Dulles VA (SPX) Jun 28, 2022
Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE: NOC) Cygnus cargo spacecraft successfully boosted the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS). Docked to the ISS since February, Cygnus fired its main onboard engine to adjust the orbit of the station to the desired altitude to support upcoming operations. The station orbits approximately 250 miles above earth and requires a periodic reboost. Th

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jun 28, 2022
Scientists using data from NASA's Curiosity rover measured the total organic carbon - a key component in the molecules of life - in Martian rocks for the first time. "Total organic carbon is one of several measurements [or indices] that help us understand how much material is available as feedstock for prebiotic chemistry and potentially biology," said Jennifer Stern of NASA's Goddard Space Flig

Paris (ESA) Jun 28, 2022
A beautiful sequence of 56 images taken by the monitoring cameras on board the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission as the spacecraft made its second close flyby of its destination planet Mercury on 23 June 2022. The compilation includes images from two monitoring cameras (MCAM) onboard the Mercury Transfer Module, which provides black-and-white snapshots at 1024 x 1024 pixel resolution. The MCAMs

Baltimore MD (SPX) Jun 28, 2022
In the American Wild West, high noon was a time for duels and showdowns. When it comes to the history of the universe, cosmic noon featured fireworks of a different sort. Some 2 to 3 billion years after the big bang most galaxies went through a growth spurt, forming stars at a rate hundreds of times higher than we see in our own galaxy, the Milky Way, today. When it launches by May 2027, NASA's

London, UK (SPX) Jun 28, 2022
Inmarsat, the world leader in global, mobile satellite communications, has issued a far-reaching report on sustainability in space calling on industry operators, national governments and regulators to take coordinated action to reduce space debris, enhance safety and better manage the expansion of mega constellations in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The report, produced in partnership with resear

London, UK (SPX) Jun 28, 2022
The UK's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has announced, during the 4th Summit on Space Sustainability, that it will begin to develop a number of initiatives to help protect our orbital environment. The UK government Plan for Space Sustainability includes a review of secondary legislation and associated regulations focussed on orbital constellations with a view to the upda

Chandler AZ (SPX) Jun 24, 2022
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) was awarded a firm fixed price Other Transaction (OT) Agreement modification to exercise options by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) to continue the development of the Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI) supporting the MDA's regional hypersonic missile defense program to deter and defeat hypersonic missile threats. This modification is a follow-on to the

Riverside CA (SPX) Jun 28, 2022
Using light-capturing proteins in living microbes, scientists have reconstructed what life was like for some of Earth's earliest organisms. These efforts could help us recognize signs of life on other planets, whose atmospheres may more closely resemble our pre-oxygen planet. The earliest living things, including bacteria and single-celled organisms called archaea, inhabited a primarily oc

Washington DC (UPI) Jun 27, 2021
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has launched a satellite to the Moon for NASA from Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula. The launch window opened at 09:50 UTC on June 28th. Designed and built by Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, a Terran Orbital Corporation, and owned and operated by Advanced Space on behalf of NASA, the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) CubeSat will be the first spacecraft to test the Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) around the Moon.