Good and bad space news

Bad Astronomy
By Phil Plait
Aug 29, 2009 6:26 PMNov 5, 2019 7:19 AM

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Sometimes you have to take the good with the bad. The good news is that the Space Shuttle Discovery had an apparently flawless flight to orbit last night after a launch at one minute before midnight. It's carrying a crew member and supplies (including the COLBERT) to the International Space Station. You can read more about the mission on NASA's STS-128 page. The bad news is that it looks like the Indian Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter has gone silent, and is presumed dead. It was not yet halfway through its two year mission, but has done quite a bit of interesting science, including looking for water buried under the surface at the Moon's poles. Emily Lakdawalla with The Planetary Society has more details.

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