Alameda CA (SPX) Feb 05, 2021
Astra, the fastest privately-funded company in history to demonstrate orbital launch capability, and Holicity Inc. (NASDAQ: HOL) ("Holicity"), a special purpose acquisition company ("SPAC"), has announced a definitive business combination agreement that will result in Astra becoming a publicly-traded company. The transaction reflects an implied pro forma enterprise value for Astra of appro

Dubai (AFP) Feb 7, 2021
When Sarah al-Amiri was a child growing up in Abu Dhabi with a fascination for space, her young country seemed light years away from reaching for the stars. Now the 34-year-old is a government minister and one of the drivers of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) ambitious project behind the "Hope" probe that is due to reach the orbit of Mars on Tuesday. As a youngster poring over images of f

Dubai (AFP) Feb 7, 2021
The first Arab space mission, the UAE's "Hope" probe, is expected to reach Mars' orbit on Tuesday, making it the first of three spacecraft to arrive at the Red Planet this month. The United Arab Emirates, China and the United States all launched projects to Mars last July, taking advantage of a period when the Earth and Mars are nearest. If succesful, the wealthy Gulf state will become t

Washington DC (SPX) Feb 08, 2021
By analyzing sediments jostled by ground shaking, researchers have shown that two impact craters near Stuttgart were created by independent asteroid impacts rather than a binary asteroid strike. A Gothic church rises high above the medieval town of Nordlingen, Germany. But unlike most churches, St. George's is composed of a very special type of rock: suevite, a coarse-grained breccia that'

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Feb 08, 2021
Astronomers have for the first time used distant galaxies as 'scintillating pins' to locate and identify a piece of the Milky Way's missing matter. For decades, scientists have been puzzled as to why they couldn't account for all the matter in the universe as predicted by theory. While most of the universe's mass is thought to be mysterious dark matter and dark energy, 5 percent is 'normal

Charlottesville VA (SPX) Feb 08, 2021
When most of us picture the shape of the Milky Way, the galaxy that contains our own sun and hundreds of billions of other stars, we think of a central mass surrounded by a flat disc of stars that spiral around it. However, astronomers know that rather than being symmetrical, the disc structure is warped, more like the brim of a fedora, and that the warped edges are constantly moving around the

Moscow (Sputnik) Feb 08, 2021
On Sunday, US astronauts living aboard the ISS orbital outpost will break the record for most days in space by a crew launched aboard an American spacecraft, NASA said. "They will surpass the record of 84 days set by the Skylab 4 crew on Feb. 8, 1974", NASA said. The Skylab 4 crew, with NASA astronauts Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson, and William Pogue, docked their Apollo spacecraft to t

Chongqing (XNA) Feb 08, 2021
A new smart suborbital rocket developed by a private Chinese company was successfully launched from a site in northwest China on Friday, according to the company. The "Chongqing Liangjiang Star" OS-X6B, with a length of 9.4 meters, was launched at 5:05 p.m. It completed a flight time of about 580 seconds, reaching a maximum altitude of about 300 km, said OneSpace Technology Group Co.

Bethesda MD (SPX) Feb 08, 2021
There is currently a great interest in going someplace in the Solar System. NASA wants to go to the Moon. Elon Musk wants to go to Mars. Still others just want to go to an asteroid. These destinations require extremely complex systems and mission scenarios. In order to get to any of these places, the easiest way is to first get into Earth orbit. This first step requires leaving the terrest

Beijing (XNA) Feb 08, 2021
China's Tianwen 1 Mars probe conducted its fourth orbital correction on Friday evening, as the spacecraft makes ready for its arrival in orbit around Feb 10, according to the China National Space Administration. The robotic vehicle ignited one of its engines at 8 pm to make an orbital correction and ensure it would be flying in the right direction toward the Martian gravitational field, th