DLR Portal - News Archive

Landslides and lava flows on Olympus Mons

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:22:39 +0200

Huge landslides, lava flows and tectonic forces have generated the stunning landscape seen in these images acquired by the DLR-operated HRSC camera system on board the Mars Express spacecraft.

Tracking aircraft from space

Fri, 03 May 2013 11:37:14 +0200

On 4 May 2013 at 04:06 (CEST), when the European Proba-V satellite lifts off on a Vega launcher with the primary mission of observing vegetation from space, it will be carrying another instrument on board – one that will be keeping an 'eye' on aircraft.

D2 mission 20 years ago – clawed frogs and crystals in microgravity

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:55:02 +0200

"Go for Spacelab activities," confirmed NASA Mission Control Center on 26 April 1993 at 18:51 CET. German astronauts Hans Schlegel and Ulrich Walter and their United States colleagues had to wait almost two months until, with this command, the D2 mission could finally begin.

Astronaut and guinea pig – all in one

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 08:10:00 +0200

In 1993, during the second German D2 Spacelab Mission, astronaut Hans Schlegel orbited Earth 160 times and conducting numerous international experiments as payload specialist. This was Schlegel's first flight into space.

Lift-off – mini-ecosystem and mini-satellites en route to space

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:00:00 +0200

It is a premiere eagerly awaited by scientists and technicians; on 19 April 2013, a Soyuz launcher successfully carried the successor to the long-standing BION series of Russian research satellites into space.

In search of antimatter

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 10:50:20 +0200

The first results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) have been released. This space 'camera' has recorded 20 billion cosmic particles in the first 18 months of operation – yet that is just a small step.

Disaster relief – DLR to chair the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters'

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:40:00 +0200

Bureaucracy-free assistance in the event of an emergency – this is the aim of the 15 space agencies united within the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters'.

TEXUS 50 – Anniversary for Germany's sounding rocket programme

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 07:00:00 +0200

It is the world's longest running rocket programme for conducting research in microgravity, and today it is celebrating an anniversary. Around 35 years after the launch of the first TEXUS mission in December 1977, the 50th TEXUS rocket was successfully launched into space from the Esrange Space Center near Kiruna in northern Sweden on 12 April 2013 at 06:25 CEST.

Explosive 'twin' craters on Mars

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:00:51 +0200

Intense underground steam explosions that occurred during the crater formation process could be responsible for the central depressions present in these 'twin' craters, located on Thaumasia Planum, an elevated plateau that lies immediately to the south of Valles Marineris, the largest canyon in the Solar System.

Studying human skin in space – Soyuz mission takes SKIN B to the ISS

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:00:00 +0100

Human skin is an organ with many functions; it regulates, among other things, the water balance and temperature of the body, it prevents the entry of pathogens, protects the body from ultraviolet radiation and serves as a sensory organ. But how does it react to the harsh conditions of space? Researchers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) are seeking answers to these questions with the SKIN B experiment, funded by DLR Space Administration. The experiment started its journey to the International Space Station (ISS) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 21:43 CET on 28 March 2013, carried by the Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft with the crew of ISS Expedition 35.