Paris (AFP) Mar 27, 2025
Europe's Gaia space telescope was powered down and sent into "retirement" on Thursday after a decade revealing the secrets of the Milky Way, but its observations will fuel discoveries for decades to come. Since launching in 2013, the telescope has been charting the positions, motion and properties of nearly two billion stars to create an unparalleled map of our home galaxy, according to the

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 30, 2025
Over 80 years ago, Erwin Schrodinger asked a profound question about the nature of life in his 1944 lectures at Trinity College Dublin, later published as "What is Life?" Now, in the 2025 International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, Philip Kurian of Howard University has revisited that question, applying modern quantum mechanics to redefine the limits of biological computation. Ku

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 30, 2025
All planets are made of gas, ice, rock and metal, and models of how planets form usually assume that these materials don't react chemically with each other. But what if some of them do? UCLA and Princeton planetary scientists asked that question and got a surprising answer: Under the intense heat and pressure of newborn planets, water and gas react with each other, creating unexpected mixtures i

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 30, 2025
NASA has successfully tested its Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS) on the Moon, confirming its ability to repel abrasive lunar regolith during Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1, which concluded March 16. This test marks the first demonstration of the technology in the harsh lunar environment, where fine, electrostatically charged dust poses serious risks to equipment and astronauts.

Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 30, 2025
Recently Mars has had a few Earthly visitors. On March 1, NASA's Europa Clipper flew within 550 miles (884 kilometers) of the Red Planet's surface on its way out to Jupiter. On March 12, the European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft flew within about 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) of Mars, and only 300 kilometers from its moon, Deimos. Hera is on its way to study the binary asteroid Didymos and it

Washington DC (UPI) Mar 28, 2025
NASA on Friday announced the four crew members of Crew-11 who will be part of Space X's next trip to the International Space Station no earlier than July from Florida. The crew will include NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, the commander, and pilot Mike Fincke, as well as two mission specialists: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 30, 2025
A cutting-edge navigation system developed by Psionic, Inc. took to the skies over California recently, riding aboard an F/A-18 Hornet aircraft to undergo rigorous testing at speeds approaching Mach 1. The trials marked a major milestone in NASA's efforts to advance technologies crucial for safe and precise landings on the Moon and Mars. The Psionic Space Navigation Doppler Lidar (PSNDL) s

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 30, 2025
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has been named a qualified launch provider by the U.S. Space Force under the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 program, a strategic effort to bolster America's most critical space missions. The five-year indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract, valued up to $5.6 billion, allows Rocket Lab to compete for launches through June

Paris, France (SPX) Mar 30, 2025
As ESA's Hera spacecraft passed close to Mars, it carried out a successful test of its autonomous navigation system, locking onto dozens of surface landmarks such as craters and other geological formations to track them over time. This experiment marked the first large-scale validation of a self-driving technique that Hera will later use when navigating around its asteroid targets. "There

Paris, France (SPX) Mar 30, 2025
Two ESA satellites have achieved a major milestone in their bid to fly in perfect unison, as part of the European Space Agency's Proba-3 mission. This week, the twin spacecraft succeeded in autonomously holding their formation while aligned with the Sun, remaining locked in position for several hours without input from ground control. Inside the mission control center at ESA's European Spa