Baltimore MD (SPX) Feb 28, 2022
Webb continues on its path to becoming a focused observatory. The team has successfully worked through the second and third out of seven total phases of mirror alignment. With the completion of these phases, called Segment Alignment and Image Stacking, the team will now begin making smaller adjustments to the positions of Webb's mirrors. After moving what were 18 scattered dots of starligh

Hefei, China (SPX) Feb 28, 2022
Dr. HE Zhicheng and his coworkers from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences created a new way to measure the physical properties of galactic ionized gas, and discovered the acceleration of quasar outflows at the scale of tens of parsecs for the first time. Their paper was published on Science Advances According to modern theories on ga

Durham UK (SPX) Feb 28, 2022
Durham University astronomer collaborating with a team of international scientists have mapped more than a quarter of the northern sky using the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), a pan-European radio telescope. The map reveals an astonishingly detailed radio image of more than 4.4 million objects and a very dynamic picture of our Universe, which now has been made public for the first time.

Paris (ESA) Feb 28, 2022
Happy 100 days in space to ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer. The first-time space flier marked the milestone on 19 February 2022 and what a busy 100-days it been. In a Twitter post marking the milestone, Matthias wrote, "100 days may sound like a lot, but it feels like I've only just arrived." Even before launching for his Cosmic Kiss mission on a SpaceX Dragon as part of Crew-3, Matthi

Beijing (XNA) Feb 28, 2022
China's new-generation manned launch vehicle may have a reusable first stage that can make a vertical soft landing, Science and Technology Daily reported Friday. The reusable first stage can perform engine deceleration during the reentry, and control itself and decelerate by pneumatic rudders, said Wang Xiaojun, head of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, which is under China A

Boston MA (SPX) Feb 28, 2022
In 2002, the European Space Agency launched Envisat, the largest civilian satellite (at the time) to go to low Earth orbit (LEO). For a decade, it observed our planet and sent back valuable data on Earth's climate, tracking the decline of Arctic sea ice and more, until it went dark in 2012. One of the prevailing theories for its demise is that it simply ran out of fuel. As LEO becomes more

Washington DC (SPX) Feb 28, 2022
An astronaut steps into a body scanner and, hours later, walks on Mars in a custom-made spacesuit, breathing oxygen that was extracted from Mars' carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere. On Venus, an inflatable bird-like drone swoops through the sky, studying the planet's atmosphere and weather patterns. Ideas like these are currently science fiction, but they could one day become reality, thanks to a ne

Moscow (AFP) Feb 26, 2022
Russia is suspending space launches from French Guiana and withdrawing its technical personnel in response to EU sanctions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, the space agency said Saturday. "In response to EU sanctions against our enterprises, Roskosmos is suspending cooperation with European partners over organising space launches from the Kourou cosmodrome and withdrawing its technical per

Maxwell AFB AL (The Conversation) Feb 25, 2022
New U.S. sanctions on Russia will encompass Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, according to a speech U.S. President Joe Biden gave on Feb. 24, 2022. In response to these sanctions, the head of Roscosmos on the same day posted a tweet saying, among other things, "If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from an uncontrolled deorbit and fall into the United States or Europe?"

Moscoww (AFP) Feb 26, 2022
Russia is suspending space launches from French Guiana and withdrawing its technical personnel in response to EU sanctions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, the space agency said Saturday. "In response to EU sanctions against our enterprises, Roskosmos is suspending cooperation with European partners over organizing space launches from the Kourou cosmodrome and withdrawing its technical