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Washington DC (UPI) Nov 4, 2021
NASA is making another run at launching the Artemis I spacecraft on its maiden voyage to the moon, rolling the $4.1 billion rocket back onto the launch pad Thursday at Kennedy Space Center after months of delays pushed the liftoff to Nov. 14. The launch is scheduled a week from Monday at 12:07 a.m., but NASA was keeping an eye on a low-pressure system in the Caribbean that threatened to
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Washington DC (UPI) Nov 4, 2021
Chinese rocket debris weighing 23 tons is crashing to Earth in an uncontrolled descent Friday. U.S. Space Command tweeted a confirmation that the rocket re-entered the Earth's atmosphere over the south-central Pacific Ocean at 4:01 a.m. Friday. The rocket was launched on Oct. 31 carrying the third and final module for the Tiangong space station. Much of the debris is expected to
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The Space Force's 'Space Safari' office is laying out a timeline for a tactically responsive launch mission projected to launch in 2023

The post Space Force lays out timeline for 2023 rapid-response launch experiment appeared first on SpaceNews.

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Germany’s Team NimbRo took home the $5 million grand prize in the ANA Avatar XPrize finals Nov. 5, after completing a test course that showed how remote-control robots could contribute to space exploration.

The post German team wins $5 million ANA Avatar XPrize in space-themed competition appeared first on SpaceNews.

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JPL

An independent review of problems that delayed the launch of NASA’s Psyche asteroid mission uncovered institutional issues at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory that led the agency to delay the launch of another mission being developed there.

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SLS rollout Nov 2022

The Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft rolled back out to the launch pad Nov. 4 as the agency prepares for the third attempt to launch the vehicle on Artemis 1 mission later this month.

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Electron MATS launch

Rocket Lab successfully launched a Swedish atmospheric science satellite on an Electron rocket Nov. 4, but a telemetry problem kept the company from attempting a mid-air recovery of the rocket’s booster.

How do you keep a solar sail stable?

Friday, 04 November 2022 15:08
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How do you keep a solar sail stable?
Graphical abstract. Credit: Space: Science and Technology (2022). DOI: 10.34133/2022/9831270

Solar sailing seems like a simple concept—instead of being pushed along by the wind, as in a typical sailing ship, a spacecraft can use highly reflective said to be pushed along simply by sunlight. But as with almost all engineering challenges, that technique is much easier said than done. Sunlight can head up one side of a sail more than another, causing the ship to rotate unexpectedly. Other unforeseen situations could arise that can also have catastrophic consequences for any mission using this propulsion technology.

Luckily, there is a way to account for those situations, though it involves a lot of math. Control theory is common in system design, and now researchers at Beihang University have devised a control scheme that they think could help minimize the risk to solar sails.

Control systems are relatively easy to understand in concept. A system has a series of inputs; in the case of a solar sail, those inputs might be the solar force pushing on it from the sun and maybe the gravity of any nearby object.

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NASA moon rocket back in hangar, launch unlikely until Nov.
The NASA moon rocket slated for the Artemis mission to the moon rolls back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The launch of the rocket was postponed due to the impending arrival of Hurricane Ian. Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux

NASA's moon rocket is back on the pad for another launch attempt, following more repairs.

The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket departed its hangar in the middle of the night and completed the 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) trip shortly after sunrise Friday.

Video: Testing Galileo for space

Friday, 04 November 2022 14:34
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Video: Testing Galileo for space
Credit: European Space Agency

Galileo has grown to become Europe's single largest satellite constellation, and the world's most accurate satellite navigation system, delivering meter-level positioning to more than 3.5 billion users around the globe.

It all began at ESTEC's Test Center, Europe's largest testing facility. This is where the very first positioning fix took place in March 2013, after the launch into orbit of the initial four IOV satellites. Following that, all 34 Galileo Full Operational Capability satellites also passed by ESTEC for their pre-flight testing.

This 3000 sq. m environmentally-controlled complex, operated and managed by European Test Services for ESA, hosts an array of test equipment able to simulate all aspects of spaceflight, from the noise and vibration of to the vacuum and temperature extremes of Earth orbit.

The at manufacturer OHB in Germany completed one new satellite every six weeks. After each satellite was then shipped to the ESTEC Test Center for a three-month test campaign, after which it would be accepted by the Agency and declared ready for flight. Some facilities have had to be adapted specifically for Galileo, and the ESTEC Test Center had to institute new security protocols because this was the first time that satellites with security restrictions were being tested at the site.

Week in images: 31 October - 4 November 2022

Friday, 04 November 2022 13:30
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Nushagak Bay, Alaska

Week in images: 31 October - 4 November 2022

Discover our week through the lens

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VSS Imagine

Virgin Galactic’s second suborbital spaceplane won’t enter service in 2023 as previously planned because of demands on company personnel to both return the first spaceplane to flight and begin work on a next generation of vehicles.

The post Virgin Galactic delays introduction of second suborbital spaceship appeared first on SpaceNews.

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Orange exhaust pushes a large Long March rocket from the pad at the coastal Wenchang spaceport, with white smoke billowing around lightning towers near the launch tower.

A large rocket stage used to launch the final module for China’s space station made an uncontrolled reentry into the atmosphere Friday after precautionary airspace closures took effect in southern Europe.

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Munich, Germany (SPX) Nov 04, 2022
Rivada Space Networks GmbH, a European network company launching a unique connectivity constellation for Government and Enterprise communications, has issued its request for proposals for 600 low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, having released the RFP for the associated heavy-lift launch services two weeks ago. The company anticipates selecting a prime contractor for the space segment, parts of th
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Albuquerque NM (SPX) Nov 04, 2022
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has delivered the final solar panels to Maxar that will fly on the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) for NASA's Gateway lunar space station. SolAero Technologies Inc, a leading space solar power provider acquired by Rocket Lab, was awarded the contract in 2019 from Maxar to design and manufacture the solar panels that will supply nearly 70 kilowatts of electr
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