Starlink’s head of India resigns as SpaceX refunds preorders
Tuesday, 04 January 2022 15:46
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Starlink’s lead executive in India said he resigned Friday for personal reasons, a month after the country’s government ordered SpaceX to stop preselling the satellite broadband service until it gives regulatory approval.
Sunshield Successfully Deploys on NASA’s Next Flagship Telescope
Tuesday, 04 January 2022 14:51 Write a comment
The James Webb Space Telescope team has fully deployed the spacecraft’s 70-foot sunshield, a key milestone in preparing it for science operations. Op-ed | Is there enough room in space for tens of billions of satellites, as Elon Musk suggests? We don’t think so.
Tuesday, 04 January 2022 14:05 Write a comment
Elon Musk's stance is overly optimistic. Space is big, but LEO is not big enough to safely accommodate tens of billions of satellites.
India’s space program looks to bounce back
Tuesday, 04 January 2022 11:51 Write a comment
After a year marked by little launch activity and one high-profile failure, the head of India’s space program says he expects much more in 2022, including an uncrewed test flight for its human spaceflight program.
JWST begins sunshield tensioning
Tuesday, 04 January 2022 10:59 Write a comment
Spacecraft controllers started the final steps in the deployment of the sunshield of the James Webb Space Telescope Jan. 3 after fixing two minor issues with the spacecraft.
James Webb telescope begins crucial sun shield tensioning
Tuesday, 04 January 2022 09:55 Write a comment
The James Webb Space Telescope began one of the most complicated parts of its deployment Monday as NASA sent commands to fully extend the first layer of the observatory's critical five-layer sunshield.
The $10 billion space telescope - the largest and most powerful in history - still is in the first half of its 29-day deployment schedule as it flies through space to a position over on NASA estimates metrics of exploding meteor that shook ground
Tuesday, 04 January 2022 08:11 Write a comment
A meteor that caused an earthshaking boom over suburban Pittsburgh on New Year's Day exploded in the atmosphere with an energy blast equivalent to an estimated 30 tons (27,216 kilograms) of TNT, officials said.
NASA's Meteor Watch social media site said late Sunday a "reasonable assumption" of the speed of the meteor at about 45,000 mph (72,420 kph) would allow a "ballpark" estimate of its size as about a yard in diameter with a mass close to half a ton (454 kilograms).
If not for the cloudy weather, NASA said, it would have been easily visible in the daytime sky—maybe about 100 times the brightness of the full moon.
A nearby infrasound station registered the blast wave from the meteor as it broke apart, enabling the estimates.
National Weather Service meteorologist Shannon Hefferan told the Tribune-Review that satellite data recorded a flash over Washington County shortly before 11:30 a.m. Saturday and officials believed it was due to a meteor "falling through the atmosphere." Hefferan said a similar event occurred Sept. 17 in Hardy County, West Virginia.
Residents in South Hills and other areas reported hearing a loud noise and feeling their homes shaking and rattling.
NASA's new space telescope 'hunky-dory' after problems fixed
Monday, 03 January 2022 18:53 Write a comment
Liquid-metal experiment provides insight into the heating mechanism of the sun's corona
Monday, 03 January 2022 18:50 Write a comment
Why the sun's corona reaches temperatures of several million degrees Celsius is one of the great mysteries of solar physics. A "hot" trail to explain this effect leads to a region of the solar atmosphere just below the corona, where sound waves and certain plasma waves travel at the same speed. In an experiment using the molten alkali metal rubidium and pulsed high magnetic fields, a team from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), a German national lab, has developed a laboratory model, and for the first time experimentally confirmed the theoretically predicted behavior of these plasma waves—so-called Alfvén waves—as the researchers report in the journal Physical Review Letters.
Design flaw blamed for failed debut of South Korea’s new satellite launcher
Monday, 03 January 2022 15:37 Write a comment
The failed October debut of South Korea’s KSLV-2 rocket is being blamed on improperly anchored helium tanks inside the three-stage rocket’s upper stage.
Video: Orbital badminton in 360 degrees
Monday, 03 January 2022 12:49 Write a comment
Experience an orbital badminton match on the International Space Station ISS in 360° as ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer challenges his crewmates and Japanese spaceflight participants Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano.
Together with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, the Japanese spaceflight participants joined the current Expedition 66 crew for a short-term stay of 12 days on the ISS.
While their stay on the ISS focuses on scientific and operational activities, the astronauts on board the Space Station also enjoy recreational activities that provide an important balance for the crew and offer opportunities for intercultural exchange and team building.
Matthias was launched to the International Space Station on Crew Dragon Endurance as part of Crew-3 at 02:03 GMT/03:03 CET Thursday 11 November 2021. His ESA mission on board is known as Cosmic Kiss and will see him live and work for approximately six months in orbit.
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Connecting the Dots | Addressing the V-band disconnect
Monday, 03 January 2022 12:46 Write a comment
As the next wave of non-geostationary satellite constellations seeks U.S. Federal Communications Commission permission to operate in V-band, antenna makers are racing to make business cases viable in this Extremely High Frequency (EHF) area of radio spectrum.
Space SPACs look to rebound in 2022
Monday, 03 January 2022 12:05 Write a comment
Space companies used mergers with special purpose acquisition corporations, or SPACs, to grow their businesses in 2021, but many shareholders were left underwater at the end of the year.
China aims to complete space station in another huge year in space
Monday, 03 January 2022 10:49 Write a comment
China’s main space contractor will target more than 40 orbital launches this year, including completion of the Tiangong space station, following 48 successful launches in 2021.
USTRANSCOM expands cooperative research to explore space cargo
Monday, 03 January 2022 09:00 Write a comment
U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) entered into its third cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA), on December 17, 2021, with Blue Origin to explore the possibility of someday using rockets to transport cargo and people.
"Today, industry is energetically shaping space into a practical transportation mode--a trustworthy complement to our traditional global mobility opti