
Copernical Team
Lockheed Martin releases open-source interface standard for on-orbit docking

SwRI's Space System Integration Facility supports smallsat development

Kleos launches Patrol Mission satellites

Early Universe bristled with starburst galaxies

Prenatal protoplanet upends planet formation models

Hubble finds a planet forming in an unconventional way

Shake and Bake as NASA's Psyche tested in spacelike conditions

Axiom-1 targets Friday for ISS launch after NASA delays moon rocket test

NASA uses moonlight to improve satellite accuracy

NASA's airborne Lunar Spectral Irradiance, or air-LUSI, flew aboard NASA's ER-2 aircraft from March 12 to 16 to accurately measure the amount of light reflected off the Moon. Reflected moonlight is a steady source of light that researchers are taking advantage of to improve the accuracy and consistency of measurements among Earth-observing satellites.
"The Moon is extremely stable and not influenced by factors on Earth like climate to any large degree. It becomes a very good calibration reference, an independent benchmark, by which we can set our instruments and see what's happening with our planet," said air-LUSI's principal investigator, Kevin Turpie, a research professor at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Shake and bake: NASA's Psyche is tested in spacelike conditions

To prepare for its launch in August, the Psyche spacecraft has been tested to ensure it can operate in the extreme conditions it will face on its trip to a metal-rich asteroid.
The conditions that a NASA spacecraft endures are extreme: the violent shaking and cacophony of a rocket launch, the jolt of separating from the launch vehicle, the extreme temperature fluctuations in and out of the sun's rays, the unforgiving vacuum of space.
Before launch, engineers do their best to replicate these harsh conditions in a rigorous series of tests to ensure the spacecraft can withstand them. NASA's Psyche spacecraft has just completed its own gauntlet of electromagnetic, thermal-vacuum, vibration, shock, and acoustic testing at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.