Greenbelt MD (SPX) Aug 27, 2021
After successful completion of its final tests, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is being prepped for shipment to its launch site. Engineering teams have completed Webb's long-spanning comprehensive testing regimen at Northrop Grumman's facilities. Webb's many tests and checkpoints were designed to ensure that the world's most complex space science observatory will operate as designed onc

Cambridge UK (SPX) Aug 27, 2021
A new class of exoplanet very different to our own, but which could support life, has been identified by astronomers, which could greatly accelerate the search for life outside our Solar System. In the search for life elsewhere, astronomers have mostly looked for planets of a similar size, mass, temperature and atmospheric composition to Earth. However, astronomers from the University of C

Atlanta GA (SPX) Aug 27, 2021
Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is a natural laboratory to study the origins of life. Like Earth, Titan has a dense atmosphere and seasonal weather cycles, but the chemical and mineralogical makeup are significantly different. Now, earthbound researchers have recreated the moon's conditions in small glass cylinders, revealing fundamental properties of two organic molecules that are believed to exi

Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 27, 2021
In its search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars, NASA's Perseverance rover is once again preparing to collect the first of many rock core samples that could eventually be brought to Earth for further study. This week, a tool on the rover's 7-foot-long (2-meter-long) robotic arm will abrade the surface of a rock nicknamed "Rochette," allowing scientists to look inside and determin

Los Angeles AFB CA (SPX) Aug 26, 2021
SpaceWERX officially lifted off Aug. 19 during the virtual Space Force Pitch Day. The event closed with 19 small businesses securing Phase II Small Business Innovation Research contracts to advance their cutting-edge space technologies. The newly launched SpaceWERX will play a vital role in pursuing innovative technologies for the U.S. Space Force. It will operate as part of AFWERX, the De

Mountain View CA (SPX) Aug 27, 2021
Frontier Development Lab (FDL), in partnership with the SETI Institute, NASA and private sector partners including Google Cloud, are transforming space and Earth science through the application of industry-leading artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools. FDL tackles knowledge gaps in space science by pairing ML experts with researchers in physics, astronomy, astrobiolo

Washington DC (UPI) Aug 26, 2021
Jeff Bezos' rocket company, Blue Origin, launched the 17th mission of its New Shepard rocket Thursday morning from Texas with artwork and experiments for NASA and universities. The NS-17 mission lifted off at 10:31 a.m. EDT from the company's launch facility about 150 miles east of El Paso after nearly an hour delay due to an issue with one of the experiments on board, according to a Bl

Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Aug 27, 2021
From Novartis to Lamborghini, Alessandro Grattoni and the Houston Methodist Research Institute have partnered with big names to leverage the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory for space-based research and technology development with important benefits back on Earth. Grattoni, professor and chair of the Department of Nanomedicine at the Houston Methodist Research Ins

Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Aug 27, 2021
With the next supply flight to the International Space Station (ISS), the Space Hub of the University of Zurich (UZH) and Airbus Defence and Space are bringing an experiment into space, which is intended to further advance the industrial production of human tissue in zero-gravity conditions. With this step, space could become a workshop for producing miniature human tissue for terrestrial use in

Kyoto, Japan (SPX) Aug 27, 2021
Humans have relied on forests and trees - for shelter, food, and fuel - from the earliest times. As technology has advanced, timber has been utilized for buildings, ships, and railroads. And now we may be on the verge of taking wood into space. Why wood? Building in space with futuristic, 'space-age' materials might seem to be the obvious choice: lumber's fragility and combustibility might