Laser links are great for satellite relay, but challenges abound for taking it to ground
Wednesday, 21 December 2022 18:29
While optical technology shows great promise for intersatellite relay links, ground segment providers doubt it will be widely adopted among their terrestrial networks any time soon.
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NASA declares end of InSight Mars mission
Wednesday, 21 December 2022 17:00
NASA has officially ended the mission of the InSight Mars lander after power levels on the spacecraft dropped to the point where it could no longer communicate with Earth.
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Flight VV22 failure: Arianespace and ESA appoint an independent inquiry commission
Wednesday, 21 December 2022 13:44Press Release N° 72–2022
Arianespace announced early today the failure of Flight VV22 carrying Pléiades Neo 5 and 6 satellites.
Virgin Orbit receives license for U.K. launch
Wednesday, 21 December 2022 12:00
British regulators have issued a launch license to Virgin Orbit for its first LauncherOne mission from the United Kingdom, now expected to take place in January.
Young ESA team prepare Ariane 6 passenger
Wednesday, 21 December 2022 11:44
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Young ESA team prepare Ariane 6 passenger Omnibus includes budget increases for Office of Space Commerce and FAA commercial space office
Wednesday, 21 December 2022 11:21
The fiscal year 2023 omnibus spending bill provides two agencies with much, but not all, of the budget increases they requested to take on new or expanding commercial space work.
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Year in images 2022
Wednesday, 21 December 2022 10:10
Year in images 2022
Our year through the lens: a selection of our favourite images for 2022
Snowy Alps
Wednesday, 21 December 2022 09:55
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This Copernicus Sentinel-3 image shows the wide-coverage of snowfall in the Alps, which hopefully bodes well for the coming year. The calm after the rock-toddler-tantrums: Sols 3684-3686
Wednesday, 21 December 2022 09:54
Sometimes, I think Mars rocks are just a bunch of toddlers whom we have told to tidy their play room. And the more we want something, the more resistance we get. The latest episode of 'This-rock-is-too-hard-to-drill, says the rock,' reminded me of our drill attempt at Vera Rubin Ridge. In June 2018, we had drilled Duluth and also weathered the dust storm. We then tried to drill a specific type o Four decade study finds mysterious patterns in temperatures at Jupiter
Wednesday, 21 December 2022 09:54
Scientists have completed the longest-ever study tracking temperatures in Jupiter's upper troposphere, the layer of the atmosphere where the giant planet's weather occurs and where its signature colorful striped clouds form. The work, conducted over four decades by stitching together data from NASA spacecraft and ground-based telescope observations, found unexpected patterns in how temperatures Northrop Grumman RQ-4 RangeHawk supports NASA's Artemis mission
Wednesday, 21 December 2022 09:54
Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE: NOC) RQ-4 RangeHawk supported the first flight of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket during the recent Artemis I mission. RangeHawk is part of SkyRange, the Department of Defense Test Resource Management Center's uncrewed high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE), responsive mobile flight test initiative.
"Supporting the Artemis I uncrewed flight test Webb Space Telescope reveals previously shrouded newborn stars
Wednesday, 21 December 2022 09:54
Rice University astronomer Megan Reiter and colleagues took a "deep dive" into one of the first images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and were rewarded with the discovery of telltale signs from two dozen previously unseen young stars about 7,500 light years from Earth.
The published research in the December issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society offers a gli Cosmological enigma of Milky Way's satellite galaxies solved
Wednesday, 21 December 2022 09:54
Astronomers say they have solved an outstanding problem that challenged our understanding of how the Universe evolved - the spatial distribution of faint satellite galaxies orbiting the Milky Way.
These satellite galaxies exhibit a bizarre alignment - they seem to lie on an enormous thin rotating plane - called the "plane of satellites"
This seemingly unlikely arrangement had puzzled NASA enables future of science observation through tri-band antennas
Wednesday, 21 December 2022 09:54
NASA's Near Space Network enables spacecraft exploring the solar system and Earth to send back essential science data for researchers and scientists to investigate and make profound discoveries.
Now, the network has integrated four new global antennas to further support science and exploration missions. In December 2022, antennas in Fairbanks, Alaska; Wallops Island, Virginia; Punta Arenas SpaceX launches NASA's water topography satellite into orbit
Wednesday, 21 December 2022 09:54
The Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite launched Friday morning from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The SpaceX 9 rocket lifted off at 6:47 a.m., launching the mission that will provide NASA's first global survey of water on Earth's surface, measuring the elevation of water in major lakes, rivers and wetlands while observing ocean features in higher definition th