Industry still sees strong demand for smallsat launch services
Monday, 08 February 2021 12:18
WASHINGTON — While some see a surge of launch vehicle development efforts as a sign of an “overheated” market, others see those efforts as a sign of shifting demand.
At a Feb. 4 webinar, Tory Bruno, chief executive of United Launch Alliance, said he was concerned that too much investment was going into launch companies, creating capabilities that were driving down prices but not stimulating demand.
Richard Shelby, senator with major influence over NASA, to retire
Monday, 08 February 2021 11:18
WASHINGTON — Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), an influential senator who has long been an advocate for some NASA programs and critic of others, announced Feb. 8 he will not run for reelection next year.
Shelby said in a statement that he would not seek a seventh term in the Senate in 2022.
Millie Hughes-Fulford, trailblazing astronaut, dies at 75
Monday, 08 February 2021 09:25Millie Hughes-Fulford, a trailblazing astronaut and scientist who became the first female payload specialist to fly in space for NASA, died following a yearslong battle with cancer, her family said. She was 75.
Hughes-Fulford was selected by NASA for its astronaut program in 1983 and five years later, in June 1991, spent nine days in orbit on the shuttle Columbia, conducting experiments on the effect of space travel on humans as part of the agency's first mission dedicated to biomedical studies, STS-40. She and her crew mates circled the Earth 146 times.
The research shaped the rest of her career and upon her return she established the Hughes-Fulford Laboratory at the San Francisco VA Healthcare System, which worked to understand the mechanisms that regulate cell growth in mammals.
"She came back to her world as a scientist and carried this experience of having flown in space and that became a unique filter through which she passed all of her scientific work," said Dr. Mike Barratt, a NASA flight surgeon assigned to Columbia, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
The laboratory was active right up through Hughes-Fulford's own seven-year battle with lymphoma. She died Feb. 2, at her San Francisco home. Her death was confirmed by her granddaughter, Kira Herzog of Mill Valle.
Arab spacecraft closes in on Mars on historic flight
Monday, 08 February 2021 09:24
A spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates was set to swing into orbit around Mars in the Arab world's first interplanetary mission Tuesday, the first of three robotic explorers arriving at the red planet over the next week and a half.
The orbiter, called Amal, Arabic for Hope, traveled 300 million miles in nearly seven months to get to Mars with the goal of mapping its atmosphere throughout each season.
A combination orbiter and lander from China is close behind, scheduled to reach the planet on Wednesday. It will circle Mars until the rover separates and attempts to land on the surface in May to look for signs of ancient life.
A rover from the U.S.
ESA’s Solar Orbiter ducks behind the Sun
Monday, 08 February 2021 08:30
What happens when the Solar System's No. 1 source of violent energy interferes with spacecraft communication?
New era of Mars exploration begins as craft nears Red Planet
Monday, 08 February 2021 05:58
A new era of Mars exploration will begin Monday with the expected arrival of the United Arab Emirates' Hope spacecraft in the vicinity of the Red Planet - the first of three such arrivals planned for February.
The UAE probe will near Mars late Monday, and the mission will make a final, 27-minute orbital insertion burn, or correction, starting at 10:30 a.m. EST Tuesday.
Hope's ar UAE on edge as 'Hope' probe poised to enter Mars orbit
Monday, 08 February 2021 05:58
A tense half-hour on Tuesday will determine the fate of the UAE's "Hope" probe to Mars, as the Arab world's first space mission carries out a tricky manoeuvre to enter the Red Planet's orbit.
If successful, the probe which is designed to reveal the secrets of Martian weather, will become the first of three spacecraft to arrive at the Red Planet this month.
The United Arab Emirates, China Perseverance in testing helps assure a safe landing on Mars
Monday, 08 February 2021 05:58
After a nearly seven-month journey to Mars, NASA's Perseverance rover is slated to land at the Red Planet's Jezero Crater Feb.18, 2021, a rugged expanse chosen for its scientific research and sample collection possibilities.
But the very features that make the site fascinating to scientists also make it a relatively dangerous place to land - a challenge that has motivated rigorous testing Where Should Future Astronauts Land on Mars? Follow the Water
Monday, 08 February 2021 05:58
A new NASA paper provides the most detailed map to date of near-surface water ice on the Red Planet.
So you want to build a Mars base. Where to start? Like any human settlement, it would be best located near accessible water. Not only will water be crucial for life-support supplies, it will be used for everything from agriculture to producing the rocket propellant astronauts will need to r NASA's OSIRIS-REx to Fly a Farewell Tour of Bennu
Monday, 08 February 2021 05:58
On April 7, NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission will give asteroid Bennu one last glance before saying farewell. Before departing for Earth on May 10, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will perform a final flyby of Bennu - capturing its last images of sample collection site Nightingale to look for transformations on Bennu's surface after the Oct. 20, 2020, sample collection event.
The OSIRIS-REx mission tea Orbit Logic Tackles Autonomous Lunar Exploration with Robotic Swarms
Monday, 08 February 2021 05:58
Orbit Logic has been awarded a Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contract sponsored by NASA to develop the Intelligent Navigation, Planning, and Awareness for Swarm Systems (IN-PASS) solution - an autonomous planning architecture supporting collaborative Lunar exploration with teams of humans cooperating with heterogeneous swarms of orbital (satellite) and surface (rover) assets. ABL Space Systems to power first UK Vertical Satellite Launch
Monday, 08 February 2021 05:58
Lockheed Martin has contracted ABL Space Systems, of El Segundo, California, a developer of low-cost launch vehicles and launch systems for the small satellite industry, to supply a rocket and associated launch services for the company's first UK vertical satellite launch.
The project known as UK Pathfinder Launch is planned to be the first ever vertical small satellite launch from UK soil Chang'e 4 lander, rover resume work on moon
Monday, 08 February 2021 05:58
The lander and rover of the Chang'e 4 probe have resumed work for their 27th lunar day on the far side of the moon.
The Yutu 2 rover activated at 4:26 am on Saturday and the lander activated just over 12 hours later, the China National Space Administration's Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center said.
Yutu 2 has traveled about 628.5 meters on the far side of the moon. It is now OneSpace launches another private carrier rocket
Monday, 08 February 2021 05:58
The OS-X6B suborbital rocket, developed and made by OneSpace Technology, blasted off from a launch site in China's northwest at 17:05:05 on Friday.
With a length of 9.4 meters, the rocket Chongqing Liangjiang Star flew about 580 seconds and traveled 300 kilometers above the earth.
The test load was successfully separated and the entire flight was normal. This launch successfully comp Mikhail Kokorich resigns his CEO position in Momentus Space
Monday, 08 February 2021 05:58
Mikhail Kokorich has had to resign as his company develops dual-use technologies that can be used in civil and military spheres. The US government wants to keep them restricted from foreign access. As the details became known, Mikhail Kokorich the Russian founder and CEO of the American space startup Momentus Space resigned following publication of materials proving his illegitimate involvement in secret space technologies.