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NASA rolls out its mega Moon rocket![]() Washington (AFP) March 18, 2022 NASA's massive new rocket began its first journey to a launchpad on Thursday ahead of a battery of tests that will clear it to blast off to the Moon this summer. It left the Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building around 5:47 pm Eastern Time (2147 GMT) and began an 11-hour journey on a crawler-transporter to the hallowed Launch Complex 39B, four miles (6.5 kilometers) away. Around 10,000 people had gathered to watch the event. - Huge rocket, huge cost - With the Orion crew cap ... read more |
Developing design tools for outer space structuresWest Lafayette IN (SPX) Mar 17, 2022 Achieving affordable space exploration will require lightweight structures for vehicles, solar arrays and antennas. Lightweight materials also will be used for ... more
Poland signs with Virgin Orbit for domestic launch servicesWarsaw, Poland (SPX) Mar 18, 2022 In an official letter of intent with the leading responsive space company Virgin Orbit (Nasdaq: VORB), the Polish Space Agency (POLSA), the agency overseeing Poland's space development, conveyed its ... more
US comic Pete Davidson not going to space after allWashington (AFP) March 18, 2022 Plot twist: American comedian and actor Pete Davidson isn't going to space next week after all. ... more
Lunar scientists and engineers design Moon cave explorerParis (ESA) Mar 17, 2022 Lunar caves are not only a geologically pristine record of the Moon's history, but they could also provide a safe home for future human explorers. Building upon ESA Discovery's OSIP call and SysNova ... more |
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| Previous Issues | Mar 17 | Mar 16 | Mar 15 | Mar 14 | Mar 13 |
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NASA's Angie Jackman works to develop rocket that will bring Mars samples to EarthHuntsville AL (SPX) Mar 18, 2022 Right now, some 182 million miles separate the red clay of Alabama from the dusty red planet Mars. But groundbreaking flight hardware developed at NASA's Marshall S ... more
OneWeb partners with Axiros for critical customer infrastructure supportMunich, Germany (SPX) Mar 18, 2022 When the nearest service engineer is a 2-hour helicopter flight away, manual troubleshooting and firmware updates really aren't an option. So who does OneWeb trust for remote management of their use ... more
Unlimited 3D printing for spaceParis (ESA) Mar 17, 2022 A standard 3D printer cannot produce anything bigger than the size limits of the printer itself. But this new IMPERIAL 3D printer, designed for use in space by a Europe-wide industrial consortium, c ... more
Moon's orbit proposed as a gravitational wave detectorBarcelona, Spain (SPX) Mar 18, 2022 Researchers from the UAB, IFAE and University College London propose using the variations in distance between the Earth and the Moon, which can be measured with a precision of less than a centimeter ... more |
Remote sensing satellite lifted successfully into orbitBeijing (XNA) Mar 18, 2022 China launched a remote sensing satellite from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwestern Gobi Desert on Thursday afternoon, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp ... more
A Day in the Life of a T-DOCPasadena CA (JPL) Mar 17, 2022 It takes a team to plan Perseverance's daily activities, including people in many different roles. One of these roles is called the tactical documentarian, or T-DOC. The tactical documentarian takes ... more
Russian-European Mars mission suspended over Ukraine warParis (AFP) March 17, 2022 A Russian-European mission to land a rover on Mars has been suspended due to the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine, the European Space Agency announced Thursday, as Moscow said it regretted the "bitter" decision. ... more
Lunar Swirl Patterns and Topography Are Related, Study FindsTucson AZ (SPX) Mar 18, 2022 Bright and dark swirling patterns on the Moon's surface have been linked to the topography of the swirls, says a new paper by a team of scientists from the Planetary Science Institute. "This i ... more |
