Washington DC (UPI) May 28, 2021
NASA needs about a 40% boost - $10 billion - in its budget to foster competition that could aid future astronaut missions to the moon, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said. The Biden administration is seeking $24.8 billion for NASA in fiscal 2022, which would be a 6.6% increase from 2021, Nelson said during a press conference on Friday. But there's an amendment to the 2021 budget pendi

Moscow (Sputnik) May 31, 2021
Space debris hit the Canadian remote robotic system onboard the International Space Station (ISS), leaving a small hole in it, but the incident did not affect the operation of the device, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) said on Friday. "While the utmost precautions are taken to reduce the potential for collisions with the ISS, impacts with tiny objects do occur. One such hit was noticed re

Washington DC (SPX) May 31, 2021
NASA has awarded Dynetics Inc. of Huntsville, Alabama, a contract to produce a Laser Air Monitoring System (LAMS) for the agency's Orion spacecraft beginning with the Artemis III mission. The LAMS contract is valued at $17.8 million for production of the Artemis III unit, as well as a qualification unit, design modifications, and long-lead procurement items in support of the Artemis IV and

Pasadena CA (JPL) May 31, 2021
A manufacturing innovation that has applications for NASA spacecraft is being transferred to the private sector to support a variety of industries here on Earth. A burst water main is always expensive and messy, but a pipe that fails in space can be mission-ending. That's why NASA technologists work hard to make hardware as reliable as possible. Sometimes that means scrapping the old way o

Pasadena CA (JPL) May 31, 2021
Cloudy days are rare in the thin, dry atmosphere of Mars. Clouds are typically found at the planet's equator in the coldest time of year, when Mars is the farthest from the Sun in its oval-shaped orbit. But one full Martian year ago - two Earth years - scientists noticed clouds forming over NASA's Curiosity rover earlier than expected. This year, they were ready to start documenting these

Neustrelitz, Germany (SPX) May 31, 2021
The auroras are beautiful manifestations of the stream of charged particles emitted by the Sun. But the Sun's plasma eruptions are more than a natural spectacle in the polar regions; they can also interfere with satellites. In extreme cases, space weather may even affect infrastructure on Earth. The Institute for Solar-Terrestrial Physics at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum f

London UK (SPX) May 31, 2021
6 UK businesses have won a share of over 2 million pounds in government funding to help shape options for the UK's satellite navigation and timing capability, to protect UK Critical National Infrastructure. Leading UK space companies Airbus, CGI, Sirius Analysis, GMV NSL, Inmarsat, and QinetiQ will each receive a share of the funding to help develop system design and operation, signals and

This Memorial Day, as we remember American servicemen and women who gave their lives for their country, we should also recognize another group of patriots who also paid the ultimate price in service to the nation — our fallen astronauts.