The spacecraft for the collision of an asteroid in 2022

Scientists from Europe and the U.S. to confidently move promote in their plans to make a deliberate collision of a spacecraft with a giant asteroid in 2022 to look into the depths of such visitations.

Ambitious European mission Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment, or AIDA, consisting of two satellites (one of which will be built by scientists from the U.S., and the second - the European Space Agency), is scheduled to start a three-year journey to the asteroid Didymus and his companion. Didim not dangerous for the Earth, so it is well suited for this kind of research, scientists said the mission at the 44th Annual Conference of the moon and planets, on Tuesday, March 19.

MESSENGER sees the smooth side of Mercury

During the two years of its location in orbit around Mercury, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft has made ​​more than 150,000 images of the planet closest to the Sun, the solar system, first giving us the opportunity to think about the extremely rough, parched surface of the planet in feature. But not all areas on Mercury look stern and sinister: it also has a smooth side, you can see on the picture, published today.

Here we see the smooth sides and bottom Mercurian irregular depressions in high definition. 

The new company SpaceX rocket prepared for launch, scheduled for the summer

The next generation of rocket company SpaceX is prepared to fly, and it was probably he will be used to launch commercial spacecraft, which will take place this summer, the company announced Wednesday.

Merlin 1D engine was declared ready for flight once it passed the ignition for a total of 33 minutes for the 28 different tests on the premises for the development of rocket company SpaceX in McGregor, Texas.