September 25, 2016

NASA Creates Software to Keep Tabs on Killer Asteroids Washington DC (Sputnik) Sep 26, 2016 - Scout, a new computer system, will allow for the detection of potentially dangerous asteroids, and calculate their possible impact point on the Earth's surface. The program can identify asteroids likely to hit the Earth, automatically calculating the path and impact of celestial bodies, according to researchers. "Some near-Earth asteroids are potentially hazardous to Earth and their proper ... more

Batch production of Long March 5 underway Beijing (XNA) Sep 22, 2016 - Batch production of Long March 5 has begun, said Meng Fanxin, manager of the industrialized base for the carrier rocket in Tianjin. Known as the Long March 5, China's most powerful heavy-lift launch vehicle is expected to make its first test flight from Hainan's Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in November. In the meantime, its manufacturing base in the northern port city of Tianjin ... more

Scientific experiment apparatuses on Tiangong-2 put into operation Beijing (XNA) Sep 26, 2016 - Scientific apparatus carried by Tiangong-2 began operational at around 6:41 p.m. Thursday Beijing Time after being on standby mode for nearly seven days since the space lab entered its preset orbit on Sept. 15. "Most of the scientific payload will be put into operation in the next 30 hours," said Guo Lili, director with the payload operation and application center at the Technology and Eng ... more

China space plane taking shape Beijing (XNA) Sep 22, 2016 - New concept opens range of possibilities for high-speed commercial travel, tourism. Chinese space engineers will join hands to develop a next-generation craft with enormous business potential for commercial launches and space tourism, according to an industry conference. As competition in the international aerospace field becomes increasingly fierce, Chinese space engineers have reached a ... more

China's space survival experiment goes on well Beijing (XNA) Sep 22, 2016 - China's experiment in human living for space exploration is going smoothly, halfway into the project, the Astronaut Center of China (ACC) announced Tuesday. Four volunteers started a 180-day experiment in June in a sealed space capsule, testing technology that will be used in deep-space exploration. The experiment examines how oxygen, water and food can be used and reused in space. ... more

Rocket maker aims high with lofty output targets Beijing (XNA) Sep 22, 2016 - China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp aims to "double or even triple" its annual production capacity by 2025 while without adding new employees - as the State-owned satellite and rocket maker ratchets up efforts to achieve smart and flexible manufacturing - its chief engineer said. CASC Chief Engineer Yang Haicheng told China Daily that in the next five to 10 years the aerospace indu ... more

NASA to reveal 'surprising' activity on Jupiter's moon Miami (AFP) Sept 23, 2016 - There's something going on beneath the surface of Jupiter's icy moon Europa. But what? NASA teased a "surprising" announcement for Monday, based on Hubble Space Telescope images of the celestial body, which many experts believe could contain a subsurface ocean, even possibly some form of life. The US space agency has already proclaimed that Europa has "strong evidence for an ocean of li ... more

World's largest radio telescope starts operating in China Beijing (AFP) Sept 25, 2016 - The world's largest radio telescope began operating in southwestern China Sunday, a project which Beijing says will help humanity search for alien life. The Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), nestled between hills in the mountainous region of Guizhou, began working around noon, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Built at a cost of 1.2 billion yuan ... more

Universe is without direction, astronomers say London (UPI) Sep 22, 2016 - Like an apathetic teenager floundering in school, the universe has no direction. New research confirms what scientists have long believed, that the cosmos is not directionally oriented. The universe is full of local motion - spinning stars, orbiting planets, spiraling galaxies. But all astrophysical models are based on the premise that the universe is uniform in all directions. ... more

Launch of Atlas V Rocket With WorldView-4 Satellite Postponed Till October Moscow (Sputnik) Sep 26, 2016 - The launch of the Atlas V rocket with the WorldView-4 satellite has been rescheduled until no earlier than next month, the United Launch Alliance (ULA) said. According to ULA, the fire has not caused any damage to any facilities and all ULA employees are safe. The launch of the WorldView-4 mission from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in the US state of California was postponed two time ... more

