Boeing CST-100 Starliner Crew and Service Modules Mated
Wednesday, 25 January 2023 04:26
The Boeing CST-100 Starliner's crew and service modules were connected, or mated, on Jan. 19 in advance of the first launch with astronauts to the International Space Station on the company's next-generation spacecraft.
During the operation inside the company's Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a crane lifted the reusable crew module a SpaceX's Starship clears latest hurdle in quest to return to moon
Wednesday, 25 January 2023 04:26
The maiden mission of SpaceX's Starship into orbit could come as soon as March following a successful dry launch run, bringing Elon Musk's dream of viable interplanetary travel a step closer.
SpaceX said its engineers conducted a full fueling test on Monday night of the company's reusable Starship launch system at its Starbase test site in Boca Chica, Texas, with a T-10 launch countdown Psyche continues preparation for October launch
Wednesday, 25 January 2023 04:26
NASA's Psyche spacecraft is shown in a clean room on Dec. 8, 2022, at Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft was powered on and connected to ground support equipment, enabling engineers and technicians to prepare it for launch in 2023.
Teams working at Astrotech and at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California con NASA launches Mars Sample Receiving Project Office at Johnson
Wednesday, 25 January 2023 04:26
NASA announced Thursday its new Mars Sample Receiving Project office, responsible for receiving and curating the first samples returned from the Red Planet, will be located at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The safe and rapid release of Mars samples after they return to Earth to laboratories worldwide for science investigations will be a priority.
The office will reside with New photos from China's lunar rover released with New Year blessings
Wednesday, 25 January 2023 04:26
The China National Space Administration on Saturday released a group of new photos from the country's lunar rover Yutu 2, together with its good wishes for all Chinese people, ahead of the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Rabbit.
The photos showed the wheel track left by the rover, some rocks and a small impact crater on the lunar surface.
Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, is known as the pet o Sol 3721: Wrapping up at the Encanto Drill Site
Wednesday, 25 January 2023 04:26
Despite giving it the "old college try," Curiosity's attempt to drill into the Marker Band at the "Encanto" site did not reach sampling depth. Because other rocks around the rover look similar to "Encanto" and are likely also too hard to drill, the Science Team decided to convert the plan to a "Touch and Go."
Although the Science Team is disappointed to leave this Marker Band location with Webb Telescope identifies origins of icy building blocks of life
Wednesday, 25 January 2023 04:26
Frozen molecules were central to the origin of life on Earth. In addition to impacts of icy comets and asteroids, according to current theory, our planet likely also received the elementary components of life from the ices of the immense interstellar molecular cloud from which the Earth and the rest of the solar system emerged.
In a new study, an international research team, with the parti How a 3 cm glass sphere could help scientists understand space weather
Wednesday, 25 January 2023 04:26
Solar flares and other types of space weather can wreak havoc with spaceflight and with telecommunications and other types of satellites orbiting the Earth. But, to date, scientists' ability to research ways to overcome that challenge has been severely limited. That's because experiments they conduct in laboratories here on Earth are affected by gravity in ways that are so different from conditi Were galaxies much different in the early universe?
Wednesday, 25 January 2023 04:26
An array of 350 radio telescopes in the Karoo desert of South Africa is getting closer to detecting "cosmic dawn" - the era after the Big Bang when stars first ignited and galaxies began to bloom.
In a paper accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) team reports that it has doubled the sensitivity of the array, which was already Rocket Lab launches first Electron from Virginia
Tuesday, 24 January 2023 23:53
Rocket Lab performed its long-awaited first Electron launch from Virginia Jan. 24, placing three HawkEye 360 satellites into orbit.
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Space Command: U.S. satellites ‘constrained’ by lack of mobility
Tuesday, 24 January 2023 21:47
Lt. Gen. Shaw said a key concern is that U.S. surveillance satellites that monitor potentially hostile activities are at disadvantage because of their limited maneuverability
The post Space Command: U.S.
Spacecraft design expert discusses the viability of interstellar travel
Tuesday, 24 January 2023 21:10
Researchers at NASA recently announced the discovery of another planet about 95% the size of Earth that is 100 light-years away and could potentially sustain life.
Could this new discovery lead to humans one day traveling to planet TOI 700 e and enjoying its resources, such as the potential for liquid water? This is a question people may naturally ask, but they may not like the current answer.
"That is not going to happen in our lifetimes, but it is fascinating to discuss," says Dr.
Plasma thrusters used on satellites could be much more powerful than previously believed
Tuesday, 24 January 2023 20:12
It has been believed that Hall thrusters, an efficient kind of electric propulsion widely used in orbit, must be large to produce a lot of thrust. Now, a new study from the University of Michigan suggests that smaller Hall thrusters can generate much more thrust—potentially making them candidates for interplanetary missions.
"People had previously thought that you could only push a certain amount of current through a thruster area, which in turn translates directly into how much force or thrust you can generate per unit area," said Benjamin Jorns, U-M associate professor of aerospace engineering who led the new Hall thruster study to be presented at the AIAA SciTech Forum in National Harbor, Maryland, today.
Space Force not buying large satellites for the foreseeable future
Tuesday, 24 January 2023 18:04
The era of massive satellites needs to be in the rear view mirror for the Department of Defense, the head of military space acquisitions Frank Calvelli said Jan. 24.
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Europe's JUICE spacecraft ready to explore Jupiter's icy moons
Tuesday, 24 January 2023 17:40
Europe's JUICE spacecraft is all ready to embark on an eight-year odyssey through the Solar System to find out whether the oceans hidden under the surface of Jupiter's icy moons have the potential to host extraterrestrial life.
For now, the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is in a white room of its manufacturer Airbus in the southwestern French city of Toulouse. But its days on this planet are numbered.
Soon the spacecraft will be put in a container, wings carefully folded away, ahead of traveling to Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana off the coast of South America in early February.
From there, one of Europe's most ambitious space missions ever is scheduled to launch in April.
The scientists and engineers in Toulouse who have spent years working on the project are clearly emotional at the thought of saying goodbye to what they call "the beast".