BepiColombo’s close Venus encounter
Thursday, 12 August 2021 09:00
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A stunning sequence of 89 images taken by the monitoring cameras on board the European-Japanese BepiColombo mission to Mercury, as the spacecraft made a close approach of Venus on 10 August 2021.
The sequence includes images from all three Monitoring Cameras (MCAM) onboard the Mercury Transfer Module, which provides black-and-white snapshots in 1024 x 1024 pixel resolution. It is not possible to image with the high-resolution camera suite during the cruise phase. The images have been lightly processed to enhance contrast and use the full dynamic range. A small amount of optical vignetting is seen in the corners
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Flying by Venus OSIRIS-REx helps scientists model the orbit of hazardous asteroid Bennu
Thursday, 12 August 2021 08:22
The half-a-kilometer-wide asteroid Bennu is already one of the most well-studied asteroids prior to the OSIRIS-REx mission.
By ysing positional data collected over the course of the two-year sample return mission, however, scientists were able to improve their knowledge of Bennu's trajectory by a factor of 20, NASA scientists said at a press briefing.
"The OSIRIS-REx mission coll Hermeus fully-funded to flight with US Air Force Partnership
Thursday, 12 August 2021 08:22
Hermeus has signed a $60 million U.S. Air Force partnership for flight testing its first Marc 5 aircraft - Quarterhorse.
Quarterhorse will validate the company's proprietary turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) engine, based around the GE J85 turbojet engine, and is the first in a line of autonomous high-speed aircraft. By the end of the flight test campaign, Quarterhorse will be the fastes Netflix plans series on historic SpaceX Inspiration4 mission
Thursday, 12 August 2021 08:22
Netflix plans to cover the upcoming SpaceX launch of the first all-private orbital spaceflight in September, Inspiration4, with a five-part docuseries.
The series would offer closeup footage of the entire mission "from training to launch to landing," according to Netflix. It would give viewers a unique perspective on a historic spaceflight and break ground for the leading streaming serv Commander offers strategies for deterring aggression from China and Russia
Thursday, 12 August 2021 08:22
The commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command described threats from Russia and China and ways to mitigate those threats.
Air Force Gen. Glen D. VanHerck spoke at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium, in Huntsville, Alabama.
Besides battling wildfires, hurricanes, cyberattacks and COVID-19, NORAD and Northcom are engaged in deterring threats f Space Force reluctant to spearhead Pentagon's UFO Investigation Program
Thursday, 12 August 2021 08:22
A former US intelligence official reportedly said that it "makes perfect sense" for the Space Force to handle the UFO-related matters since it "doesn't have a geographic boundary."
The US Space Force is "conflicted" over the prospect of leading the country's effort to collect information about UFOs, Politico reports.
According to the media outlet, while the Pentagon is contemplating Lockheed Martin to upgrade US missile defense system's Multi-Domain Command and Control Capability
Thursday, 12 August 2021 08:22
Today's battlespace is the most contested since the Cold War. Offensive missile systems with maturing sophistication from rogue states pose a growing threat to the U.S. Helping the U.S. counter these threats is the Command, Control, Battle Management and Communications (C2BMC) system, the integrating element of the U.S. Missile Defense System.
To strengthen C2BMC's capability, the Missile Scientists detect characteristics of the birth of a major challenge to harvesting fusion energy on Earth
Thursday, 12 August 2021 08:22
A key challenge for scientists striving to produce on Earth the fusion energy that powers the sun and stars is preventing what are called runaway electrons, particles unleashed in disrupted fusion experiments that can bore holes in tokamaks, the doughnut-shaped machines that house the experiments. Scientists led by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Lab Indian launch attempt of earth observation satellite fails
Thursday, 12 August 2021 06:55
NASA blames Mars rover sampling fiasco on bad, powdery rock
Thursday, 12 August 2021 06:55
Indian GSLV launch fails
Thursday, 12 August 2021 00:25
An Indian Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) suffered a malfunction of its upper stage during an Aug. 11 launch, causing the loss of an imaging satellite.
Northrop Grumman has not ruled out another try at national security space launch
Wednesday, 11 August 2021 20:31
A year after discontinuing the development of its OmegA rocket, Northrop Grumman is not completely ruling out a future attempt to get back in the national security launch market.
Measat gives up on drifting satellite in a blow for insurers
Wednesday, 11 August 2021 19:55
Satellite insurers are bracing for a $45 million claim from Malaysian operator Measat, which plans to de-orbit Measat-3 after failing to return it to service.
Only slight chance of asteroid Bennu hitting Earth: NASA
Wednesday, 11 August 2021 19:29
An asteroid known as Bennu will pass within half the distance of the Earth to the Moon in the year 2135 but the probability of an impact with our planet in the coming centuries is very slight, scientists said Wednesday.
OSIRIS-REx, a NASA spacecraft, spent two years near Bennu, an asteroid that is about 1,650 feet (500 meters) wide, observing its size, shape, mass and composition and monitoring its orbital trajectory around the sun.
Using its robotic arm, the spacecraft also collected a sample from the surface of the asteroid that will help researchers determine the future trajectory of Bennu.
The rocks and dust collected by OSIRIS-REx are scheduled to return to Earth on September 24, 2023.
Bennu was discovered in 1999 and is classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid.
It will make a close approach with Earth in September 2135.
Scientists want to figure out how Earth's gravity and a phenomenon known as the Yarkovsky effect will affect its future trajectory and the potential for an impact on a subsequent orbit.