Pacamor Kubar Bearings awarded contract to support Mars 2020 Mission Troy, NY (SPX) Sep 22, 2016 - Pacamor Kubar Bearings (PKB), a Troy, NY manufacturer of ball bearings for aerospace and defense systems, was recently awarded a contract by Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) to supply critical hardware for the Mars 2020 mission. Scheduled to launch in 2020, the robotic science rover will investigate key questions about the habitability of Mars and assess natural resources and hazards in pre ... more

Rover Makes Its Way to 'Spirit Mound,' Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 22, 2016 - Opportunity is making her way towards the first science waypoint of the new extended mission on the rim of Endeavour Crater. The first waypoint is a feature named 'Spirit Mound,' one of the locations visited by the Corps of Discovery 200 years ago. The rover has been driving due east and collecting both Panoramic Camera (Pancam) and Navigation Camera (Navcam) panoramas along the way, ... more

Galactic Fireworks Illuminate Monster Hydrogen Blob Charlottesville VA (SPX) Sep 22, 2016 - An international team of researchers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and other telescopes has discovered the power source illuminating a so-called Lyman-alpha Blob - a rare, brightly glowing, and enormous concentration of gas in the distant universe. Until now, astronomers wondered why these huge clouds of gas shined so brightly. The answer, in this example at ... more

Indian Space Organization Gears Up for First Multi-Orbit Mission New Delhi (Sputnik) Sep 26, 2016 - ISRO hopes to outperform other stakeholders in the lightweight satellite launcher category by exhibiting its capability to carry out multi-orbit missions. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will achieve another milestone next week when the PSLV-C35, in its thirty-seventh flight, will launch 8 payloads in two different orbits. This will be ISRO's first multi-orbit mission. ... more

SMC exercises contract options to procure two additional GPS III satellites Los Angeles AFB CA (SPX) Sep 26, 2016 - The Space and Missile Systems Center awarded a contract option to Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company to procure two additional Global Positioning System III satellites today. The contract option procures long lead and production hardware to produce space vehicles 9 and 10 for the next generation of GPS satellites being built by Lockheed Martin. The Air Force expects the satellites to be ... more

Hubble Finds Planet Orbiting Pair of Stars Baltimore MD (SPX) Sep 26, 2016 - Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, and a trick of nature, have confirmed the existence of a planet orbiting two stars in the system OGLE-2007-BLG-349, located 8,000 light-years away towards the center of our galaxy. The planet orbits roughly 300 million miles from the stellar duo, about the distance from the asteroid belt to our sun. It completes an orbit around both stars ro ... more

Summer fireworks on Rosetta's comet Paris (ESA) Sep 26, 2016 - Brief but powerful outbursts seen from Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during its most active period last year have been traced back to their origins on the surface. In the three months centred around the comet's closest approach to the Sun, on 13 August 2015, Rosetta's cameras captured 34 outbursts. These violent events were over and above regular jets and flows of material seen streaming ... more

US eyes hypersonic glider project as Russia, China pursue own programs Washington DC (Sputnik) Sep 26, 2016 - Lockheed Martin has won a $147 million Pentagon contract to conduct research into the hypersonic Mach 5 Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) aircraft project. The question now, according to Russian analysts, is whether US engineers will be able to actually turn the project into a model ready for production.The contract, awarded to Lockheed Martin by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ... more

Hubble Ultra Deep is deepest millimetre observation of Early Universe Garching, Germany (SPX) Sep 26, 2016 - International teams of astronomers have used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to explore the distant corner of the Universe first revealed in the iconic images of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF). These new ALMA observations are significantly deeper and sharper than previous surveys at millimetre wavelengths. They clearly show how the rate of star formation in youn ... more

Lockheed gets $395 million GPS III Space Vehicle contract modification Washington (UPI) Sep 22, 2016 - Lockheed Martin Space Systems has been awarded a $395 million U.S. Air Force contract modification for work on the GPS III Space Vehicle program. The deal covers space vehicles 9 and 10. Work will be performed in Colorado. The expected completion date is August 2022. The Space and Missile Systems Center is the contracting activity. The GPS III program is the service ... more

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