ESA’s Hera asteroid mission for planetary defence is about to gain its sight. Two complete and fully tested Asteroid Framing Cameras have reached OHB in Germany for integration aboard Hera’s payload module. This instrument will provide the very first star-like view of Hera’s target for the mission to steer towards the Dimorphos asteroid, which last year had its orbit altered by an impact with NASA’s DART mission.

Wuhan, China (XNA) Feb 20, 2023
The Luojia-3 01 satellite has completed several technical tests, and its multi-mode intelligent remote sensing service capability has reached the expected target, according to Wuhan University. Luojia-3 01 is an internet-intelligent remote-sensing scientific experiment satellite, mainly developed by Wuhan University and launched by a Long March-2D rocket on Jan. 15. It adopts the in-

Rehovot, Israel (SPX) Feb 22, 2023
NASA will launch Israel's first space telescope mission, the Ultraviolet Transient Astronomy Satellite (ULTRASAT). ULTRASAT, an ultraviolet observatory with a large field of view, will investigate the secrets of short-duration events in the universe, such as supernova explosions and mergers of neutron stars. Led by the Israel Space Agency and Weizmann Institute of Science, ULTRASAT is plan

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Feb 23, 2023
A century ago, the British archaeologist Howard Carter opened Tutankhamun's burial chamber. For years he had been searching for the pharaoh's tomb in the Valley of the Kings, northwest of the Upper Egyptian city of Luxor. Having almost given up, he found Tutankhamun's tomb in the winter of 1922. However, several months of careful preparations were needed before the archaeologist could enter the

Luxembourg (SPX) Feb 23, 2023
In support of intensifying government initiatives to close the connectivity gap for more than 7,500 households across urban and rural population centres in French Guiana, Marlink has been awarded a Public Service Delegation contract to set up broadband Internet and 4G/5G services via satellite networks covering the entire French region. SES and Marlink today announced they have signed a 15

Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) Feb 23, 2023
Sidus Space, Inc. has signed an agreement with SpaceX to launch on Transporter missions manifested for 2024 and 2025. This additional agreement further extends the Company's relationship with SpaceX, chosen in part due to their successful and reliable launch capabilities. Sidus Space expects the Maiden Flight of LizzieSat on SpaceX Transporter-9 later this year. Along with launching in 202

Baltimore MD (SPX) Feb 23, 2023
On June 20, 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope spent just over one hour staring at Messier 92 (M92), a globular cluster 27,000 light-years away in the Milky Way halo. The observation - among the very first science observations undertaken by Webb - is part of Early Release Science (ERS) program 1334, one of 13 ERS programs designed to help astronomers understand how to use Webb and make the mos

Washington DC (SPX) Feb 23, 2023
In a new study, an international team of astrophysicists has discovered several mysterious objects hiding in images from the James Webb Space Telescope: six potential galaxies that emerged so early in the universe's history and are so massive they should not be possible under current cosmological theory. Each of the candidate galaxies may have existed at the dawn of the universe roughly 50

Boston MA (SPX) Feb 23, 2023
Astronomers have discovered the first evidence for giant black holes in dwarf galaxies on a collision course. This result from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has important ramifications for understanding how the first wave of black holes and galaxies grew in the early universe. Collisions between the pairs of dwarf galaxies identified in a new study have pulled gas towards the giant blac

Heidelberg, Germany (SPX) Feb 23, 2023
The CARMENES program, led by a consortium of Spanish and German research institutions, in which the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) is a partner, has released 20,000 observations of more than 300 stars. These measurements led to the discovery of 59 planets, with a dozen being potentially habitable. This spectroscopic data set was obtained at the Calar Alto Observatory in Spain and is n