Tune in to ESA Web TV from 02:37 BST / 03:37 CEST on 17 August to watch the Vega launch live.

Nagoya City, Japan (SPX) Aug 16, 2021
Scientists detect strongly entangled pair of protons on a nanocrystalline silicon surface, potentially enabling new levels of high-speed computing Quantum entanglement is one of the most fundamental and intriguing phenomena in nature. Recent research on entanglement has proven to be a valuable resource for quantum communication and information processing. Now, scientists from Japan have di

Washington (AFP) Aug 13, 2021
Boeing announced Friday that it has to send its troubled CST-100 Starliner capsule to a factory for repairs, delaying an unmanned test flight to the International Space Station (ISS) for several months. The spacecraft had been due to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on August 3 on an Atlas V rocket built by United Launch Alliance but the flight was delayed because of problems with four p

London, UK (SPX) Aug 16, 2021
A pioneering programme to help firms find their place in space has given a total of 31 businesses a 900,000 pounds boost and created new jobs - and the search is now on to find the next group of entrepreneurs. Twenty businesses will be supported on the next phase of the Leo Programme, a free six-month accelerator run by the UK Space Agency and powered by Entrepreneurial Spark, where they w

Tucson AZ (SPX) Aug 16, 2021
Anomalies in the distribution of hydrogen at Occator crater on the dwarf planet Ceres reveal an icy crust, says a new paper led by Tom Prettyman, a Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. The evidence comes from data acquired by the Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector (GRaND) aboard NASA's Dawn spacecraft. A detailed map of the concentration of hydrogen in the vicinity of Occator w

Haifa, Israel (SPX) Aug 16, 2021
The three-body problem is one of the oldest problems in physics: it concerns the motions of systems of three bodies, like the Sun, Earth and the Moon - how their orbits change and evolve due to their mutual gravity. The three-body problem has been a focus of scientific inquiry ever since Newton. When one massive object comes close to another, their relative motion follows a trajectory dict

Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Aug 15, 2021
NASA and Boeing have decided to postpone the launch of Orbital Flight Test-2 to the International Space Station as teams continue work on the CST-100 Starliner propulsion system. Engineering teams have been working to restore functionality to several valves in the Starliner propulsion system from inside United Launch Alliance's Vertical Integration Facility that did not open as designed du

Maryland MD (SPX) Aug 16, 2021
Perched atop a stand in the middle of a high-ceilinged clean room, DART is beginning to look like the intrepid spacecraft that will aim itself directly into an asteroid next fall. With the addition of its compact Roll-Out Solar Arrays (ROSA) coiled into two gold cylinders that flank the sides of the spacecraft, and its less visible but still integral imager, the Didymos Reconnaissance and Astero

West Lafayette IN (SPX) Aug 16, 2021
People who design spacecraft must prioritize two factors: reducing weight and managing extreme temperatures. A new experiment designed by Purdue University engineers addresses both problems. The Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment (FBCE), which arrived at the International Space Station on Thursday (Aug. 12), will soon advance the science of heat transfer in microgravity. "Vehic

Washington DC (Sputnik) Aug 16, 2021
The claims made by Russian media that NASA Astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor had a nervous breakdown and damaged a Russian spacecraft to get home are not credible, Kathy Lueders, who is leading NASA's human spaceflight program, said at a press conference on Friday. Russia's TASS recently published a story, citing an unnamed source in the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos, that claimed Aunon-C