Data from ESA’s Gaia star mapping satellite have revealed tantalising evidence that the nearest star cluster to the Sun is being disrupted by the gravitational influence of a massive but unseen structure in our galaxy.

London, UK (Sputnik) Mar 23, 2021
The head of the UK Space Directorate, Air Vice-Marshal Harvey Smyth, expressed concern in December 2020 over Russia having allegedly conducted a new space test of anti-satellite weapons, without providing any evidence, claiming the "consequences of miscalculations and accidents have the potential to be catastrophic". Britain's Royal Air Force is facing an immediate need to "catch up with i

Washington DC (Sputnik) Mar 23, 2021
In 2017, Russia became the first country in the world to deploy nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles, with their development begun after the US withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and started building a missile shield. Moscow sees the weapons as a guarantee against decapitation strikes. China also has a successful hypersonics programme. The US Missile Defence Agency (MDA), the a

Long Beach CA (SPX) Mar 23, 2021
Rocket Lab, a leading launch provider and space systems company, has successfully launched its 19th Electron mission and deployed six spacecraft to orbit for a range of government and commercial customers. The mission, named 'They Go Up So Fast,' also deployed Rocket Lab's latest in-house manufactured Photon spacecraft to build flight heritage ahead of the upcoming CAPSTONE mission to the Moon f

Redmond WA (SPX) Mar 24, 2021
Kymeta and Kepler Communications have announced the successful demonstration of the Kymeta u8 Terminal with LEO satellite acquisition, tracking and throughput measurements, during extreme cold weather temperatures. The collaboration with Kepler supports Kymeta's goal to develop solutions that are future proof with a clear LEO upgrade path and compatible with growing mega constellations. In

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Mar 24, 2021
It took a large hangar to unfold the four ultra-lightweight booms, each made of carbon fibre-reinforced composites and 13.5 metres long, arranged in a cross shape. Researchers from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) tested the booms twice in the aircraft hangar at the DLR site in Braunschweig. In cooperation with the US space agency NASA, the aim i

Harwell UK (SPX) Mar 24, 2021
Astroscale has confirmed the successful launch of its End-of-Life Services by Astroscale demonstration (ELSA-d) mission. This marks the start of the world's first commercial mission to prove the core technologies necessary for space debris docking and removal. ELSA-d, which consists of two satellites stacked together - a servicer designed to safely remove debris from orbit and a client sat

Warwick UK (SPX) Mar 24, 2021
Space weather often manifests as substorms, where a beautiful auroral display such as the Northern Lights is accompanied by an electrical current in space which has effects at earth that can interfere with and damage power distribution and electrical systems. Now, the lifecycle of these auroral substorms has been revealed using social media-inspired mathematical tools to analyse space weather ob

Washington DC (UPI) Mar 23, 2021
Scientists have revealed the global nature of magnetospheric substorms, the space weather phenomena responsible for the Northern Lights. The discovery was made possible by the same algorithms that help social networking sites match like-minded friends. Researchers amassed data on disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field collected by magnetometers positioned all over the Norther

Washington DC (UPI) Mar 23, 2021
NASA plans to fly its Mars helicopter Ingenuity on the Red Planet - the first powered aircraft flight on another planet - as early as April 8, space agency officials said Tuesday. But first, the helicopter must detach from the bottom of the rover Perseverance in Jezero Crater, where the robotic explorer landed Feb. 18, mission controllers said at a media briefing at the Jet Propulsion