San Antonio TX (SPX) Aug 27, 2021
A Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) experiment was performed aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard suborbital rocket, which launched from Van Horn, Texas Thursday. Five variations of the tapered liquid acquisition device (LAD), which is designed to safely deliver liquid propellant to a rocket engine from fuel tanks, were aboard the rocket to evaluate their performance in microgravity. The tap

El Segundo CA (SPX) Aug 27, 2021
The U.S. Space Force's Space Systems Command recently declared the eighth GPS III satellite as "Available for Launch." This significant accomplishment officially marks the third space vehicle within the GPS III program to be declared available for launch in the past three months. GPS III SV06, SV07, and SV08 are now awaiting official call up for launch in Lockheed Martin's GPS III Processi

Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Aug 29, 2021
A SpaceX rocket from Florida carrying part of a robot that could help perform routine tasks for astronauts on the International Space Station was launched early Sunday morning from the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center. Launch of the resupply mission, with 4,800 pounds of goods for the space station, was at 3:14 a.m. EDT Sunday. The robotic arm is the feature of the resupply mission

Washington DC (UPI) Aug 28, 2021
California-based Astra Space, a small, relatively new rocket company, failed in flight Saturday after a launch from Alaska supported in part by the U.S. Space Force. The rocket "suffered an anomaly" about 2 1/2 minutes after liftoff from Kodiak shortly after 6:30 p.m. EDT, the company said, not elaborating on what happened. The failure followed an aborted attempt the day before,

Washington DC (UPI) Aug 28, 2021
Launch of a SpaceX rocket from Florida carrying part of a robot that could help perform routine tasks for astronauts on the International Space Station was postponed early Saturday morning because of storms near the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center. "Weather is not in our favor today," SpaceX production supervisor Andy Tran said during a live webcast of the launch attempt. "The vehicl

Geneva, Switzerland (SPX) Aug 27, 2021
Brown dwarfs are astronomical objects with masses between those of planets and stars. The question of where exactly the limits of their mass lie remains a matter of debate, especially since their constitution is very similar to that of low-mass stars. So how do we know whether we are dealing with a brown dwarf or a very low mass star? An international team, led by scientists from the Unive

Lund, Sweden (SPX) Aug 27, 2021
Using a supercomputer simulation, a research team at Lund University in Sweden has succeeded in following the development of a galaxy over a span of 13.8 billion years. The study shows how, due to interstellar frontal collisions, young and chaotic galaxies over time mature into spiral galaxies such as the Milky Way. Soon after the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, the Universe was an unruly

Cedar Rapids IA (SPX) Aug 27, 2021
Collins Aerospace has been awarded a $2.6 million contract by an undisclosed customer for Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) that will support a mission to establish a privately owned and operated orbital outpost in low Earth orbit. The ECLSS is a suite of technologies that enable livable conditions as low as 250 kilometers above Earth's surface. The ECLSS includes air

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Aug 27, 2021
The Space Pen has captured the American imagination in more ways than one. It's appeared repeatedly in pop culture and even worked as a plot device in a "Seinfeld" episode titled "The Pen," and in 2021 was inducted into the Space Technology Hall of Fame. It's also the subject of a myth that the space agency spent millions to invent a pen that can write in zero gravity, while cosmonauts simply us

Orlando FL (UPI) Aug 27, 2021
Part of a robot that could help perform routine tasks for astronauts is among the cargo on SpaceX's planned launch Saturday to the International Space Station from Florida. Tokyo-based GITAI Japan is developing the S1 robotic arm to work in space much like industrial robots work on Earth. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the arm, supplies and science experiments is planned for