Washington DC (SPX) Mar 13, 2024
I recently watched NESC Deputy Director Mike Kirsch stand before a roomful of engineers at the Langley Research Center and tell them that with every passing day, NASA breaks a record: the longest stretch without a major accident in the nation's human spaceflight program since the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry on February 1, 2003. NASA's challenge, he told them, was to make

Washington (AFP) Mar 12, 2024
Four astronauts splashed down off Florida in the Gulf of Mexico on their return to Earth early Tuesday, following a more than six-month mission on the International Space Station. The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft landed in the waters off Pensacola at 5:47 am (0947 GMT), with a NASA thermal camera showing all four of its drogue parachutes had deployed for the night-time landing after their 1

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 12, 2024
Stratolaunch, LLC, marked a significant achievement on March 9, with the successful completion of the first powered flight of its Talon-A test vehicle, TA-1. This groundbreaking event signifies a crucial advancement in the United States' efforts to develop a privately funded, reusable hypersonic test platform. The maiden flight's objectives encompassed ensuring a safe air-launch release, i

Berkeley CA (SPX) Mar 12, 2024
The particle accelerators that enable high energy physics and serve many fields of science, such as materials, medical, and fusion research, are driven by superconducting magnets that are, to put it simply, quite finicky. Superconductors are a special class of materials which, when cooled below a certain temperature, carry large electrical currents without resistance. If you arrange the ma

San Antonio TX (SPX) Mar 14, 2024
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has been awarded a three-year, $2,041,000 grant from NASA's Development and Advancement of Lunar Instrumentation (DALI) program to further develop a novel ground-penetrating radar instrument. The Synthetic Pulse Artemis Radar for Crustal Imaging (SPARCI, pronounced "sparky") instrument is designed to characterize the depth of the regolith and upper megaregolit

Paris (AFP) Mar 14, 2024
Humanity must preserve Earth before dreaming of colonising Mars because even nuclear war and unbridled climate change cannot make the red planet more liveable, Barack Obama said Wednesday. Speaking at a renewable energy conference in the French capital Paris, the former US president mentioned Silicon Valley "tycoons, many of whom are building spaceships" that could take humans to Mars. "

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 14, 2024
In a significant push to enhance lunar research and exploration, NASA has awarded Development and Advancement of Lunar Instrumentation (DALI) grants to five leading scientists and engineers. These grants are a cornerstone of NASA's initiative to advance lunar science through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services and the Artemis campaign. The announcement was made at the 55th Lunar and Plan

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 13, 2024
The Space Systems Command (SSC) of the U.S. Space Force, in partnership with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and United Launch Alliance (ULA), has announced the scheduled launch of the NROL-70 mission. This event, set for no earlier than March 28, will mark the final flight of the Delta IV Heavy rocket. The launch is planned from Space Launch Complex-37B at Cape Canaveral Space Force St

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Mar 14, 2024
In a significant move towards sustainable space exploration, China is fast-tracking the development of two large reusable rockets, with diameters of 4 meters and 5 meters, slated for their first launches in 2025 and 2026, respectively. This initiative by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation marks a pivotal response to the burgeoning demand within the commercial space sect

Boca Chica And Medford Colonia, United States (AFP) Mar 14, 2024
SpaceX plans on Thursday to attempt another launch of Starship, the world's most powerful rocket that is vital to NASA's plans for landing astronauts on the Moon later this decade - and Elon Musk's hopes of eventually colonizing Mars. Two previous attempts have ended in spectacular explosions, though that's not necessarily a bad thing: the company has adopted a rapid trial-and-error approac