Los Angeles CA (SPX) Nov 30, 2023
Firefly Aerospace, Inc., has marked a significant achievement in its propulsion technology with the completion of the first hot fire test of the Miranda engine. This pivotal development comes just over a year after the initial contract signing, underscoring the company's rapid progress in aerospace technology. The Miranda engine, a turbopump-fed system, is set to be a key component in the

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Nov 30, 2023
Tata Advanced Systems (TASL) and Satellogic Inc. (NASDAQ: SATL) have announced a strategic collaboration to foster local space technology capabilities in India. This partnership marks a critical juncture in TASL's satellite strategy and represents Satellogic's significant entry into the burgeoning Indian defense and commercial market. The collaboration will initiate with comprehensive trai

Paris (AFP) Nov 30, 2023
The European Space Agency announced on Thursday that the long-delayed first launch of its next-generation Ariane 6 rocket will take place between June 15 and July 31 next year. The rocket launcher system was initially planned to blast off in 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic and repeated technical issues have kept it on the ground, depriving Europe of an independent way to send heavy missions

New York NY (SPX) Nov 30, 2023
Cutting-edge computer simulations combined with theoretical calculations are helping astronomers better understand the origin of some of the universe's most energetic and mysterious light shows - gamma-ray bursts, or GRBs. The new unified model confirms that some long-lasting GRBs are created in the aftermath of cosmic mergers that spawn an infant black hole surrounded by a giant disk of natal m

Baltimore MD (SPX) Nov 30, 2023
NASA is working to resume science operations of the agency's Hubble Space Telescope after it entered safe mode Nov. 23 due to an ongoing gyroscope (gyro) issue. Hubble's instruments are stable, and the telescope is in good health. The telescope automatically entered safe mode when one of its three gyroscopes gave faulty readings. The gyros measure the telescope's turn rates and are part of

Boston MA (SPX) Nov 30, 2023
The way Morgane Konig sees it, questioning how we came to be in the universe is one of the most fundamental parts of being human. When she was 12 years old, Konig decided the place to find answers was in physics. A family friend was a physicist, and she attributed her interest in the field to him. But it wasn't until a trip back to her mother's home country of Cote d'Ivoire that Konig lear

Durham UK (SPX) Nov 30, 2023
An international team of astronomers led by Durham University and including astronomers at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre has reported the first detection of a rotating disc structure around a forming high-mass star outside of our Milky Way in another galaxy. The disc surrounds a young massive star located in a stellar nursery called N180, residing in a neighbouring dwarf galaxy called

New Haven CT (SPX) Nov 30, 2023
Scientists have long puzzled over why all of the planets in Earth's solar system have slightly slanted orbits around the sun. But a new, Yale-led study suggests this phenomenon may not be so unusual after all. Even in "pristine" solar systems, planets exhibit a bit of a tilt. Astronomers had long assumed that planets with pitchy, angled orbits - orbits that don't align with the spin axis o

West Lafayette IN (SPX) Nov 30, 2023
Uranus, the seventh planet from the Sun, orbits in the outer solar system, about two billion miles (3.2 billion kilometers) from Earth. It is an enormous world - quadruple the diameter of Earth, with 15 times the mass and 63 times the volume. Unvisited by spacecraft for more than 35 years, Uranus inhabits one of the least explored regions of our solar system. Although scientists have learn

Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 30, 2023
Earth planning date: Wednesday, November 29, 2023: Mars has just emerged from its solar conjunction period, when sending commands to all Mars spacecraft was not safe for three weeks since the Red Planet was behind the Sun as seen from Earth. During that time, Curiosity followed a long plan of instructions covering Sols 4004-4022 which were uploaded to the rover during the week of October 3