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MIT engineers test an idea for a new hovering Lunar rover![]() Boston MA (SPX) Dec 27, 2021 Aerospace engineers at MIT are testing a new concept for a hovering rover that levitates by harnessing the moon's natural charge. Because they lack an atmosphere, the moon and other airless bodies such as asteroids can build up an electric field through direct exposure to the sun and surrounding plasma. On the moon, this surface charge is strong enough to levitate dust more than 1 meter above the ground, much the way static electricity can cause a person's hair to stand on end. Engineers at ... read more |
RUAG technology helped launch Webb into spaceZurich, Switzerland (SPX) Dec 27, 2021 Technology from RUAG Space protected the James Webb Space Telescope during launch and flight into space. A payload adapter placed the observatory into orbit. The launch happened on December 25. ... more Melbourne FL (SPX) Dec 21, 2021 L3Harris Technologies has completed the final major design milestone on the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's (MDA) Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) program Phase IIb On-orbit Prot ... more
Ball Aerospace-built optics and mirror system launched aboard Webb TelescopeBroomfield CO (SPX) Dec 27, 2021 Ball Aerospace is celebrating the launch of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) from French Guiana. The Colorado-based company designed and built the advanced optical technology and lightweight ... more
NASA, private space industry may reach new heights in 2022Orlando FL (UPI) Dec 27, 2021 Space exploration may shatter records in 2022 with the launch of the most powerful rocket ever in a flight beyond the moon, a space telescope that will peer into the dawn of the universe and groundb ... more |
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Virgin Orbit completes final launch rehearsal ahead of 3rd commercial launchMojave CA (SPX) Dec 27, 2021 Yesterday, Virgin Orbit, which has announced a planned business combination with NextGen Acquisition Corp. II ("NextGen") (NASDAQ: NGCA), completed a full wet dress rehearsal of its air-launched Lau ... more
World's most sophisticated commercial communications satellite launchedLondon, UK (SPX) Dec 27, 2021 Inmarsat, the world leader in global, mobile satellite communications confirms the successful launch of its first Inmarsat-6 satellite, I-6 F1, by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) from the JAXA Tan ... more
Cargo Dragon Docks to Station with Brand New ScienceHouston TX (SPX) Dec 27, 2021 While the International Space Station was traveling more than 260 miles over the South Pacific Ocean, a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft autonomously docked to the space-facing side of the orbiting la ... more
A Christmas comet for Solar OrbiterParis (ESA) Dec 27, 2021 Comet Leonard, a mass of space dust, rock and ice about a kilometre across is heading for a close pass of the Sun on 3 January, and the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft has been watching its evolut ... more
Perseverance and the Search Amongst the SandWashington DC (SPX) Dec 27, 2021 Since February 18, 2021, Perseverance has been exploring the Jezero crater floor, including an exposure of rock and sand that the rover's science team calls Seitah (which means "amongst the sand" in ... more |
![]() Holiday Prepping on Mar: Sols 3333-3343 |
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DART returns first images from spacePasadena CA (JPL) Dec 27, 2021 Just two weeks after launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft has opened its "eye" and returned its first images from space ... more
China's tallest rocket deploys two satellitesBeijing (XNA) Dec 27, 2021 The launch of a modified Long March 7A carrier rocket on Thursday that sent two experimental satellites into space marked the debut mission of China's tallest rocket. The 60.7-meter-tall rocke ... more
Shenzhou XIII taikonauts complete second extravehicular missionBeijing (XNA) Dec 27, 2021 Taikonauts Zhai Zhigang and Ye Guangfu have completed their extravehicular activities (EVAs) and returned to the space station core module Tianhe, the China Manned Space Agency said on early hours o ... more
China launches new resource satelliteTaiyuan (XNA) Dec 27, 2021 China sent a new resource satellite into planned orbit from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province on Sunday. The resource satellite, ZY-1 02E, was launched at 11 ... more
Japanese billionaire urges elites to visit space after ISS tripMoscow (AFP) Dec 22, 2021 Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa on Wednesday urged the world's elites to visit space to give them a new perspective of Earth, speaking after his own voyage to the International Space Station. ... more |
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Japanese space tourists return to Earth after 12 days on ISS Almaty, Kazakhstan (AFP) Dec 20, 2021
A Japanese billionaire returned to Earth Monday, after 12 days on the International Space Station where he made videos about performing mundane tasks including brushing teeth and going to the bathroom.
Online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano parachuted onto Kazakhstan's steppe at around the expected landing time of 0313 GMT Monday, along with Russian cosmonaut Ale ... more |
Webb telescope launch again pushed back Washington (AFP) Dec 21, 2021
The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, which astronomers hope will herald a new era of discovery, was again pushed back Tuesday until at least Christmas Day due to "adverse weather conditions" at the launch site in French Guiana, NASA said.
The new target date, if determined to be viable, would be an actual Christmas gift for scientists who have been waiting three decades to see the l ... more |
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Perseverance and the Search Amongst the Sand Washington DC (SPX) Dec 27, 2021
Since February 18, 2021, Perseverance has been exploring the Jezero crater floor, including an exposure of rock and sand that the rover's science team calls Seitah (which means "amongst the sand" in the Navajo language).
