Copernical Team
Universities prepare to launch experiments with NASA, Virgin Orbit
Experiments on a NASA educational satellite mission planned this month include two devices intended to inspect other spacecraft in space, a box of quartz marbles that will float in microgravity and a weather observation satellite to monitor storms.
Ten small satellites, or CubeSats, on the mission are packed for launch as early as next week from California. Nine of the craft were design NASA Supports America's National Strategy for Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion
President Donald Trump has issued a new Space Policy Directive that will help propel NASA and humanity's next giant leap - creating a sustainable presence on the Moon and sending astronauts to Mars.
The president issued Space Policy Directive-6 (SPD-6), the Nation's Strategy for Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion (SNPP), Wednesday, Dec. 16. Space nuclear systems power spacecraft for missio NASA awards launch services contract to Blue Origin for New Glenn launch services
NASA has awarded a NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract to Blue Origin and their New Glenn launch service in accordance with the contract's on-ramp provision. The New Glenn launch service will be available to NASA's Launch Services Program (LSP) to use for future missions in accordance with the on-ramp provision of NLS II.
The NLS II is a multiple-supplier, multiple-award, indefinite-del Chinese craft carrying Moon rocks returns to Earth: Xinhua
An unmanned Chinese spacecraft carrying rocks and soil from the Moon returned safely to Earth early Thursday in the first mission in four decades to collect lunar samples, the Xinhua news agency said.
The capsule carrying the samples collected by the Chang'e-5 space probe landed in northern China's Inner Mongolia region, Xinhua said, quoting the China National Space Administration (CNSA). China prepares for return of spacecraft with moon samples
Canadian will join Moon mission for first time in 2023
A Canadian astronaut will take part in a lunar mission for the first time in 2023, as part of the NASA-led Artemis project, the minister for innovation, science and industry announced Wednesday.
"I am proud to announce another first: Canada will join the US on the first crewed mission to the Moon since the Apollo mission," the minister, Navdeep Bains, told a press conference.
"This will make Canada only the second country after the US to have an astronaut in deep space."
The mission, Artemis II, will see a crewed test flight sent into orbit in 2023 but will not involve an actual landing on the Moon, according to the US space agency.
World's space achievements a bright spot in stressful 2020
Chinese craft carrying Moon rocks returns to Earth
An unmanned Chinese spacecraft carrying rocks and soil from the Moon returned safely to Earth early Thursday in the first mission in four decades to collect lunar samples, the Xinhua news agency said.
The capsule carrying the samples collected by the Chang'e-5 space probe landed in northern China's Inner Mongolia region, Xinhua said, quoting the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The agency's director, Zhang Kejian, declared the mission a success, Xinhua said.
With this mission, China became only the third country to have retrieved samples from the Moon, following the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s.
Beijing is looking to catch up with Washington and Moscow after taking decades to match its rivals' achievements and has poured billions into its military-run space programme.
Chang'e-5, named after a mythical Chinese Moon goddess, landed on the Moon on December 1.
Data models point to a potentially diverse metabolic menu at Enceladus
Using data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, scientists at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) modeled chemical processes in the subsurface ocean of Saturn's moon Enceladus.
China prepares for return of lunar probe with moon samples
