Copernical Team
Future astronauts might be able to 3D print their own spacesuits and parts as needed
One of the best motivators to solve a problem is to experience it yourself. Dr. Bonnie Dunbar happened to have just such an experience. She is a former NASA astronaut and is now a professor of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M. While she was in the astronaut corps, she realized that some of her fellow astronauts couldn't fit in an extra vehicular activity suit—more commonly known as a spacesuit. So she decided not only to create one for the individuals with the original problem but to create a process by which any other astronaut launched on any future mission can have a spacesuit tailored to their own specific body. And now, her former employer (NASA) is funding her and her lab to complete a feasibility study of this customization process as part of the recently announced NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program.
Dr. Dunbar's submission, known as The Spacesuit Digital Thread, received $175,000 to fund the research over the next nine months.
Revised flight plan brings change for Samantha
In May 2021 it was announced that ESA astronaut and Dragon Crew-4 mission specialist Samantha Cristoforetti would serve as Commander of International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 68a.
As part of normal vehicle scheduling, the Space Station flight programme was recently updated adjusting the upcoming crew rotation for Crew-4 and Crew-5, resulting in a shorter mission for Crew-4. ISS Expedition 68 will now take place after Samantha’s departure from the Station.
Weather satellite rockets to orbit to monitor US West
America's newest weather satellite blasted off Tuesday to improve wildfire and flood forecasting across the western half of the country.
Space junk on 5,800-mph collision course with moon
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These milestones include first flights of two new X-planes: the X-57 Maxwell and X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) aircraft.
The X-57 Maxwell is Lockheed Martin to deliver 42 smallsats for SDA's Transport Layer
The Space Development Agency (SDA) has awarded Lockheed Martin a prototype agreement with a potential value of approximately $700 million to design and build 42 small satellites. These satellites are part of Tranche 1, the initial warfighting capability of the agency's Transport Layer, which will connect space with other domains on Earth in a highly capable, networked environment of Joint All-Do North Korea claims latest missile launch was spy satellite test
North Korea said Monday that it successfully conducted a test of a "reconnaissance satellite" over the weekend in a launch of what the South Korean and Japanese militaries described as a ballistic missile.
The test helped "confirm the characteristics and working accuracy of high-definition photographing system, data transmission system and attitude control devices," according to a brief re Northrop Grumman wins SDA contract in development of Joint All-Domain constellation
Northrop Grumman has received an award with a potential value of $692 million from the Space Development Agency (SDA) to produce and field an innovative, proliferated constellation of 42 low-Earth orbit (pLEO) satellites for the Tranche 1 Transport Layer (T1TL) mesh satellite communications network.
T1TL will provide resilient, low-latency, high-volume data transport supporting U.S. milita Space Development Agency awards 126 satellites to Build Tranche 1 Transport Layer
The Space Development Agency (SDA) has announced the awards of three prototype agreements worth approximately $1.8 billion to establish the foundation for Tranche 1 Transport Layer (T1TL), a mesh network of 126 optically-interconnected space vehicles (SV) that will provide a resilient, low-latency, high-volume data transport communication system, and be ready for launch starting in September 202 SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to launch Inmarsat's newest satellite
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the second in the Inmarsat-6 series of satellites, I-6 F2, from Cape Canaveral, Florida in Q1 2023. Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries launched the first of the series, I-6 F1, in December 2021 and its fully electric propulsion system is now raising it to a geostationary orbital slot, 36,000km (22,000 miles) over the Indian Ocean. I-6 F1 will enter service i