Mercury ahead
Friday, 01 October 2021 10:51
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The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury will make the first of six flybys of its destination planet on 1 October before entering orbit in 2025.
Hot on the heels of its last Venus flyby in August, the spacecraft's next exciting encounter is with Mercury at 23:34 UTC on 1 October (01:34 CEST 2 October). It will swoop by the planet at an altitude of about 200 km, capturing imagery and sci Scientists recreate cosmic reactions to unlock astronomical mysteries
Friday, 01 October 2021 10:51 Write a comment
Experiments will give scientists a closer look at how exploding stars create world's heaviest elements. How do the chemical elements, the building blocks of our universe, get built?
This question has been at the core of nuclear physics for the better part of a century. At the beginning of the 20th century, scientists discovered that elements have a central core or nucleus. These nuclei con FAA reviewing Blue Origin safety allegations
Friday, 01 October 2021 10:13 Write a comment
The FAA says it is reviewing allegations about safety issues at Blue Origin raised in an explosive essay by a group of current and former employees.
Join our free online Space2Connect event
Friday, 01 October 2021 09:47 Write a comment
The first ESA virtual conference devoted entirely to telecommunications will take place between 11 October and 14 October.
Out now: ESA’s third quarter in images
Friday, 01 October 2021 09:10 Write a comment
Out now: ESA’s third quarter in images
Earth from Space: Mackenzie River, Canada
Friday, 01 October 2021 07:00 Write a comment
The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission takes us over the Mackenzie River, a major river system in the Canadian boreal forest. Its basin is the largest in Canada and is the second largest drainage basin of any North American river, after the Mississippi.
Trading spaces: ESA bolsters European business
Friday, 01 October 2021 07:00 Write a comment
Yesterday, ESA’s orbiting laboratory, OPS-SAT, hosted the first-ever stock trade in space. The successful experiment required developers at Europe’s leading online broker flatexDEGIRO to think far outside of the box and adapt their software to the technical demands and constrained bandwidth found on an orbiting platform at 500 km altitude.
Trading space: ESA bolsters European business
Friday, 01 October 2021 07:00 Write a comment
Yesterday, ESA’s orbiting laboratory, OPS-SAT, hosted the first-ever stock trade in space. The successful experiment required developers at Europe’s leading online broker flatexDEGIRO to think far outside of the box and adapt their software to the technical demands and constrained bandwidth found on an orbiting platform at 500 km altitude.
Space for climate: raising awareness ahead of COP26
Friday, 01 October 2021 05:40 Write a comment
Ahead of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP26), climate and energy ministers are coming together this week in Milan, Italy, to discuss the key political topics to be addressed at the upcoming global summit – taking place in early November in Glasgow.
ESA will be present at both the Pre-COP and COP26, highlighting the vital importance of observing our changing world from space and showing how satellite data play a critical role in underpinning climate policy.
Industry group working on satellite servicing standards
Thursday, 30 September 2021 18:20 Write a comment
A satellite servicing industry group is making progress on a series of standards that it believes can help enable the growth of the nascent field.
DoD trying to keep China from accessing critical U.S. space technology
Thursday, 30 September 2021 16:21 Write a comment
Chinese investments in U.S. space startups and use of Chinese software by DoD suppliers are issues of growing concern at the Pentagon, officials said.
'Planet confusion' could slow Earth-like exoplanet exploration
Thursday, 30 September 2021 15:55 Write a comment
When it comes to directly imaging Earth-like exoplanets orbiting faraway stars, seeing isn't always believing.
A new Cornell study finds that next-generation telescopes used to see exoplanets could confuse Earth-like planets with other types of planets in the same solar system.
With today's telescopes, dim distant planets are hard to see against the glare of their host stars, but next-generation tools such as the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, currently under development by NASA, will be better at imaging Earth-like planets, which orbit stars at just the right distance to offer prime conditions for life.
"Once we have the capability of imaging Earth-like planets, we're actually going to have to worry about confusing them with completely different types of planets," said Dmitry Savransky, associate professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (College of Engineering) and the Department of Astronomy (College of Arts and Sciences).
Head in the sky: 8-year-old Brazilian girl dubbed world's youngest astronomer
Thursday, 30 September 2021 14:11 Write a comment
When Nicole Oliveira was just learning to walk, she would throw up her arms to reach for the stars in the sky.
Today, at just eight years of age, the Brazilian girl is known as the world's youngest astronomer, looking for asteroids as part of a NASA-affiliated program, attending international seminars and meeting with her country's top space and science figures.
In Oliveira's room, filled with posters of the solar system, miniature rockets and Star Wars figures, Nicolinha, as she is affectionately known, works on her computer studying images of the sky on two large screens.
The project, called Asteroid Hunters, is meant to introduce young people to science by giving them a chance to make space discoveries of their own.
Virgin Galactic cleared to launch after US closes safety probe
Thursday, 30 September 2021 12:36 Write a comment
Virgin Galactic said Wednesday it had been cleared for spaceflight after the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) concluded a probe into a safety "mishap" related to its high-profile mission in July that featured company founder Richard Branson.
The FAA told the company it had accepted its proposed corrective actions related to the flight, which saw the SpaceShipTwo vehicle drop below its assigned Space Force upskilling Guardians with process mapping and automation
Thursday, 30 September 2021 12:36 Write a comment
The Space Force held its first Robotic Process Automation Workshop to explore how to effectively leverage bots to execute repetitive processes, as part of efforts to modernize the world-class fighting force at the speed of relevance. Permanent staff from the U.S. Space Force Space Operations Command, Headquarters U.S. Space Force, Air Force Personnel Center, and Air Force Reserve Personnel Cente