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ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti arrives at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, with NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins on 18 April 2022.

Collectively known as Crew-4, the astronauts flew in from Houston, Texas, and will spend the next week in quarantine before being launched to the International Space Station on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.

When they arrive at the Station, Samantha’s Minerva mission will officially begin. This is the second long-duration space mission for Samantha who first flew to the orbital outpost in 2014 for her Italian Space Agency ASI-sponsored mission Futura.

Samantha will

Poor weather will delay the return to Earth of four private astronauts from the International Space Station, which could in turn push back the launch of the next set of NASA and ESA astronauts to the station.

Many space technologies developed by entrepreneurs haven't been allowed a proverbial seat at the table, says industry executive Charles Beames

The post Op-ed | Space entrepreneurs need straight answers from DoD appeared first on SpaceNews.

As one of the last milestones before liftoff at the end of the year, the first Meteosat Third Generation weather satellite is being fitted with its Lightning Imager. From geostationary orbit, 36 000 km above Earth’s surface, this state-of-the-art European instrument will continuously monitor lightning over more than 80% of Earth’s disc for early warnings of dangerous storms. Remarkably, it is capable of imaging relatively weak lightning events in full sunlight.

Washington DC (SPX) Apr 19, 2022
DARPA is seeking innovative proposals to conduct wind tunnel and flight testing of jet interaction effects for Phase 2 of the Glide Breaker program. The overall goal of Glide Breaker is to advance the United States' ability to counter emerging hypersonic threats. Phase 1 of the program focused on developing and demonstrating a divert and attitude control system (DACS) that enables a kill v

Stanford CA (SPX) Apr 20, 2022
Europa is a prime candidate for life in our solar system, and its deep saltwater ocean has captivated scientists for decades. But it's enclosed by an icy shell that could be miles to tens of miles thick, making sampling it a daunting prospect. Now, increasing evidence reveals the ice shell may be less of a barrier and more of a dynamic system - and site of potential habitability in its own right

Yekaterinburg, Russia (SPX) Apr 19, 2022
Scientists at the Ural Federal University (UrFU) with colleagues from the Arabian Peninsula have improved the radiation protection properties of glass, in particular borate glasses (boron oxide-based glass). They introduced special additives into the basic composition of the glass - heavy metal oxides. This significantly increased the density of the material without affecting its transparency. A

Helsinki, Finland (SPX) Apr 20, 2022
The early universe may chirp about unknown physics. A University of Helsinki research team has demonstrated how an early universe phase transition will lead to gravitational wave signals potentially visible in the upcoming satellite missions. The research results were recently published in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters. Phase transitions, such as the boiling of water or t

Long Beach CA (SPX) Apr 20, 2022
Rocket Lab (Nasdaq: RKLB) has been selected by Virginia-based HawkEye 360 to launch three Electron missions for the radio frequency geospatial analytics provider. The first of the three missions is scheduled to be Rocket Lab's inaugural Electron mission from Launch Complex 2 on Wallops Island, Virginia, ushering in an era of Rocket Lab launches from U.S. soil from no earlier than December 2022.

New Orleans LA (SPX) Apr 20, 2022
NASA completed manufacturing of a hydrogen tank barrel that will be tested as a weld confidence article for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket's Exploration Upper Stage (EUS). Weld confidence articles help establish welding procedures and interfaces between the tooling and hardware and ensure the structural integrity of the welds. Starting with the Artemis IV mission, the EUS will provide the