Copernical Team
NASA chief warns of Chinese military presence in space
Write a comment
China is bolstering its space capabilities and is using its civilian program to mask its military objectives, the head of the US space agency NASA said Wednesday, warning that Washington must remain vigilant.
"China has made extraordinary strides especially in the last 10 years, but they are very, very secretive," NASA administrator Bill Nelson told lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
"We believe that a lot of their so-called civilian space program is a military program. And I think, in effect, we are in a race," Nelson added.
He said he hoped Beijing would "come to its senses and understand that civilian space is for peaceful uses," but added, "We have not seen that demonstrated by China."
Nelson's comment came as he testified before the House appropriations committee on NASA's budget for fiscal 2025.
He said the United States should land on the moon again before China does, as both nations pursue lunar missions, but he expressed concern that were Beijing to arrive first, it could say, "'Okay, this is our territory, you stay out.'"
The United States is planning to put astronauts back on the moon in 2026 with its Artemis 3 mission.
Where missions come alive
Write a comment
Step inside ESA's Main Control Room at the Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany
Photo credit: ESA/J. Mai
Φsat-2 gets two new AI apps
Write a comment
Φsat-2, ESA’s groundbreaking cubesat scheduled for launch in June, will now include two new AI-driven apps destined to demonstrate a crucial role in future environmental monitoring from space. The apps, which focus on marine pollution and wildfires, were the winning entries in ESA’s OrbitalAI Challenge.
Astronauts to patch up NASA's NICER telescope
Write a comment
NASA is planning to repair NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer), an X-ray telescope on the International Space Station, during a spacewalk later this year. It will be the fourth science observatory in orbit serviced by astronauts.
China gears up for Shenzhou XVIII manned space mission
Write a comment
The China Manned Space Agency has announced that the Shenzhou XVIII mission is poised for launch in the upcoming days, aiming to deliver three astronauts to the Tiangong space station.
On Wednesday, the Shenzhou XVIII crew spacecraft, along with its Long March 2F rocket, was transferred to the service tower at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center located in the Gobi Desert of northwestern C How to Tell Space Rocks from Space Junk
Write a comment
Upcoming surveys will find dozens of near-Earth objects each night, but some of those objects will be space junk rather than asteroids. How will we tell the difference?
b>Masquerading as Asteroids br> /b>
When humankind sent its first rocket toward the Moon 65 years ago, it marked the beginning of a long era of lunar exploration. Now, the cast-off rocket parts from decades of lunar missi GDFAU joins NASA for university nanosatellite project
Write a comment
Florida Atlantic University's College of Engineering and Computer Science has been chosen as one of eight U.S. university teams to collaborate with NASA and the U.S. military. This partnership aims to boost innovation and expertise in the small satellite sector through the 2024 Mission Concept Program.
The program, a part of NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI), involves cooperation wit China launches space collaboration forum with Latin America and the Caribbean
Write a comment
Next week, Wuhan, Hubei province, will be the site of the first-ever China-Latin America and the Caribbean Space Cooperation Forum, as announced by the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
This inaugural two-day event, a collaborative effort among the CNSA, the Foreign Ministry, and the government of Hubei province, is scheduled to begin on April 24, which is celebrated as China's S ICEYE secures substantial growth investment to bolster its SAR satellite fleet
Write a comment
ICEYE, a leader in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology for Earth Observation, has successfully closed an oversubscribed $93M funding round aimed at expanding its SAR satellite operations. This recent financial boost will support the enhancement of the largest SAR satellite constellation globally and the development of new data and subscription services. This round is a continuation of the Why Figuring Out How Potassium Is Destroyed in Stars Is Important to Understanding the Universe
Write a comment
If you want to know where elements come from, look to the stars. Almost every element heavier than helium is formed through nuclear reactions in stars. But which stellar processes are responsible for these elements? Can we find patterns in how much of each element we observe in different astrophysical environments, like stars, galaxies or globular clusters?
Recently, our team of NC State r