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Einstein wins again

Thursday, 16 December 2021 07:42
Bonn, Germany (SPX) Dec 15, 2021
An international team of researchers from ten countries led by Michael Kramer from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, has conducted a 16-year long experiment to challenge Einstein's theory of general relativity with some of the most rigorous tests yet. Their study of a unique pair of extreme stars, so called pulsars, involved seven radio telescopes across the globe an

Life arose on hydrogen energy

Thursday, 16 December 2021 07:42
Duesseldorf, Germany (SPX) Dec 15, 2021
How did the first chemical reactions get started at the origin of life and what was their source of energy? Researchers at the Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf (HHU) have reconstructed the metabolism of the last universal common ancestor, LUCA. They found that almost all chemical steps used by primordial life to piece together the molecular building blocks of cells are energy releasing react

Webb space telescope launch delayed: NASA

Thursday, 16 December 2021 07:42
Kourou (AFP) Dec 15, 2021
The launch of the James Webb space telescope scheduled for December 22 won't take place before December 24, NASA announced on Wednesday. The NASA project, launched in 1989, was originally expected to deploy in the early 2000s. But multiple problems forced delays and a tripling of the telescope's original budget with a final price tag of nearly 10 billion dollars (8.8 billion euros).
Hanover NH (SPX) Dec 15, 2021
Nearly a century after Italian physicist Ettore Majorana laid the groundwork for the discovery that electrons could be divided into halves, researchers predict that split photons may also exist, according to a study from Dartmouth and SUNY Polytechnic Institute researchers. The finding that the building blocks of light can exist in a previously-unimaginable split form advances the fundamen
Washington DC (UPI) Dec 15, 2021
Three years after it was launched, NASA's Parker Solar Probe has become the first spacecraft in history to "touch" the sun, officials said. NASA said the probe flew through the sun's upper atmosphere, the corona, and took some particle samples. The agency called it a "monumental" moment and a "giant leap for solar science." Because it's closer to the sun than any man-made craft h
Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 15, 2021
Just off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, thousands of gallons of oil seep through cracks in the seafloor and rise to the surface each day. But this isn't a disaster zone: It's one of the largest naturally occurring oil seeps in the world and is believed to have been active for thousands of years. The reliability of these seeps makes the area an important natural laboratory for scie

ESA contract to advance Vega-C competitiveness

Thursday, 16 December 2021 06:00
Artist's view of Vega-C

ESA’s Vega-C launch vehicle will fly in the second quarter of 2022 offering more performance to all orbits and extended mission flexibility at a similar cost to the current Vega. A new contract aims to widen these mission capabilities to capture new opportunities and satisfy emerging market needs to 2027.

Ieceye satellite

Canada’s MDA is acquiring an X-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite from Iceye that will be part of its Chorus system intended to replace Radarsat-2.

SpaceNews

NASA’s Earth Science Division is preparing to launch four satellite missions in 2022 to provide observations of weather conditions, mineral dust, oceans and surface water.

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Honeywell announced Dec. 15 it has teamed with telecommunications startup Skyloom to produce optical crosslink terminals for commercial and military satellites.

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President Biden nominated Frank Calvelli to be assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition, the White House announced Dec. 15.

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Keeping the space industry involved is key to ensuring they have a voice in how policy priorities are implemented and winning their support when those policies require new legislation and funding.

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NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter reaches a total of 30 minutes aloft
Ingenuity sits on a slightly inclined surface with about 6-degree tilt at the center of the frame, just north of the southern ridge of “Séíitah” geologic unit. The Perseverance rover’s Mastcam-Z instrument took this image on Dec. 1, 2021, when the rotorcraft was about 970 feet (295 meters) away. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

The 17th flight of NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on Dec. 5 pushed the total flight time past the 30-minute mark. The 117-second sortie brought history's first aircraft to operate from the surface of another world closer to its original airfield, "Wright Brothers Field," where it will await the arrival of the agency's Perseverance Mars rover, currently exploring "South Séítah" region of Mars's Jezero Crater.

The Senate on Dec. 15 passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 with broad bipartisan support in a 89-10 vote.

SpaceNews

Raytheon Technologies was awarded a $67 million contract to build a weather satellite prototype for the U.S. Space Force.

SpaceNews

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