Traffic 'eye' in space

Canada is to launch a satellite in the next couple of months to keep an eye on traffic, writes Brian Byrne.

Nope, not traffic down here. In space in near earth orbit where the bulk of communications and surveillance satellites spin around the globe.

It's got so crowded up there with working satelites and 'space junk' of dead rocket motors and other stuff, a bird's eye unit is needed to allow satellite operators to steer out of potentially catastrophic and expensive collisions.

The Sapphire satellite is being launched by a private aerospace company, using a rocket service based in India.

Traffic problem in space

You think you have traffic problems on your commute? Look, this is what it's like above our atmosphere, where the are some 13,000 satellites pushing for space to fly.

50th anniversary of astronaut's air speed record

We all pretty welll remember that Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon in 1969, writes Brian Byrne. 

And maybe we also know that he was the first US civilian to do a spacewalk. But what was he the first to do some years earlier in 1961?

Well, he broke a new air speed record flying the Bell X-15 rocket plane, achieving a velocity in excess of six times the speed of sound.

Armstrong is now aged 81, with a lot of unique memories which will never be made again. He's pictured above with the X-15.

Travel of a completely different kind, yes?