
Copernical Team
NASA will fly into Oct. eclipse's shadow

James Webb telescope captures planet-like structures in Orion Nebula

Trimble and AGCO form joint venture to better serve farmers worldwide

NASA announces launch services for pair of space weather satellites

Milestone for novel atomic clock

US TV provider given first-ever space debris fine

Vega’s ESTCube-2 tether to the future

Estonia’s next satellite will fly aboard Europe’s Vega VV23 launcher later this week. While largely designed and built by undergraduate students, the shoebox-sized ESTCube-2 has ambitious goals in mind, including surveys of Estonian vegetation and the first successful in-orbit demonstration of ‘plasma brake’ technology. Deployment of a charged microtether will slow the CubeSat’s orbit, proving the prospect of helping to keep space clear of dangerous debris in the future.
Let the robot take the wheel: Autonomous navigation in space

Tracking spacecraft as they traverse deep space isn't easy. So far, it's been done manually, with operators of NASA's Deep Space Network, one of the most capable communication arrays for contacting probes on interplanetary journeys, checking data from each spacecraft to determine where it is in the solar system.
As more and more spacecraft start to make those harrowing trips between planets, that system will not be scalable. So engineers and orbital mechanics experts are rushing to solve this problem—and now a team from Politecnico di Milano has developed an effective technique that would be familiar to anyone who has seen an autonomous car.
Visual systems are at the heart of most autonomous vehicles here on Earth, and they are also the heart of the system outlined by Eleonora Andreis and her colleagues.
To study atmosphere, NASA rockets will fly into October eclipse's shadow

A NASA sounding rocket mission will launch three rockets during the 2023 annular eclipse in October to study how the sudden drop in sunlight affects our upper atmosphere.
On Oct. 14, 2023, viewers of an annular solar eclipse in the Americas will experience the sun dimming to 10% its normal brightness, leaving only a bright "ring of fire" of sunlight as the moon eclipses the sun.
NASA's New Horizons to continue exploring outer solar system

NASA has announced an updated plan to continue New Horizons' mission of exploration of the outer solar system.
Beginning in fiscal year 2025, New Horizons will focus on gathering unique heliophysics data, which can be readily obtained during an extended, low-activity mode of operations.
While the science community is not currently aware of any reachable Kuiper Belt object, this new path allows for the possibility of using the spacecraft for a future close flyby of such an object, should one be identified. It also will enable the spacecraft to preserve fuel and reduce operational complexity while a search is conducted for a compelling flyby candidate.
"The New Horizons mission has a unique position in our solar system to answer important questions about our heliosphere and provide extraordinary opportunities for multidisciplinary science for NASA and the scientific community," said Nicola Fox, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "The agency decided that it was best to extend operations for New Horizons until the spacecraft exits the Kuiper Belt, which is expected in 2028 through 2029.