With Thompson’s nomination, U.S. Space Force leadership takes shape
Saturday, 08 August 2020 00:03
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WASHINGTON — President Trump on Aug. 7 nominated Lt. Gen. David D. Thompson for promotion to four-star general. If confirmed by the Senate, Thompson will become vice chief of space operations of the U.S.
Defense Department space policy official Stephen Kitay stepping down
Friday, 07 August 2020 23:07 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Stephen Kitay, deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy, has resigned from his position and will leave the Pentagon on Aug. 21
Kitay, a political appointee, announced his resignation in a social media post Aug.
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Friday, 07 August 2020 13:34 Write a comment
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SpaceX, ULA win large government launch contracts
Friday, 07 August 2020 02:29 Write a comment
The U.S. military on Friday awarded two new defense contracts worth billions of dollars to space launch companies United Launch Alliance and SpaceX, which won a four-way competition, defeating Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman.
The contract award means ULA and Elon Musk's SpaceX will launch about three dozen national security missions from 2022 to 2026 - at a price tag of about $1 billi A new look at Mars' eerie, ultraviolet nighttime glow
Friday, 07 August 2020 02:29 Write a comment
Every night on Mars, when the sun sets and temperatures fall to minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit and below, an eerie phenomenon spreads across much of the planet's sky: a soft glow created by chemical reactions occurring tens of miles above the surface.
An astronaut standing on Mars couldn't see this "nightglow" - it shows up only as ultraviolet light. But it may one day help scientists to bett Stars rich in phosphorus: Seeds of life in the universe
Friday, 07 August 2020 02:29 Write a comment
All the chemical elements in the universe, except for hydrogen and most of the helium, were produced inside stars. But among them there are a few (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur and phosphorus) which are particularly interesting because they are basic to life as we know it on Earth. Phosphorus is of special interest because it forms part of the DNA and RNA molecules and is a necessary element The quiet Sun is much more active than we thought
Friday, 07 August 2020 02:29 Write a comment
Solar activity varies in 11-year cycles. As the activity cycle switches to a new one, the Sun is usually very calm for several years.
For a long time, researchers have believed that there is not much of interest going on in the Sun during the passive period, therefore not worth studying. Now this assumption is showed to be false by Juha Kallunki, Merja Tornikoski and Irene Bjorklund, resea First results of an upgraded device highlight lithium's value for producing fusion
Friday, 07 August 2020 02:29 Write a comment
Lithium, the silvery metal that powers smart phones and helps treat bipolar disorders, could also play a significant role in the worldwide effort to harvest on Earth the safe, clean and virtually limitless fusion energy (link is external) that powers the sun and stars. First results of the extensively upgraded Lithium Tokamak Experiment-Beta (LTX-b) at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princ News Analysis | With Pentagon award, SpaceX joins the establishment
Thursday, 06 August 2020 23:11 Write a comment
Updated 7:30 p.m. Eastern with Blue Origin comment.
WASHINGTON — Six years ago, SpaceX was the upstart launch company seeking to break United Launch Alliance’s monopoly on national security space launches. Now, it’s part of the establishment.
Pentagon picks SpaceX and ULA to remain its primary launch providers
Thursday, 06 August 2020 21:24 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — The Department of the Air Force announced Aug. 7 that incumbents United Launch Alliance and SpaceX have been selected to receive five-year contracts totaling $653 million to launch national security satellites for the U.S. military and intelligence agencies.
SES taps Thales Alenia Space for final two C-band replacement satellites
Thursday, 06 August 2020 20:40 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Satellite fleet operator SES has selected Thales Alenia Space to build two C-band satellites, making the Franco-Italian manufacturer the first European company to win one of 12 replacement satellite orders placed this year as a result of the U.S.
NASA sounding rocket finds helium structures in sun's atmosphere
Thursday, 06 August 2020 16:30 Write a comment
Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen. But scientists aren't sure just how much there actually is in the Sun's atmosphere, where it is hard to measure. Knowing the amount of helium in the solar atmosphere is important to understanding the origin and acceleration of the solar wind—the constant stream of charged particles from the Sun.
In 2009, NASA launched a sounding rocket investigation to measure helium in the extended solar atmosphere—the first time we've gathered a full global map. The results, recently published in Nature Astronomy, are helping us better understand our space environment.
Cluster's 20 years of studying Earth's magnetosphere
Thursday, 06 August 2020 16:24 Write a comment
Despite a nominal lifetime of two years, ESA's Cluster is now entering its third decade in space. This unique four-spacecraft mission has been revealing the secrets of Earth's magnetic environment since 2000 and, with 20 years of observations under its belt, is still enabling new discoveries as it explores our planet's relationship with the Sun.
As the only planet known to host life, Earth occupies a truly unique place in the Solar System. The Cluster mission, launched in the summer of 2000, was designed and built to study perhaps the one main thing that makes Earth a unique habitable world where life can thrive. This one life-enabling thing is Earth's powerful magnetosphere, which protects the planet from the bombardment by cosmic particles but also interacts with them, creating spectacular phenomena, such as polar lights.
ESA's 'first' satellite: COS-B
Thursday, 06 August 2020 16:24 Write a comment
This weekend sees the 45th anniversary of the launch of Cos-B, the first satellite to be launched under the banner of the newly created European Space Agency, on 9 August 1975.
Cos-B was the first European mission to study gamma-ray sources and to be dedicated to a single experiment. The concept for Cos-B was first put forward by the European scientific community in the mid-1960s and approved by the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) Scientific and Technical Committee in 1969.
"Its mission was to map the sky, in particular the Milky Way, in the light of gamma rays with energy greater than 50 MeV. Such gamma rays may be produced by cosmic rays (relativistic protons and electrons), interacting with the interstellar medium, starlight and magnetic fields," said Brian Taylor, the former ESA Cos-B Project Scientist.
Huge ring-like structure on Ganymede's surface may have been caused by violent impact
Thursday, 06 August 2020 14:41 Write a comment
Researchers from Kobe University and the National Institute of Technology, Oshima College have conducted a detailed reanalysis of image data from Voyager 1, 2 and Galileo spacecraft in order to investigate the orientation and distribution of the ancient tectonic troughs found on Jupiter's moon Ganymede. They discovered that these troughs are concentrically distributed across almost the entire surface of the satellite. This global distribution indicates that these troughs may be actually part of one giant crater covering Ganymede.
Based on the results of a computer simulation conducted using the "PC Cluster" at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), it is speculated that this giant crater could have resulted from the impact of an asteroid with a radius of 150km. If so, the structure is the largest impact structure identified in the solar system so far.
The European Space Agency's JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer) mission, which will be launched in 2022 and arrive in Jupiter's system in 2029, aims to increase our knowledge regarding Jupiter's satellites, including Ganymede.