Beijing (XNA) Dec 08, 2022
Kuaizhou 11, the newest model of carrier rocket developed by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, carried out its first successful flight on Wednesday morning, lifting an experimental satellite into space, according to the company. The rocket blasted off at 9:15 am at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi Desert and soon deployed the Xingyun Transport VDES

Sendai, Japan (SPX) Dec 08, 2022
A research group has demonstrated that spontaneously excited plasma waves may be the solution to a long-associated problem with magnetic nozzle plasma thrusters, turning conventional thinking on its head. Details of their research were published in the journal Scientific Reports on December 5, 2022. In magnetic nozzle radio frequency thrusters, sometimes referred to as helicon thrust

Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 08, 2022
NASA's Perseverance rover snagged two new samples from the Martian surface on Dec. 2 and 6. But unlike the 15 rock cores collected to date, these newest samples came from a pile of wind-blown sand and dust similar to but smaller than a dune. Now contained in special metal collection tubes, one of these two samples will be considered for deposit on the Martian surface sometime this month as part

Washington DC (SPX) Dec 08, 2022
The English poet William Blake famously implored readers to "see the world in a grain of sand." In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, scientists from the University of Campinas, in Brazil, and the University of California, Los Angeles, have been doing just that - studying the "granular" dynamics of how crescent-shaped sand dunes are formed. Known as barchans, these formations are common

Nashville TN (SPX) Dec 08, 2022
In the Mojave Desert, the sun beats down on the ground and makes pockets of low pressure. Cool air rushes into these areas, where it warms and rises, creating vortices that pick up dust. These types of dust devils aren't limited to Earth: They are found on Mars at sizes reaching 1,600 meters in diameter. Dust devils could play a large role in the Martian climate, and they are crucial to un

Houston TX (SPX) Dec 08, 2022
Orion continues its journey back to Earth on day 22 of the 25.5-day Artemis I mission with flight controllers and engineers continuing to test the spacecraft and its systems in preparation for future flights with humans aboard. Engineers conducted the second part of the propellant tank slosh development flight test, called propellant slosh, which is scheduled during quiescent, or less acti

Washington DC (UPI) Dec 7, 2021
NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity completed its 35th flight over the weekend, setting a new altitude record of 46 feet in the thin Martian atmosphere. The 4-pound chopper's previous record was 39 feet, according to NASA's Ingenuity flight log. The helicopter was deployed from NASA's Perseverance rover that landed on the Martian surface in February 2021. Saturday's Ingenuity flight

Los Alamos NM (SPX) Dec 08, 2022
The standard view of gamma-ray bursts as a signature for different types of dying stars might need a rewrite. Recent astronomical observations, supported by theoretical modeling, reveal a new observational fingerprint of neutron-star mergers, which may shed light on the production of heavy elements throughout the universe. "Astronomers have long believed that gamma-ray bursts fell into two

The Defense Innovation Unit is seeking proposals for commercial services to deploy and operate payloads in outer space beyond Earth orbit

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NASA and Boeing are changing how they assemble the core stage of the Space Launch System, moving some of the final integration work to the Kennedy Space Center.

The post NASA and Boeing change SLS core stage assembly process appeared first on SpaceNews.