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Articles on Space flights

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Mission specialist Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Astronaut Sally K. Ride’s legacy – encouraging young women to embrace science and engineering

35 years ago Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. But rather than focus on her own extraordinary achievements, her passion became boosting the number of girls pursuing STEM. Another pioneering astronaut remembers her friend and colleague.
Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson at the International Space Station. NASA

How women can deal with periods in space

We are only starting to understand the impact of space travel on women’s health. But a new study has just made it easier for astronauts to decide whether they want to stop their periods.
Giant balloons can take scientific equipment to the edge of space much cheaper that satellites. Ravi Sood

The rise and fall of giant balloons on the edge of space

Giant balloons are a lot cheaper than rockets launchers in getting scientific equipment to the edge of space. But they don’t always fly to plan.
Is this how space travel will look some day? ‘Sulu, punch it!’ Shutterstock

If Earth falls, will interstellar space travel be our salvation?

Some climatologists argue it may be too late to reverse climate change, and it’s just a matter of time before the Earth becomes uninhabitable – if hundreds of years from now. The recent movie Interstellar…
Feel the lift from the light. Flickr/Louish Pixel

Levitation is just part of the power of pushy light

Most of the time we take light for granted. It arrives with the sunrise everyday and we turn it on with a flick of a switch every night. It appears to be ephemeral and benign to us humans but there is…
Hypersonic aircraft seem destined to enter the commercial market. davekellam

Sydney to London in an hour? The future of hypersonic air travel

Late last week the Defence Advanced Research Programs Agency (DARPA) in the USA launched a second flight of a craft called the HTV-2, designed to glide at Mach 20 while re-entering the earth’s atmosphere…

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