...the who's who,
and the what's what 
of the space industry

Copernical Team

Copernical Team

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San Antonio TX (SPX) Apr 07, 2021
NASA's Lucy spacecraft has successfully completed thermal vacuum testing of both solar panels, the final step in checking out these critical spacecraft components in preparation for launch this fall. Once the Lucy spacecraft's solar panels are attached and fully extended, they could cover a five-story building. Lucy, the 13th mission in NASA's Discovery Program, requires these large solar
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Paris (ESA) Apr 07, 2021
Today is 406 Day - the annual campaigning day to spread awareness of the importance of emergency beacons, and the satellites that pick up their signals, including Europe's Galileo constellation. As well as letting people across the world find their way, Galileo also serves to detect SOS messages and relay them to authorities, contributing to saving many lives. Such detections can happen an
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Stanford CA (SPX) Apr 07, 2021
The universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate, and while no one is sure why, researchers with the Dark Energy Survey (DES) at least had a strategy for figuring it out: They would combine measurements of the distribution of matter, galaxies and galaxy clusters to better understand what's going on. Reaching that goal turned out to be pretty tricky, but now a team led by researchers at
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Colorado Springs CO (SPX) Apr 07, 2021
To obtain real-time awareness of the more than 300,000 objects orbiting the earth, the German Space Agency at DLR has selected Lockheed Martin's iSpace command and control system. The iSpace system tracks thousands of objects orbiting the earth by collecting data from a worldwide network of government, commercial and scientific community surveillance sensors. The German Space Agency at DLR
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San Antonio TX (SPX) Apr 07, 2021
NASA has selected Southwest Research Institute's 100 kg-class small satellite (SmallSat) platform to be listed in the Rapid Spacecraft Development Office (RSDO) IV catalog used by the U.S. government to rapidly contract for flight-proven spacecraft. The Southwest Space Platform-100 (SwSP-100) is now available through the $6 billion, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) Rapid Spacecraft
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Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Apr 07, 2021
The world's first ground-based observations of the bare nucleus of a comet nearing the end of its active life revealed that the nucleus has a diameter of 800 meters and is covered with large grains of phyllosilicate; on Earth large grains of phyllosilicate are commonly available as talcum powder. This discovery provides clues to piece together the history of how this comet evolved into its curre
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Huntsville AL (SPX) Apr 07, 2021
The rocket engine with one of the most storied histories in spaceflight, the RS-25, is returning to space for a second act - this time to send humans on the Artemis missions to explore the Moon. As the space shuttle main engine, the RS-25 has a proven record of launching 135 missions spanning over three decades. At the end of the shuttle program in 2011, 16 RS-25 engines that helped build
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Houston TX (SPX) Apr 07, 2021
SpaceFund announced it has reached and surpassed the planned first close of $5 million for its $20 million BlastOff Fund today. The Houston and Austin-based company says commitments to the fund have reached $9 million as of Monday morning. "We are thrilled to see how many investors are placing their trust in our team," said SpaceFund founder Rick Tumlinson. "We spent a lot of time slowly a
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NASA’s first weather report from Jezero Crater on Mars
Wind sensors that are part of the MEDA instrument suite can be seen deployed from the mast of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover in this image taken before the rover was launched. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The weather often plays a role in our daily plans. You might put on a light jacket when the forecast calls for a cool breeze or delay your travel plans because of an impending storm. NASA engineers use weather data to inform their plans, too, which is why they're analyzing the conditions millions of miles away on Mars.

The Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) system aboard NASA's Perseverance rover first powered on for 30 minutes Feb. 19, approximately one day after the rover touched down on the Red Planet.

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Exploring comet thermal history: burnt-out comet covered with talcum powder
By observing a comet in thermal infrared wavelengths, the same wavelengths used by noncontact thermometers, it is possible to determine not only its current temperature, but also the surface composition of the nucleus which contains information about the thermal history of the comet. Credit: Kyoto Sangyo University

The world's first ground-based observations of the bare nucleus of a comet nearing the end of its active life revealed that the nucleus has a diameter of 800 meters and is covered with large grains of phyllosilicate; on Earth large grains of phyllosilicate are commonly available as talcum powder.

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