Copernical Team
China rejects 'concern' by NASA chief about Beijing militarizing the moon
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The Chinese government hit back on Tuesday at the head of the American space program over remarks he made in an interview that suggested Beijing is seeking to militarize the moon.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson criticized China in the interview with German newspaper Bild and said there should be concern about Chinese efforts to explore the moon.
"We must be very concerned that Ch Carnegie Mellon is reimagining nanosatellite capabilities with orbital edge computing
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Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's College of Engineering are setting out on a mission to reimagine the capabilities of nanosatellites in low-Earth orbit.
Backed by a $7 million grant from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) Frontiers Program, the CMU initiative will transform constellations of nanosatellites into sophisticated distributed computin Rocket Lab to launch responsive space missions for National Reconnaissance Office
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Rocket Lab USA, Inc (Nasdaq: RKLB) reports its next two launches will be responsive space missions for the United States Government's National Reconnaissance Office. Launching from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on two Electron rockets, Rocket Lab is scheduled to deploy satellites to space for the NRO within only 10 days of each other. NROL-162 ("Wise One Looks Ahead") will launch from Rocket Lab L ESA astronaut selection in the final stages
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The ESA astronaut selection has been progressing as planned, with phase two of the selection process ending in March this year, and phase three ending in June.
What do you hear, Starbuck?
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FedCon is one of Europe's largest science fiction conventions, its 2022 edition held earlier this month in Bonn in Germany. Actors from the many incarnations of Star Trek, as well as Star Wars, Doctor Who, and other science fiction shows met with thousands of fans.
ESA has been taking part in FedCon since 2015, with talks, panels, and a stand covering our space science, earth observation, and human exploration missions. At this year's event, scientists and engineers from ESTEC, ESOC, and the EAC gave talks about JWST, Rosetta, mission operations, and careers with ESA.
In addition, to help celebrate
Virgin Galactic taps Boeing subsidiary to build motherships
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Virgin Galactic announced Wednesday that it is partnering with a Boeing subsidiary to manufacture the next generation of the twin-fuselage aircraft used to carry aloft the space tourism company's rocket ship.
Aurora Flight Sciences will build two of the special carrier planes at its facilities in Mississippi and West Virginia. Final assembly still will take place at Virgin Galactic's facility in Mojave, California, with the first mothership produced under the contract expected to enter service in 2025.
Each of the aircraft will be designed to fly up to 200 launches per year.
Virgin Galactic officials said that outsourcing the work will provide access to labor, minimize supply chain disruptions and lead to faster production times. The company has repeatedly pushed back the timeline for launching paying customers, with commercial service now expected in 2023.
Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said the next-generation motherships will be integral to scaling up the company's operations.
"They will be faster to produce, easier to maintain and will allow us to fly substantially more missions each year," he said in a statement. "Supported by the scale and strength of Boeing, Aurora is the ideal manufacturing partner for us.
First Eurostar Neo satellite passes mechanical tests
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The first satellite to be built under ESA’s Eurostar Neo programme has completed mechanical tests designed to demonstrate its ability to withstand the vibration that occurs during launch.
Embry-Riddle Joins NSF Space Weather Challenge
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Just as the ocean's surface can be calm and glassy or churning big waves, a moody portion of space called the ionosphere can smoothly reflect communication signals or bounce them into oblivion. Predicting the ionosphere's wild mood swings is the focus of new National Science Foundation (NSF) support for research at five top engineering schools, including Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Could we eavesdrop on communications that pass through our solar system
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Communications across the vastness of interstellar space could be enhanced by taking advantage of a star's ability to focus and magnify communication signals. A team of graduate students at Penn State is looking for just these sorts of communication signals that might be taking advantage of our own sun if transmissions were passing through our solar system.
A paper describing the technique NASA Rockets Launch from Australia to Seek Habitable Star Conditions
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A NASA Black Brant IX suborbital sounding rocket was successfully launched at 9:47 a.m. EDT (11:17 p.m. ACST) July 6, 2022, from the Arnhem Space Centre (ASC) in the Northern Territory of Australia. The launch was for the Suborbital Imaging Spectrograph for Transition region Irradiance from Nearby Exoplanet host stars, or SISTINE, mission for the University of Colorado, Boulder. Preliminary anal