The US Air Force's X-37B space plane is circling Earth and, although it is on a classified mission with an officially unpublished orbit, sky watchers have spotted it.

美国空军的 X-37B太空船当时正在环绕地球，在某个官方未公开的轨道执行秘密任务。 天空观察者发现了它。

youdao

WISE, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer mission, scans the entire sky in infrared light, picking up the glow of hundreds of millions of objects and producing millions of images.

广域红外探测器，在红外光波段扫描了整个天空，搜集了亿万目标的光辉，产生了数百万图像。

youdao

Despite its small size — you could fit the telescope under your arm like a large purse — and short mission, WISE has already scanned the whole sky one and a half times.

尽管WISE望远镜的体积不大——你甚至可以将它当作一件大挎包拎在手上，执行任务的时间也不长，但它已经将全天星空扫描了1.5次。

youdao

TDS-1 payloads include instruments to track ships and monitor the sea surface for freak waves, and even a self-destruct "sail" that will pull the spacecraft out of the sky at the end of its mission.

BBC: Plan to 'Catapult' UK space tech

These "rules" call on space operators in LEO to make sure their equipment naturally falls out of the sky within 25 years of the end of a mission.

BBC: 'Urgent need' to remove space debris

Graham McWilliam, Sky's director of corporate affairs said the decision was "nothing short of BBC mission creep".

BBC: Project Canvas given green light by BBC Trust