Moscow (Sputnik) Jan 01, 2021
Russia plans to perform three launches of the Proton-M carrier rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome next year, three times more than in 2020, a space industry source told Sputnik. This year, only one Proton-M launch was carried out, putting telecommunications satellites Express-80 and Express-103 into orbit. "Next year, three Proton-M launches are being planned," a space industry sour

Washington DC (SPX) Jan 01, 2021
Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX), Hawthorne, California, has been awarded a $150,450,000 firm-fixed-price contract for launch services from Vandenberg Air Force Base for the Space Development Agency's Tranche 0 Transport and Tracking Layer space vehicles. This award was made based on the Tranche 0 Launch request for proposal (HQ085021R0001) released Oct. 6, 2020, to which respo

Orlando FL (UPI) Jan 01, 2021
Launching people into orbit from U.S. soil again during two SpaceX launches topped the year's accomplishments in spaceflight. With that and other achievements, it was a strong year for Elon Musk's company. The launch of the Dragon Endeavour at the end of May with two astronauts on board, followed by the Crew 1 mission's successful flight starting Nov. 15, stood out as historic achievements

London, UK (The Conversation) Jan 01, 2021
When it comes to the Moon, everyone wants the same things. Not in the sense of having shared goals, but in the sense that all players target the same strategic sites - state agencies and the private sector alike. That's because, whether you want to do science or make money, you will need things such as water and light. Many countries and private companies have ambitious plans to explore or

Washington DC (SPX) Dec 31, 2020
A diamond lasts forever, but that doesn't mean all diamonds have a common history. Some diamonds were formed billions of years ago in space as the carbon-rich atmospheres of dying stars expanded and cooled. In our own planet's lifetime, high-temperatures and pressures in the mantle produced the diamonds that are familiar to us as gems. 5,000 years ago, a large meteorite that struck a carbon-rich

Munich, Germany (SPX) Dec 31, 2020
Analytical optical methods are vital to our modern society as they permit the fast and secure identification of substances within solids, liquids or gases. These methods rely on light interacting with each of these substances differently at different parts of the optical spectrum. For instance, the ultraviolet range of the spectrum can directly access electronic transitions inside a substance wh

Swansea UK (SPX) Dec 31, 2020
A fast, green and one-step method for producing porous carbon spheres, which are a vital component for carbon capture technology and for new ways of storing renewable energy, has been developed by Swansea University researchers. The method produces spheres that have good capacity for carbon capture, and it works effectively at a large scale. Carbon spheres range in size from nanomete

Beijing, China (SPX) Dec 31, 2020
Since CO2 has been recognized as the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas owing to its significant impact on global warming and climate change, there have been a substantial number of studies that have focused on investigating the status of CO2 in the atmosphere in the past and present, and how it will change in the future. The United Nations Climate Change Conference (24th Conferen

Washington DC (SPX) Dec 31, 2020
In the far north, the swelling Arctic Ocean inundated vast swaths of coastal tundra and steppe ecosystems. Though the ocean water was only a few degrees above freezing, it started to thaw the permafrost beneath it, exposing billions of tons of organic matter to microbial breakdown. The decomposing organic matter began producing CO2 and CH4, two of the most important greenhouse gases. Thoug

Kourou, French Guiana (SPX) Dec 31, 2020
For its 10th and final launch of the year, Arianespace used a Soyuz rocket to orbit the CSO-2 defense and security observation satellite for the French CNES space agency (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales) and DGA defense procurement agency (Direction generale de l'armement), on behalf of the French armed forces. With this launch, Arianespace has once again demonstrated its ability to ens