the year they tend to do their best to completely take their mind of their work and as I boarded the long flight to Orlando Florida and I did my very best to do just that! And while I had many exciting things Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 12 yearsDecember 18, 2013 ago
Concept Spacecraft

Whatever Happened to Photon Rockets?

Could humanity ever travel to the stars? Today this is an unattainable dream but world-wide researchers are studying the possibilities of starships. One concept for an interstellar craft is the photon rocket, an idea once popular but less prominent today. What happened to this appealing idea for voyaging into deepest Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 12 yearsDecember 5, 2013 ago
Rockets

Image of the Month: Rockets Then and Now

Once upon a time rockets were exciting symbols of a glorious and exciting future when everyone would get their chance to have a holiday on the Moon.  Well the future is now and the lunar resorts are still not here. Launch vehicles are another dull but necessary piece of civilisation’s Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 13 yearsMarch 9, 2012 ago
Image of Dragon at ISS
The Future

2012’s Space Odysseys

What exciting space events has 2012 in store for us? What important space anniversaries are coming up this year? Welcome to our annual guide to what the Universe has waiting ahead!   This year marks twenty years since the first extra-solar planets were discovered when a pair of planets were Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 13 yearsJanuary 5, 2012 ago
Rockets

Space Tourism: the Frightening Truth

Back in December 2009, with great fanfare, space tourism company Virgin Galactic unveiled the vehicles their fare-paying passengers will ride in as they ascend into space. Built by the Spaceship Company (a coventure of Virgin and that supremely adventurous aircraft manufacturer Scaled Composites), the pair are engineering marvels. The huge Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 14 yearsOctober 6, 2011 ago
Rockets

NASA Reveals Giant Rocket For Mission to Nowhere

On 14 September  2011, NASA revealed  the design of its new rocket, the Space Launch System. This titanic vehicle may send American astronauts to the Moon, Near Earth Asteroids or even further into deep space.   The SLS is intended to carry NASA’s proposed new crewed spacecraft, the Multi-Purpose Crew Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 14 yearsSeptember 15, 2011 ago
Human Exploration

NASA’s Lunar Module: Everything You Need to Know

The Lunar Module was an iconic spacecraft which carried two-man crews to and from the Moon’s surface during NASA’s Apollo Program of the 1960s and ‘70s.  Along with the Saturn 5 rocket and the Apollo Command and Service Modules (CSM), the Lunar Module is the third of the trinity of Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 14 yearsSeptember 2, 2011 ago
Armagh Planetarium

So you want to be a Rocket Scientist?

Have you ever wondered how to build a solid fuel space rocket?  Have you ever wanted to witness a rocket launch?  If the answer is yes, then Armagh Planetarium is the place to be on 30 and 31 July 2011 as we blast-off into a fun-filled weekend of rockets. Rocket Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 14 yearsJuly 14, 2011 ago
Colin Johnston

The Shuttle and Me

NASA’s final Shuttle flight is due this week, in this article Colin Johnston reveals what this historic space project has meant to him.   (This article is a sequel to Apollo and me which appeared in the July 2009 issue of Astronotes. It’s another indulgent wallow in shameless nostalgia so Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 14 yearsJuly 7, 2011 ago
Concept Spacecraft

Nazis in Space: The Truth about Hitler’s Space Program

Has lurid fiction like the movie Iron Sky any basis in fact?  Everyone knows that WW2 Germany developed rockets far in advance of the Allies, but some argue that in 1945 the Third Reich was on the verge of developing a space program!   Ever since Adolf Hitler’s ‘Thousand Year’ Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 14 yearsJune 23, 2011 ago
Image of shuttle from above
Human Exploration

Space Shuttle: A thirty year history of tragedy and triumph

This year will see both the end of space flights by NASA’s Shuttle fleet and the thirtieth anniversary of the first orbital mission by this historic spacecraft. Our coverage of these milestones begins with an overview of the project’s chequered history.   In the glory days of the Space Race, Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 14 yearsApril 7, 2011 ago
Human Exploration

Apollo 8’s Christmas space odyssey

Christmas 1968 saw three men from Earth make a remarkable and unprecedented voyage of exploration. A dramatic and hurriedly planned mission gave the crew the first human view of the Moon’s farside and the whole human race saw our homeplanet in a new way.  This is the story of Apollo Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 15 yearsDecember 20, 2010 ago
Concept Spacecraft

Project Orion: the incredible nuclear spacecraft

NASA’s next manned spacecraft will be the Orion, a capsule which will be carried into space by a rocket. Weighing 25 tonnes, each Orion will carry up to six people. Accommodation on board is cosy at best, cramped at worst. Orion was intended to take astronauts to the Moon and  Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 15 yearsOctober 1, 2010 ago
Concept Spacecraft

Mars by ’85? NASA’s alternative history

In the early 1960s, the sky had no limits for NASA . Planners for the agency foresaw an ever-expanding future of exploration through the Solar System. Some amazing missions were planned. Alas in August 1967, the US Congress refused to support NASA’s plans for the 1970s. Ever since then NASA’s Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 15 yearsSeptember 27, 2010 ago
Concept Spacecraft

The amazing Aldebaran spacecraft

  The late ’50s and ’60s were a different time from the anxious era that is today. Nuclear power and space travel were both cool and wonderful new technologies. The only thing that could be cooler and more wonderful would be to combine the two. One suggestion was the US Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 15 yearsSeptember 24, 2010 ago
Rockets

Blue Streak: the UK’s Cold War rocket

The Blue Streak rocket was an advanced British missile of the 1950s which nearly became a space rocket before ending up a casualty of government apathy. Let’s look at Blue Streak’s rise and fall.     These days most British economists agree that designing and manufacturing things are rather icky Read more…

By Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, 15 yearsSeptember 22, 2010 ago
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RSS Intergalactic Craic
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    Heather and her new co-host Dr Rok are back! Taking time out of their busy schedules they have recorded an episode all about the dramatic increase to the number of moons of the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn! They also delve into their own busy schedules and explain everything there is to know about AOP's […]
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Welcome to Astronotes

Hello and welcome to Astronotes, the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium’s official blog. Here you will find the latest news and views from all those who work in our organisation, from the fascinating worlds of astronomy and space exploration. We hope you will come here to learn what is hot and exciting, profound or even weird from worlds beyond ours . So that's the introduction out of the way, now on with the Universe!

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