Developing future space experiment platforms for astrobiology and astrochemistry
Thursday, 29 June 2023 12:43
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Air Force awards Raytheon $625 million contract for nuclear-hardened satcom terminals
Thursday, 29 June 2023 12:06
After long wait, Virgin Galactic begins commercial spaceflights
Thursday, 29 June 2023 10:41 Write a comment
Virgin Galactic is set Thursday to finally begin commercial spaceflights, a major milestone for the company founded in 2004 by British billionaire Richard Branson.
Its first paying customers are a three-member crew from the Italian Air Force and National Research Council of Italy, with a fourth seat occupied by a Virgin Galactic astronaut instructor.
Dubbed Galactic 01, the 90-minute mis SpaceX Dragon to return to Earth with experiments, samples from ISS
Thursday, 29 June 2023 10:41 Write a comment
A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is set to depart from the International Space Station Thursday to deliver NASA experiments and samples dating back as far as six years.
The spacecraft is scheduled to depart from the ISS's Harmony module at about 12:05 p.m EDT Thursday under the command of ground controllers in Hawthorne, Calif.
NASA will provide live coverage of the Dragon's depa Astronomers reveal evidence of universe's 'background hum'
Thursday, 29 June 2023 10:41 Write a comment
Astronomers across the world announced on Thursday that they have found the first evidence of a long-theorised form of gravitational waves that create a "background hum" rumbling throughout the universe.
The breakthrough - made by hundreds of scientists using radio telescopes in North America, Europe, China, India and Australia after years of work - was hailed as a major milestone that ope Europe's space telescope to target universe's dark mysteries
Thursday, 29 June 2023 10:41 Write a comment
Europe's Euclid space telescope is scheduled to blast off Saturday on the first-ever mission aiming to shed light on two of the universe's greatest mysteries: dark energy and dark matter.
The launch is planned from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 11:11 am local time (1511 GMT) on a Falcon 9 rocket of the US company SpaceX.
The European Space Agency was forced to turn to the rival firm of bi 'Godfather of AI' urges governments to stop machine takeover
Thursday, 29 June 2023 10:41 Write a comment
Geoffrey Hinton, one of the so-called godfathers of artificial intelligence, urged governments on Wednesday to step in and make sure that machines do not take control of society.
Hinton made headlines in May when he announced that he quit Google after a decade of work to speak more freely on the dangers of AI, shortly after the release of ChatGPT captured the imagination of the world.
Th Maxar and Esri Expand Partnership to Visualize Precision3D in ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World
Thursday, 29 June 2023 10:41 Write a comment
Maxar Technologies, a leading provider of comprehensive space solutions and secure, precise geospatial intelligence, has recently declared that its Precision3D data will be made available for visualization in Esri's ArcGIS Online Living Atlas of the World.
Esri, recognized worldwide for its pivotal role in location intelligence, will embed Maxar's Precision3D Digital Surface Model, Digital Students to solve exploration challenges with ESA
Thursday, 29 June 2023 10:30 Write a comment
An exciting initiative based at ESA’s facility in the UK will give student researchers the opportunity to quickly investigate key challenges associated with space exploration.
Precision deployer to put Hera’s CubeSats into asteroid orbit
Thursday, 29 June 2023 08:12 Write a comment
Dutch firm ISISPACE has manufactured more than 600 cereal-box sized ‘CubeSat’ satellites, plus nearly 200 deployment systems used to release them into orbit. Of all of these, the pair of Deep Space Deployers it has overseen for ESA’s Hera asteroid mission for planetary defence have been by far the most challenging. The two systems need to keep their nanosatellite cargo alive and healthy, before releasing them on a precisely staged basis – at a velocity of just a few centimetres per second. Any faster and Hera’s CubeSats would risk getting lost in space.
Last glimpse of Euclid on Earth
Thursday, 29 June 2023 07:23 Write a comment
Image:
On 27 June, this last glimpse of ESA’s Euclid space telescope was caught right before it was encapsulated by a SpaceX Falcon 9 fairing, meaning that the nose of the rocket was installed over the spacecraft.
Euclid is 4.7-m tall and 3.7-m in diameter, fitting nicely in the Falcon 9 fairing with height of 13.1-m and width of 5.2-m.
The Euclid satellite is getting ready for the target launch date of 1 July 2023 from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA. The Falcon 9 fairing will keep Euclid safe and clean during the last days before lift-off and it will protect the spacecraft
SpaceShipTwo to demonstrate research capabilities on first commercial flight
Wednesday, 28 June 2023 23:52 Write a comment
Virgin Galactic is set to conduct its first commercial SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceflight June 29, one that will demonstrate the readiness of the vehicle for commercial operations as well as its role as a research platform.
OroraTech orders eight more wildfire-monitoring satellites
Wednesday, 28 June 2023 19:34 Write a comment
Germany’s OroraTech has ordered eight more thermal imaging satellites from Spire Global to expand its wildfire-monitoring constellation next year.
DoD to invest in startup developing mobile space-launch platforms
Wednesday, 28 June 2023 18:26 Write a comment
The Spaceport Company, a startup developing floating launch pads for space rockets, is one of 17 companies selected to receive government funding this year under the National Security Innovation Capital program.
Exploring Euclid's Korsch configuration mirrors
Wednesday, 28 June 2023 17:50 Write a comment
The 1.2-m diameter main mirror of ESA's Euclid mission to unveil the dark universe, seen during assembly, integration and testing. Using this mirror, the spacecraft will map the 3D distribution of billions of galaxies up to 10 billion light years away—looking beyond the Milky Way galaxy to image around a third of the observable universe. By revealing the universe's large-scale structure, and its pattern of expansion, the mission will cast light on the mysterious dark energy and dark matter making up 95% of the cosmos.
All six of Euclid's Korsch configuration mirrors, plus the telescope itself—comprising more than 30 parts as well as the mirrors—as well as the more than 10 parts making up the mission's Near Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer and the optical bench that surrounds them are all made from the same material: not glass, but a ceramic only found naturally in space.
Silicon carbide (SiC) is one of the hardest materials known, used to make cutting tools, high-performance brakes and even bulletproof vests, while being much lighter than glass. It is similar to a metal in having high thermal conductivity but unlike metals can undergo extreme temperature shifts without deforming—making it very attractive for space-based astronomy.