Copernical Team
A space race, a new Cold War or a bit of both
NASA has delayed the launch of the Artemis I new moon program until at least Sept 19 after cancelling a planned launch on Saturday. The decision on Saturday was the second time in a week that the launch was scrapped.
The first time it was cancelled was on Aug 29 because one of the four engines was not "cold enough" for take-off minutes before Artemis I was set to blast off to the moon. The Space Compass and Skyloom sign term sheet to bring optical data relay services to EO market
Skyloom and Space Compass (a newly formed joint venture between NTT and SKY Perfect JSAT) has announced that the companies signed a term sheet aimed to launch the first geostationary-based (GEO) data relay service over Asia that will leverage Skyloom's cutting-edge communication and networking systems for the purpose of serving the rapidly growing Earth-Observation (EO) market for real-time, hig Red Giant Betelgeuse was yellow some 2,000 years ago
With progressing nuclear fusion in the center of a star, brightness, size, and color also change. Astrophysicists can derive from such properties important information on age and mass of a star. Those stars with significantly more mass than our Sun are blue-white or red - the transition from red via yellow and orange is relative rapid for astronomical time-scales.
Astrophysicists of Friedr SpaceX launches 51 Starlink satellites, orbital transfer vehicle
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 51 Starlink satellites to orbit as well as an orbital transfer vehicle for another company on Sunday night from Port Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, one day after NAA scrapped a mission to the moon.
The payload was sent into a low Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 at 10:09 p.m. EDT.
The first stage separated and landed on th China launches new test satellites via Kuaizhou 1A carrier rocket
China sent two new test satellites into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China on Tuesday.
The CentiSpace 1-S3/S4 test satellites were launched by a Kuaizhou 1A carrier rocket at 10:24 am (Beijing Time) and they have entered the planned orbit successfully.
This was the 17th flight mission of the Kuaizhou 1A rockets, according to the launch center.
+ Study of Sample Brought Back by Chang'e-5 Unveils Formation of Nanophase Iron on the Moon
By studying lunar soil brought back by China's Chang'e-5 probe, researchers found reliable evidence of disproportionation origin of nanophase iron on the moon, according to a study published on Nature Astronomy on Thursday.
The peer-reviewed study was conducted by the Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Kunming University of Science and Technology.
Researc ISRO demonstrates new technology with Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator
An IAD, designed and developed by VSSC, has been successfully test flown in a Rohini sounding rocket from TERLS, Thumba at 12.20 pm Saturday Sep 3. The IAD was initially folded and kept inside the payload bay of the rocket. At around 84 km altitude, the IAD was inflated and it descended through atmosphere with the payload part of sounding rocket.
The pneumatic system for inflation was deve mu Space reveals a 10-Year Plan to build a Space Supply Chain in Thailand and Southeast Asia
mu Space and Advance Technology Co., Ltd., a satellite manufacturer and satellite communication service provider, reveals plans to advance the business in the next 10 years. The company announced their intentions to continue to invest in building a network for the aerospace industry with aims to being a leading aerospace manufacturer in Southeast Asia.
mu Space intends to build a supply ch Rocketlab sent this engine to space and then retrieved it: A new test shows it's still working fine
Reusable rocket engines have become all the rage lately, even as NASA's continually delayed Artemis I mission attempts to launch with non-reusable technology. Realistically, the only way to significantly lower launch costs is to reuse the engines rather than build them from scratch every time. Another small start-up company, RocketLab, has successfully retested a rocket that has flown in space.
SpaceX famously has flown several of its Raptor engines into space multiple times already, making headlines along the way. But it's not the only company with ambitions for reusing its rockets. RocketLab, which makes a much smaller rocket called the Electron, has also been eyeing this milestone for a while now.
The company made headlines back in May when it made a spectacular show of catching its rocket stage out of the air with a helicopter.
While Artemis scrubs, SpaceX treats Space Coast to launches
While hundreds of thousands of people made their way to the Space Coast two weekends in a row for a shot to see the most powerful rocket to ever lift off from Earth, a couple of scrubs for NASA's Artemis I mission left them disappointed.
But for those who were making a weekend out of their efforts, there was at least one rocket that lit up the sky for those who hung around.
SpaceX has continued its frenetic pace of Falcon 9 launches including a couple of Starlink missions that took flight: one right before midnight last weekend on Aug. 27, about 32 hours before NASA called off its first Artemis I attempt; and then again Sunday night about 32 hours after NASA was aiming for its second try to send up its Space Launch System rocket with the Orion capsule to the moon.
So while NASA may eventually have to roll back the Artemis I hardware capable of 8.8 million pounds of thrust on liftoff to the Vehicle Assembly Building, SpaceX keeps sending up its 1.7 million pounds of thrust servings.
