Copernical Team
Icy clouds could have kept early Mars warm enough for rivers and lakes, study finds
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One of the great mysteries of modern space science is neatly summed up by the view from NASA's Perseverance, which just landed on Mars: Today it's a desert planet, and yet the rover is sitting right next to an ancient river delta.
The apparent contradiction has puzzled scientists for decades, especially because at the same time that Mars had flowing rivers, it was getting less than a third Reusable plane project aims for low orbit
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China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, a major defense contractor, plans to produce a reusable aerospace plane and put it into commercial flight by 2030.
The plane will take off from and land on a conventional runway like a jetliner and will be capable of flying in near space or even into outer space. The low-cost aircraft will have high-quality safety features and will be used to fulf Robotic spacecraft will fly to asteroid, comet
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Chinese scientists and engineers have begun to develop a robotic spacecraft to collect samples from an asteroid and have performed many ground tests, a top scientist said.
Ye Peijian, a leading spacecraft researcher at the China Academy of Space Technology, said Chinese researchers have chosen 2016 HO3, the smallest and closest "quasi-satellite" to Earth, as the target.
"We plan to u Blue Origin protests NASA choice of SpaceX to land astronauts on Moon
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Blue Origin, the US space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, on Monday filed a protest against NASA's choice of rival SpaceX to build the module that will land the next US astronauts on the Moon.
"NASA has executed a flawed acquisition for the Human Landing System program and moved the goalposts at the last minute," Blue Origin said in a statement sent to AFP.
The decision "elimi False alarm: No space junk threat after all to SpaceX crew
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More patrols, fewer boaters for SpaceX splashdown Wednesday
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The astronauts flying SpaceX back to Earth this week urged boaters to stay safe by staying away from their capsule's splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
NASA and SpaceX are promising more Coast Guard patrols and fewer pleasure boaters for Wednesday afternoon's planned splashdown off the Florida panhandle coast near Tallahassee—the company's second return of a crew.
Mission Alpha launch timelapse
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Video:
00:01:17
A timelapse from various angles of the launch of SpaceX Falcon 9 with Crew Dragon Endeavour leaving Earth from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.
The rocket lifted off at 10:49 BST (11:49 CEST, 05:49 local time) on 23 April 2021 from Launchpad 39A in Cape Canaveral with ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.
On 24 April at 11:08 CEST the Crew-2 caught up with the International Space Station and docked with its Harmony module, marking the start of Thomas’ Alpha mission.
Thomas is the first
Russia launches new batch of UK telecom satellites into space
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A Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome in Russia's Far East on Monday carrying 36 UK telecommunications and internet satellites, the Roscosmos space agency said.
OneWeb, a London-headquartered company, is working to complete the construction of a constellation of low earth orbit satellites providing enhanced broadband and other services to countries around the world.
The company is competing against billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos in the race to provide fast internet via satellites for the world's remote areas.
Images released by Russia's space agency Roscosmos showed the Soyuz rocket taking off against hazy skies Monday morning at 7:14 am local time (2214 GMT).
"All satellites have been successfully placed in target orbits and have been taken under customer control," Roscosmos said in a statement.
"Mission success!" OneWeb wrote on Twitter.
The UK company plans for its global commercial internet service to be operational by next year, supported by some 650 satellites.
Monday's launch was the third batch of its satellites placed into orbit from Russia, with earlier launches from the Vostochny cosmodrome of 36 satellites each taking place last month and in December.
OneWeb's first six satellites were also launched by a Russian-made Soyuz rocket, taking off from the space centre in Kourou in French Guiana in February 2019.
NOAA's GOES-T completes solar array deployment test
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On March 3, 2021, engineers completed a successful test deployment of the GOES-T solar array as part of a series of tests to prepare the satellite for a planned December 2021 launch.
This critical test verified that the satellite's large, five-panel solar array—which is folded up when the satellite is launched—will properly deploy when GOES-T reaches geostationary orbit. During this test, engineers unfurled the five panels on rails that simulated the zero-gravity environment of space. Each solar panel is approximately 13 feet tall by 4.5 feet wide and weighs approximately 45 pounds.
Once GOES-T reaches orbit, the deployed solar panels will form a single solar array wing that will rotate once per day to continuously point its photovoltaic (solar) cells toward the sun. These cells will convert solar energy into electricity to power the entire satellite, including the instruments, computers, data processors, sensors, and telecommunications equipment. The solar array will generate more than 5,000 watts of power for the satellite.
Mission Alpha in images
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Mission Alpha in images
Image gallery of the Mission Alpha