Webb's specialized heat radiator deployed successfully
Friday, 07 January 2022 14:26
At about 8:48 a.m. EST, a specialized radiator assembly necessary for Webb's science instruments to reach their required low and stable operating temperatures deployed successfully. The Aft Deployable Instrument Radiator, or ADIR, is a large, rectangular, 4- by 8-foot panel, consisting of high-purity aluminum subpanels covered in painted honeycomb cells to create an ultra-black surface. The ADIR, which swings away from the backside of the telescope like a trap door on hinges, is connected to the instruments via flexible straps made of high-purity aluminum foil. The radiator draws heat out of the instruments and dumps it overboard to the extreme cold background of deep space.
The deployment of the ADIR—a process that released a lock to allow the panel to spring into position—took about 15 minutes.
Webb's final series of major deployments is planned to start tomorrow, Jan. 7, with the rotation into position of the first of two primary mirror wings. The second primary mirror wing—Webb's final major spacecraft deployment—is planned for Saturday, Jan. 8.
Arianespace looks to transitions of vehicles and business in 2022
Friday, 07 January 2022 12:04
After its most active year in two decades capped by the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope for NASA, Arianespace is heading into a period of transition in 2022 marked by the introduction of new vehicles and a changing mix of customers.
Ariane 6 launch complex – December 2021
Friday, 07 January 2022 08:30
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Tour the new launch complex for Ariane 6 at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.
First, enter the launch vehicle assembly building which is 20 m tall, 112 m long, and 41 m wide, located a kilometre away from the launch zone. It is used for horizontal integration and preparation of the central core of Ariane 6 – its main stage and upper stage – before it is rolled out to the launch zone.
The hydrogen and oxygen storage facilities connect to the launch pad via underground pipes as part of the launch support systems.
The 8200 tonne 90 metre-high mobile
Japan tycoon Maezawa returns from space with business dreams
Friday, 07 January 2022 08:04
"Space now," was what Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa wanted to tweet for years. He finally really did it, from the International Space Station.
"The space market holds so much potential," he said Friday at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Tokyo, his first news conference in Japan after returning to earth before Christmas.
Maezawa, who heads a company called Start Today, is preparing to invest in various businesses which may develop from the ongoing research by NASA, the Japanese equivalent called JAXA and others.
Euroconsult predicts highest government space budgets in decades despite Covid
Friday, 07 January 2022 06:30
Leading space consulting and market intelligence firm Euroconsult has released its highly anticipated "Government Space Programs" report for 2021. The highlight of this year's findings is a continued, even accelerated, volume of governmental investment in the space sector, driven by two major drivers: ambitious space exploration programmes by leading space countries, and rivalries driving the mi NASA to host coverage for Webb Telescope's final unfolding
Friday, 07 January 2022 06:30
NASA will provide live coverage and host a media briefing Saturday, Jan. 8, for the conclusion of the James Webb Space Telescope's major spacecraft deployments. Beginning no earlier than 9 a.m. EST, NASA will air live coverage of the final hours of Webb's major deployments. After the live broadcast concludes, at approximately 1:30 p.m., NASA will hold a media briefing. Both the broadcast and med Life could be thriving in the clouds of Venus
Friday, 07 January 2022 06:30
by Eric Verbeten for WISC News
Is there life on Venus? For more than a century, scientists have pondered this question. Now, there is renewed interest in Venus as a place that could support living organisms. "We are trying to make the case for exploring Venus and to inspire and inform future missions to collect in situ data with satellites," says Sanjay Limaye, a University of Wisconsin-Madison FAU scientist aims to ensure microbe-free Mars samples
Friday, 07 January 2022 06:30
The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover is collecting samples in search of signs of ancient microbial life, which would advance NASA's quest to explore the past habitability of Mars. The samples are set to return to Earth no earlier than 2031, as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign being planned by NASA and the European Space Agency. Before the rover went to space, NASA and its engineers worked har Loft Orbital extends production agreement with LeoStella
Friday, 07 January 2022 06:30
Loft Orbital Solutions, Inc. (Loft Orbital), a leading space infrastructure-as-a-service provider, and LeoStella, Inc., a specialized satellite constellation design and manufacturing company, have extended their production agreement to secure multiple additional LEO-100 buses from LeoStella. These satellite buses are the latest in a series Loft Orbital has secured from LeoStella.
The satel SpaceX successfully completes first launch of 2022 from Florida
Friday, 07 January 2022 06:30
SpaceX kicked off a surge in launch activity Thursday with the successful launch of 49 of the company's Starlink communications satellites from Florida, heading south along the state's coastline.
Five SpaceX missions may launch in the next month on the southern polar trajectory, flying closer to the Florida coast toward Miami than most launches, according to the U.S. Space Force. Why the Webb Telescope doesn't have deployment cameras
Friday, 07 January 2022 06:30
As NASA's James Webb Space Telescope makes its way out to its intended orbit, ground teams monitor its vitals using a comprehensive set of sensors located throughout the entire spacecraft. Mechanical, thermal, and electrical sensors provide a wide array of critical information on the current state and performance of Webb while it is in space.
A system of surveillance cameras to watch deplo Debris from failed Russian rocket falls into sea near French Polynesia
Friday, 07 January 2022 06:30
The upper stage of a failed Russian Angara A5 rocket plummeted uncontrolled to Earth, crashing into open sea near French Polynesia.
The U.S. 18th Space Control Squadron confirmed the 4 p.m. Wednesday re-entry
The Persei upper stage was part of a heavy-lift rocket. The debris weighed an estimated 3.5 tons. Astronomer Jonathon McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophy New research questions 'whiff of oxygen' in Earth's early history
Friday, 07 January 2022 06:30
Evidence arguing for a "whiff of oxygen" before the Earth's Great Oxygenation Event 2.3 billion years ago are chemical signatures that were probably introduced at a much later time, according to research published in Science Advances.
The result rewinds previous research findings that atmospheric oxygen existed prior to the so-called Great Oxygenation Event-known to researchers as "GOE"- a Japan space tourist eyes Mariana Trench trip after ISS
Friday, 07 January 2022 06:30
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa said Friday his trip into space had given him a new appreciation for Earth, and he now hopes to plunge into the ocean's forbidding Mariana Trench.
Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano spent 12 days on the International Space Station last month, where they documented life in space for one million YouTube subscribers.
Speaking Friday for the first time North Korea says it tested hypersonic missile
Friday, 07 January 2022 06:30
North Korea has successfully tested a hypersonic missile, state media reported Thursday, in the first major weapons test by the nuclear-armed nation this year.
This was the second reported test of what Pyongyang claimed were hypersonic gliding missiles, as it pursues the sophisticated technology despite international sanctions and condemnation.
Hypersonic missiles move far faster and are