Copernical Team
Two space fans get seats on billionaire's private flight
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A billionaire's private SpaceX flight filled its two remaining seats Tuesday with a scientist-teacher and a data engineer whose college friend actually won a spot but gave him the prize.
The new passengers: Sian Proctor, a community college educator in Tempe, Arizona, and Chris Sembroski, a former Air Force missileman from Everett, Washington. They will join flight sponsor Jared Isaacman and another passenger for three days in orbit this fall.
SpaceX Starship rocket test ends in another failure: Musk
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SpaceX chief Elon Musk confirmed on Twitter Tuesday that the latest prototype of the company's Starship rocket series had crashed, after the video feed of its test flight cut out.
"At least the crater is in the right place!" he joked, in acknowledging the fourth failed test of the prototype.
"Something significant happened shortly after landing burn start. Should know what it was once we can examine the bits later today," he added.
The rocket, SN11, launched from the company's south Texas facility around 1300 GMT and began its ascent to 10 kilometers (six miles), experiencing some video glitches.
It was descending to the surface when the feed was lost once again.
"We lost the clock at T plus five minutes, 49 seconds," said announcer John Insprucker, meaning the amount of time that had passed after lift-off.
"Looks like we've had another exciting test of Starship Number 11," he added, dryly.
SN11 is the 11th prototype of Starship, which SpaceX hopes will one day be able to fly crewed missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond.
It was the fourth to conduct a test flight attempting to return to the ground for a soft vertical landing.
Researchers discover new type of ancient crater lake on Mars
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Researchers from Brown University have discovered a previously unknown type of ancient crater lake on Mars that could reveal clues about the planet's early climate.
In a study published in the Planetary Science Journal, a research team led by Brown Ph.D. student Ben Boatwright describes an as-yet unnamed crater with some puzzling characteristics. The crater's floor has unmistakable geologic evidence of ancient stream beds and ponds, yet there's no evidence of inlet channels where water could have entered the crater from outside, and no evidence of groundwater activity where it could have bubbled up from below.
So where did the water come from?
First interstellar comet may be the most pristine ever found
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UK to lead the development of the second Scout mission, HydroGNSS
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SpaceX Starship rocket explodes again after test flight
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A fourth Starship rocket prototype for Elon Musk's SpaceX launch company exploded after a test flight on Tuesday morning in South Texas.
As with previous test flights, SpaceX flew Starship - model SN11 - to over 6 miles high above the launch facility about 180 miles south of Corpus Christi. The rocket then glided on wing flaps back to the launch pad.
Heavy fog and problems with the video ESAIL captures two million messages from ships at sea
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The ESAIL microsatellite for making the seas safer has picked up more than two million messages from 70 000 ships in a single day.
International training
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ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti has started training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA. Set to launch for her second mission in spring 2022, Samantha is already getting reacquainted with International Space Station systems in a series of refresher courses.
Samantha was last on the International Space Station in 2014 for her Futura mission. She spent 200 days in space, conducting European and international scientific experiments and Space Station operations.
In the coming months, her schedule will intensify as she trains for the specific experiments and tasks she will perform in space during her second mission.
As a collaborative, international effort
Selection of the first James Webb Space Telescope General Observer Scientific Programmes
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The General Observer scientific observations for the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s first year of operation have been selected. Proposals from ESA member states comprise 33% of the total number of selected proposals and correspond to 30% of the available telescope time on Webb.
When clouds collide
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When clouds collide