Copernical Team
NASA facility in Ohio named for native son Neil Armstrong
A NASA research facility in Ohio has been renamed after astronaut Neil Armstrong, who was born in the state and returned shortly after he became the first man to walk on the moon.
Ohio's U.S. senators led the efforts to change the name of the NASA Plum Brook Station in Sandusky to the Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility.
Republican Rob Portman said he raised the idea with Armstrong in 2012, shortly before Armstrong's death, but he wasn't comfortable with the attention it would bring.
"It was never about him. It was about the mission," Portman said Wednesday at a ceremony marking the name change.
NASA and Armstrong's family supported renaming the research center, Portman said.
Armstrong's son, Mark Armstrong, said the early space missions showed people across the world that they could do things they could never imagine.
"That is more empowering than any scientific advancement," he said. "It's more empowering than the transistor. It's more empowering than the computer. Because it's unlimited. And that's what we have to remind people."
Armstrong was born just outside Wapakoneta in 1930, took flying lessons at a nearby airstrip and made his first solo flight at age 16.
New project will simulate life on Mars, pave way for NASA's 'next giant leap'
As NASA prepares for its "next giant leap"—meaning astronauts on Mars—technology developed by Austin-based 3D printing construction company Icon is helping pave the way.
Icon has landed a subcontract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and is teaming with Bjarke Ingels Group, to construct and design a habitation unit that will help the space agency better understand how people may be able to live on Mars in the future.
The company is building a 3D printed structure at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston for a series of missions designed to simulate what life could look like for astronauts living on Mars. Once completed, crews will stay in the structure at the Houston space center for one-year stints designed to mimic living conditions on the red planet.
Icon, which printed its first home using 3D technology in 2018, was co-founded by Jason Ballard with the goal of reimagining construction and housebuilding by using novel building techniques to make homes more affordable, resilient and sustainable. The startup has built a number of projects on Earth and has been working to take its technology to new heights by aiming to construct some of the first habitable structures in space.
Wildfires ravage Greek island of Evia
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Parts of the Mediterranean and central Europe have experienced extreme temperatures this summer, with wildfires causing devastation on the Greek island of Evia. This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image shows the extent of the burned area in the northern part of the island. NASA blames Mars rover sampling fiasco on bad, powdery rock
Indian launch attempt of earth observation satellite fails
Flying by Venus
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Flying by Venus Scientists detect characteristics of the birth of a major challenge to harvesting fusion energy on Earth
A key challenge for scientists striving to produce on Earth the fusion energy that powers the sun and stars is preventing what are called runaway electrons, particles unleashed in disrupted fusion experiments that can bore holes in tokamaks, the doughnut-shaped machines that house the experiments. Scientists led by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Lab Lockheed Martin to upgrade US missile defense system's Multi-Domain Command and Control Capability
Today's battlespace is the most contested since the Cold War. Offensive missile systems with maturing sophistication from rogue states pose a growing threat to the U.S. Helping the U.S. counter these threats is the Command, Control, Battle Management and Communications (C2BMC) system, the integrating element of the U.S. Missile Defense System.
To strengthen C2BMC's capability, the Missile Space Force reluctant to spearhead Pentagon's UFO Investigation Program
A former US intelligence official reportedly said that it "makes perfect sense" for the Space Force to handle the UFO-related matters since it "doesn't have a geographic boundary."
The US Space Force is "conflicted" over the prospect of leading the country's effort to collect information about UFOs, Politico reports.
According to the media outlet, while the Pentagon is contemplating Commander offers strategies for deterring aggression from China and Russia
The commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command described threats from Russia and China and ways to mitigate those threats.
Air Force Gen. Glen D. VanHerck spoke at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium, in Huntsville, Alabama.
Besides battling wildfires, hurricanes, cyberattacks and COVID-19, NORAD and Northcom are engaged in deterring threats f 