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Fifth asteroid ever discovered before impactParis (ESA) Mar 17, 2022 At 19:24 UTC on 11 March 2022, astronomer Krisztian Sarneczky discovered a bright and fast-moving new object in the sky using the 60cm Schmidt telescope at the Piszkesteto observatory, Hungary. He c ... more
A View Filled With Ventifacts - Sols 3417-3418Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 18, 2022 Our Monday drive was successful, and we are now fully surrounded by the rocks that cap the Greenheugh pediment. From here we can see hundreds of ventifacts - a term that describes rocks which have b ... more
Sols 3414-3416: Progress!Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 17, 2022 Over the weekend, we completed the planned drive with a relatively easy (by "Greenheugh Pediment" standards) traverse in the pediment. With lots of bedrock in the workspace, we quickly identified a ... more
Smile payload module travels to ChinaParis (ESA) Mar 17, 2022 Following a successful test campaign in Europe, the structural thermal model of the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (Smile)'s payload module will soon be delivered to China to comp ... more
Gaia snaps photo of Webb at L2Paris (ESA) Mar 17, 2022 Both spacecraft are located in orbits around the Lagrange point 2 (L2), 1.5 million km from Earth in the direction away from the Sun. Gaia arrived there in 2014, and Webb in January 2022. On 1 ... more |
![]() Launching robots into lunar caves |
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Astronauts wrap up spacewalk outside ISS to prep for new solar arrays Orlando FL (UPI) Mar 16, 2022
Two NASA astronauts completed a spacewalk Tuesday to prepare for the installation of new solar arrays at the International Space Station, amid tension between Russia and the United States over the Ukraine conflict.
Astronauts Kayla Barron, 34, and Raja Chari, 44, spent six hours and 54 minutes on their spacewalk, having exited the station around 8:15 a.m. EDT - their second and first spac ... more |
Astra launches three satellites in successful mission from Alaska Washington DC (UPI) Mar 15, 2021
California-based rocket company Astra Space launched three small satellites from Alaska on Tuesday morning and said the payloads deployed successfully.
The rocket, LV0009, lifted off from Pacific Spaceport Complex on Kodiak Island as planned at 9:22 a.m. PDT.
"We have great news to report," Astra CEO Chris Kemp said on a live broadcast a little over an hour after launch. "The pay ... more |
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MAHLI tries again on Sols 3412-3414 for detailed closeup Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 15, 2022
Due to an issue with the Sol 3410 and 3411 plans, parts of the Sol 3410 plan didn't execute and the planned drive did not occur. But the Sol 3409 contact science activities completed successfully, returning nice MAHLI images of bedrock.
Because the rover did not move, the high-gain antenna view of Earth is still occluded, preventing direct communication from Earth and daily uplink. So we w ... more |
Chief designer details China's future lunar missions Beijing (XNA) Mar 14, 2022
China will carry on its moon research in the future with Chang'e-6, Chang'e-7 and Chang'e-8 missions by 2030, chief designer of the country's lunar exploration program Wu Weiren said.
The Chang'e-6 is scheduled to bring back to Earth lunar samples with a mass of up to 2 kilograms; the Chang'e-7 will be tasked with landing on the lunar south pole and detecting local natural resources; and t ... more |
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OneWeb partners with Axiros for critical customer infrastructure support Munich, Germany (SPX) Mar 18, 2022
When the nearest service engineer is a 2-hour helicopter flight away, manual troubleshooting and firmware updates really aren't an option. So who does OneWeb trust for remote management of their user terminals? Axiros.
As if it wasn't demanding enough managing your core network components out in space, there are also extreme on-the-ground challenges for a satellite operator like OneWeb. Th ... more |
NASA adds giant new dish to communicate with deep space missions Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 17, 2022
There's a powerful new member of NASA's family of giant antennas that enable engineers and scientists on Earth to communicate with the growing number of spacecraft exploring our solar system.
