Copernical Team
Week in images: 03-07 April 2023
Week in images: 03-07 April 2023
Discover our week through the lens
Webb reveals new details in Cassiopeia A
The explosion of a star is a dramatic event, but the remains that the star leaves behind can be even more dramatic. A new mid-infrared image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope provides one stunning example. It shows the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A), created by a stellar explosion 340 years ago.
Makenzie Lystrup named first female director of Goddard Space Flight Center
Makenzie Lystrup has been named the first female director of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, NASA announced Thursday.
Lystrup will begin serving in the role immediately, succeeding Dave Mitchell, who has resumed his role as the chief program management officer at NASA's headquarters in Washington, D.C., NASA said in a news release.
"Goddard is an incredible center an Earth from Space: Seoul, South Korea
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South Korea’s capital city, Seoul, and surroundings are featured in this image, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission on 21 February 2023. Space-based NASA instrument to track pollution over North America
A Falcon 9 rocket successfully blasted off from Florida into space on Friday carrying a new NASA device that can track air pollution over North America down to the neighborhood level.
The launch, which took place at 12:30 am (0430 GMT), will bring into orbit the Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument, which will allow scientists to monitor air pollutants and their emission sources more extensively than ever before.
The data will be used by the US Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies responsible for tackling atmospheric pollution.
Revealing invisible Himalaya glacier loss
New research reveals that ice being lost from glaciers that flow into lakes in the Himalayas has been significantly underestimated. This discovery has critical implications for predicting the demise of the region’s glaciers and for managing critical water resources.
Soyuz spacecraft that will bring ISS crew back to Earth moved to new port
The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft that will return three International Space Station crew members to Earth moved to a new docking port on the space station Thursday.
The three Expedition 69 crew members - NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin - successfully moved the spacecraft to the Prichal module on the Earth-facing side of the ISS at 5:22 Axiom Space's upcoming ISS mission part of increasing commercialization of space
NASA and Axiom Space announced the first possible launch date of the commercial Ax-2 Mission to the International Space Station on Thursday.
The SpaceX CRS-27 Dragon spacecraft is slated to launch from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 8 at 10:43 p.m. EST. Axiom Space hosted a mission overview press conference on Thursday to discuss the status of the mission. SpaceX prepares for rehearsal, test flight of Starship rocket
SpaceX plans to carry out a launch rehearsal next week of Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, and its first test flight possibly the following week, the private space company said Thursday.
SpaceX published photos of the massive Starship, which is designed to eventually send astronauts to the Moon and beyond, on its launchpad at the company's base in Texas.
"Starship fully sta How can we make the space sector more sustainable?
When talking about space, one might think about the stars one sees at night or a good sci-fi film. But space is also crowded with satellites, spacecrafts and astronauts, whose missions can last anywhere from several days to months. Meanwhile, 8,216 unmanned satellites revolve around Earth's orbits to improve our daily lives. Communication satellites contribute to enhancing Internet access in regions deprived of infrastructure (so-called "white areas"); meteorology satellites have become essential for weather forecasts, while navigation satellites (including GPS) are crucial for current and future transportation needs such as automatic driving vehicles.
Technological advances in the sector have unlocked many new business opportunities. The industry can now launch constellations of thousand satellites to reach corners of the earth as it had never before (e.g., Starlink), while new markets such as space mining and space tourism are steadily growing. National champions (including the United States and France) have also framed the space sector as a top economic priority. It is thought the technological benefits accrued by companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin or OneWeb, launched by billionaires such as Elon Musk, will also be able to trickle down to non-space sectors such as the energy or freight industries.