One of the main exploration targets within Jezero crater is the well-preserved delta deposit, and many of the predicted landing sites for the rover were clustered very nea ... more |
Shenzhou XIII taikonauts complete second extravehicular mission Beijing (XNA) Dec 27, 2021
Taikonauts Zhai Zhigang and Ye Guangfu have completed their extravehicular activities (EVAs) and returned to the space station core module Tianhe, the China Manned Space Agency said on early hours of Monday.
This was the fourth time that the taikonauts conducted EVAs during the construction of the country's space station and the second by the Shenzhou XIII crew. The CMSA has declared the E ... more |
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Investing recovery and resilience funds in space projects Paris (ESA) Dec 20, 2021
Green and digital transition in Europe will benefit from ESA expertise that supports national plans for investing recovery and resilience funds in space projects.
At the 303rd ESA Council meeting in Paris on 15 December 2021, ESA Member States took the decision to further the role of ESA as provider of expertise in support of national space plans, in particular in order to accompany the in ... more |
China's tallest rocket deploys two satellites Beijing (XNA) Dec 27, 2021
The launch of a modified Long March 7A carrier rocket on Thursday that sent two experimental satellites into space marked the debut mission of China's tallest rocket.
The 60.7-meter-tall rocket blasted off at 6:12 pm from a coastal launch tower at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province before placing the Shiyan 12-01 and 12-02 satellites into their orbits, China Aerospace Scie ... more |
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Lost in space: Rocky planets formed from missing solar system material Livermore CA (SPX) Dec 27, 2021
By looking at the range of isotopic variations in terrestrial and meteoritic samples, a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientist and collaborators have figured out that Earth and Mars formed by collisions of planetary embryos originating from the inner solar system.
Rocky planets may have formed by two fundamentally different processes, but it is unclear which one built the ... more |
Looking Back, Looking Forward To New Horizons Boulder CO (SPX) Dec 21, 2021
New Horizons remains healthy and continues to send valuable data from deep in the Kuiper Belt - more than 5 billion miles away - even as it speeds farther and farther from the Earth and Sun.
As 2021 winds down, I want to recount what the New Horizons project has accomplished this year, and also look ahead to tell you about our plans for 2022.
During a busy and productive 2021, our sc ... more |
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DARPA Selects Performers to Build, Test Manta Ray Unmanned Underwater Vehicles Washington DC (SPX) Dec 21, 2021
DARPA has awarded Phase 2 contracts to continue the Manta Ray program that began in 2020. The effort seeks to demonstrate innovative technologies allowing payload-capable autonomous unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) to operate on long-duration, long-range missions in ocean environments.
The two prime contractors, Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation and Martin Defense Group, are each dev ... more |
Two new satellites mark further enlargement of Galileo Paris (ESA) Dec 09, 2021
Europe's largest satellite constellation has grown even bigger, following the launch of two more Galileo navigation satellites by Soyuz launcher from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana on 5 December. Galileo satellites 27-28 add to an existing 26-satellite constellation in orbit, providing the world's most precise satnav positioning to more than 2.3 billion users around the globe.
ESA Dir ... more |
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MIT engineers test an idea for a new hovering Lunar rover Boston MA (SPX) Dec 27, 2021
Aerospace engineers at MIT are testing a new concept for a hovering rover that levitates by harnessing the moon's natural charge.
Because they lack an atmosphere, the moon and other airless bodies such as asteroids can build up an electric field through direct exposure to the sun and surrounding plasma. On the moon, this surface charge is strong enough to levitate dust more than 1 meter ab ... more |
DART returns first images from space Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 27, 2021
Just two weeks after launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft has opened its "eye" and returned its first images from space - a major operational milestone for the spacecraft and DART team.
After the violent vibrations of launch and the extreme temperature shift to minus 80 degrees C in space, scientists and enginee ... more |
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China launches new resource satellite Taiyuan (XNA) Dec 27, 2021
China sent a new resource satellite into planned orbit from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province on Sunday.
The resource satellite, ZY-1 02E, was launched at 11:11 a.m. (Beijing Time) by a Long March-4C carrier rocket.
The satellite, developed by the China Academy of Space Technology, will work in the solar synchronous orbit. It carries a near-infrared ... more |
NASA enters the Solar atmosphere for the first time Greenbelt MD (SPX) Dec 15, 2021
For the first time in history, a spacecraft has touched the Sun. NASA's Parker Solar Probe has now flown through the Sun's upper atmosphere - the corona - and sampled particles and magnetic fields there.
The new milestone marks one major step for Parker Solar Probe and one giant leap for solar science. Just as landing on the Moon allowed scientists to understand how it was formed, touching ... more |
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Inside the James Webb Space Telescope's control room Baltimore (AFP) Dec 22, 2021 "White-knuckle" - That's how Rusty Whitman describes the month ahead, after the launch of the historic James Webb Space Telescope, now tentatively set for Saturday.
From a secure control room in Baltimore, Maryland, Whitman and his colleagues will hold their breath as Webb comes online. But that's just the beginning.
For the first six months after Webb's launch, Whitman and the team at ... more |
Astronomers capture black hole eruption spanning 16 times the full Moon in the sky Perth, Australia (SPX) Dec 27, 2021
Astronomers have produced the most comprehensive image of radio emission from the nearest actively feeding supermassive black hole to Earth.
The emission is powered by a central black hole in the galaxy Centaurus A, about 12 million light years away.
As the black hole feeds on in-falling gas, it ejects material at near light-speed, causing 'radio bubbles' to grow over hundreds of mil ... more |
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