Called Deep Space Station 53, or DSS-53, the 111-foot (34-meter) antenna is part of NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN). It's now operational at the network's facility outside Madrid, one of three such gr ... more |
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Combing the cosmos: New color catalog aids hunt for life on frozen worlds Ithaca NY (SPX) Mar 17, 2022
Aided by microbes found in the subarctic conditions of Canada's Hudson Bay, an international team - including researchers from Portugal's Instituto Superior de Agronomia and Tecnico, Canada's Universite Laval in Quebec, and Cornell - has created the first color catalog of icy planet surface signatures to uncover the existence of life in the cosmos.
As ground-based and space telescopes get ... more |
Searching for Planet Nine Boston MA (SPX) Mar 17, 2022
The Solar System has eight planets. In 2006, astronomers reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet, the same class as contains Eris, Sedna, Quaoar, Ceres and perhaps many more solar system small bodies. These are defined approximately as bodies that orbit the Sun but that are not massive enough (unlike regular planets) to gravitationally dominate their environments by clearing away material. Astronom ... more |
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As oceans warm, marine cold spells are disappearing Hobart, Australia (SPX) Mar 18, 2022
Marine cold spells are cold versions of heat waves: periods of exceptionally cold water, able to hurt or help the ecosystems they hit. As the atmosphere and oceans warm, marine cold spells are becoming less intense and less frequent overall, according to a new study.
Today, the oceans experience just 25% of the number of cold spell days they did in the 1980s, and cold spells are about 15% ... more |
China's BeiDou enters new phase of stable services, rapid development Beijing (XNA) Mar 13, 2022
China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) has entered a new phase of sustained stable services and rapid development, according to the China Satellite Navigation Office on Friday.
Measured by the global continuous monitoring and evaluation system, the BDS-3 system shows an advanced performance index in providing global positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services, with more out ... more |
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Lunar Swirl Patterns and Topography Are Related, Study Finds Tucson AZ (SPX) Mar 18, 2022
Bright and dark swirling patterns on the Moon's surface have been linked to the topography of the swirls, says a new paper by a team of scientists from the Planetary Science Institute.
"This is the first time there has been a demonstrated correlation between the swirl albedo patterns and topography," said PSI Senior Scientist Deborah Domingue, lead author of "Topographic Correlations withi ... more |
Comet 67P's abundant oxygen more of an illusion, new study suggests Laurel MD (SPX) Mar 15, 2022
When the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft discovered abundant molecular oxygen bursting from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) in 2015, it puzzled scientists. They had never seen a comet emit oxygen, let alone in such abundance. But most alarming were the deeper implications: that researchers had to account for so much oxygen, which meant reconsidering everything they thought they ... more |
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Remote sensing satellite lifted successfully into orbit Beijing (XNA) Mar 18, 2022
China launched a remote sensing satellite from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwestern Gobi Desert on Thursday afternoon, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp.
The State-owned space contractor said that the Yaogan 34-02 satellite was placed in a preset orbit aboard a Long March 4C rocket that lifted off at 3:09 pm.
The satellite will team up wi ... more |
Smile payload module travels to China Paris (ESA) Mar 17, 2022
Following a successful test campaign in Europe, the structural thermal model of the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (Smile)'s payload module will soon be delivered to China to complete the qualification of the satellite.
Smile is a joint mission between ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and will aim to build a more complete understanding of the Sun-Earth conne ... more |
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NASA sharpens focus of James Webb Space Telescope Orlando FL (UPI) Mar 16, 2022
NASA on Wednesday planned to release details about how the agency is sharpening the focus of the large main mirror on the James Webb Space Telescope, which will start peering at the earliest galaxies in the universe soon.
NASA plans to update the press and the public on James Webb progress during a virtual press conference at noon EDT.
Previously, the agency released early images fro ... more |
Quantum information: Light from rare-earth molecules Karlsruhe, Germany (SPX) Mar 13, 2022
Quantum information will revolutionize not only research and industry, but also our everyday life. Among others, it promises enormous progress in the simulation of materials and processes, which will push the development of new medical substances, the improvement of batteries, transport planning, and secure information and communication. A quantum bit (qubit) can assume many different states bet ... more |
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