Space News Recap | June 5 — June 11
Solar System
Saturn
Cassini has completed its eighth ring dive between Saturn and its rings.
Extrasolar updates
Hottest exoplanet ever
Astronomers have discovered the hottest planet so far known in the universe. The planet is hotter than most stars we know and orbits around its even hotter star in a matter of 36 hours.
Wow! Signal finally explained
The mysterious signal that has stumped astronomers for decades has been finally decoded. Turns out, it wasn’t aliens. It was just a comet!
Launches
ISRO
India finally launched the much awaited behemoth, GSLV Mk3. This heavyweight rocket is capable of lifting 4,000kg into a geostationary orbit. This rocket will eventually be used to send humans up into space.
Russia
The Proton-M launch vehicle blasted off from Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan last week. It launched the US telecom probe EChostar-21 into datum orbit.
Humans
NASA has announced its new diverse batch of twelve astronauts out of the 18,000 who had applied. The seven men and five women will train for two years before they can fly into space.