Earth from Space: Panama Canal
Friday, 20 October 2023 07:00
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Like shining jewels in the water, ships passing through the Panama Canal, which cuts across Central America, have been captured in this Copernicus Sentinel-1 image. U.S. Space Force seeks to work closer with allies in face of shared threats
Thursday, 19 October 2023 21:35
UK funds surveillance satellite replacement lost in Virgin Orbit failure
Thursday, 19 October 2023 20:54
NASA's Lucy spacecraft preparing for its first asteroid flyby
Thursday, 19 October 2023 20:25 Write a comment
China rolls out rocket for Shenzhou-17 mission to Tiangong
Thursday, 19 October 2023 20:14
Blue Origin reveals its orbital maneuvering vehicle: Blue Ring
Thursday, 19 October 2023 18:24 Write a comment
The Jeff Bezos-founded aerospace company, Blue Origin, recently announced its new and upcoming Swiss army knife-style spacecraft platform, Blue Ring, which comes after very little public discussion by Blue Origin regarding this project. For example, a January 2023 story broke when Blue Origin briefly announced a job posting for Blue Ring Senior Program Manager on its Careers page, but the job was pulled less than 24 hours later. Overall, Blue Origin has been quite mum about Blue Ring.
While the most recent announcement was brief, it conveyed how the goal of Blue Ring will be to provide a multitude of services, including logistics, refueling, and transportation, and is slated to be part of a new Blue Origin business unit called In-Space Systems.
Growing plants in space
Thursday, 19 October 2023 16:30 Write a comment
As NASA plans missions to the moon and Mars, a key factor is figuring out how to feed crew members during their weeks, months, and even years in space.
Astronauts on the International Space Station primarily eat prepackaged food, which requires regular resupply and can degrade in quality and nutrition. Researchers are exploring the idea of crews growing some of their food during a mission, testing various crops and equipment to figure out how to do this without a lot of extra hardware or power.
Picking the right plants
The first step in this research is identifying which plants to test. NASA started a project in 2015 with the Fairchild Botanical Garden in Miami called "Growing Beyond Earth." The program has recruited hundreds of middle and high school science classes across the U.S. to grow different seeds in a habitat similar to one on the space station.
A patch for the stars
Thursday, 19 October 2023 14:19 Write a comment
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Marcus Wandt in Axiom Space flightsuit Webb pinpoints a high-speed jet stream on Jupiter
Thursday, 19 October 2023 14:00 Write a comment
Researchers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) have discovered a high-speed jet stream sitting over Jupiter’s equator, above the main cloud decks.
In annual report to Congress, Pentagon highlights China’s ‘refusal to engage’
Thursday, 19 October 2023 13:18
Ariane 6 joint update report, 19 October 2023
Thursday, 19 October 2023 13:00 Write a comment
The Ariane 6 Launcher Task Force consists of top management of ESA, as the overall Ariane 6 procuring entity and launch system architect, of the French space agency CNES, as the launch base prime contractor, of ArianeGroup as the launcher system prime contractor and of Arianespace as the launch service provider. This group reports regularly on progress being made towards inaugural flight of the new Ariane 6 launcher.
Information session on the outcome of ESA’s 317th Council
Thursday, 19 October 2023 12:00 Write a comment
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00:48:00
ESA Member States met for the 317th session of the ESA Council on 18 and 19 October.
Watch the replay of the information session in which ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and ESA Council Chair Renato Krpoun share the outcome of the meeting. They give an update to media on plans for ESA to cooperate with the UN’s Environment Programme on the use of Earth observation data and technology for the environment, as well as providing assistance to Poland for its national Earth observation project. They also share the latest plans for a Space Summit to be held
Copernicus operations resilience: Inuvik wildfires
Thursday, 19 October 2023 12:00 Write a comment
Copernicus operations resilience: Inuvik wildfires