Washington DC (UPI) Nov 4, 2021
NASA should begin plan for a massive new space telescope - one bigger than the largest telescope in history, the James Webb Space Telescope, according to a report from scientists around the country released Thursday. "This large strategic mission is of an ambitious scale that only NASA can undertake and for which the U.S. is uniquely situated to lead," according to the National Academy

Washington DC (SPX) Nov 05, 2021
NASA was notified Thursday that the U.S. Court of Federal Claims denied Blue Origin's bid protest, upholding NASA's selection of SpaceX to develop and demonstrate a modern human lunar lander. NASA will resume work with SpaceX under the Option A contract as soon as possible. In addition to this contract, NASA continues working with multiple American companies to bolster competition and comm

Moscow (Sputnik) Nov 05, 2021
International isolation experiment SIRIUS-21 to simulate the flight and landing on the moon started on Thursday in Moscow, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Six people went on a conditional trip to the moon: Oleg Blinov, an instructor of the Cosmonaut Training Center; Viktoria Kirichenko, a surgeon at the I

Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Nov 05, 2021
NASA and SpaceX continue to review launch and return opportunities for the upcoming crew rotation flights to and from the International Space Station as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program. Mission teams now are considering whether to return the agency's SpaceX Crew-2 mission from the space station ahead of launching the next crew rotation due to the associated weather considerati

Washington (AFP) Nov 4, 2021
Four astronauts could leave the International Space Station on Sunday without their replacement team having arrived to take over, NASA announced Thursday, but the timing remains uncertain due to weather conditions. The four members of the Crew-2 mission, including a French and a Japanese astronaut, are due to return to Earth this month after spending about six months on board the ISS. N

Washington DC (SPX) Nov 05, 2021
The American Astronomical Society (AAS), a major international organization of professional astronomers, astronomy educators, and amateur astronomers, supports the decadal survey report identifying scientific and foundational priorities, opportunities, and funding recommendations for astronomy and astrophysics in the coming decade and beyond. The report of the Astro2020 steering committee, sever

Cleveland OH (SPX) Nov 05, 2021
A team of shoebox-sized rover scouts was recently put to the test at a NASA Glenn Research Center lab. The facility, called the Simulated Lunar Operations lab (or SLOPE) is designed to mimic lunar and planetary surface operations. The mini rovers traversed simulated lunar soil - called regolith - to better understand the types of challenges that lunar rovers of this size will face on the Moon's

London, UK (SPX) Nov 05, 2021
BT and OneWeb have agreed terms for a new Distribution Partner Agreement, with OneWeb to provide low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication services across BT Group.* This builds on an initial Memorandum of Understanding signed in July and means BT is testing how LEO satellite technology integrates with its existing terrestrial capabilities to meet the communications needs of customers. On su

Washington DC (UPI) Nov 4, 2021
A federal judge on Thursday threw out Blue Origin's latest legal attempt to block SpaceX's $2.9 billion lunar lander contract from NASA. "The defendant's motion to dismiss ... is granted," Federal Claims Court judge Richard Hertling wrote in an order, citing a sealed opinion that he also signed. Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' rocket company, had sued Elon Musk's SpaceX and the U.S. gov

New Hyde Park NY (SPX) Nov 05, 2021
On November 4, 2021, iRocket announced that the company signed an agreement with Turion Space Corp in Irvine, CA. Said iRocket CEO Asad Malik, "We are excited about this new partnership with Turion Space to provide rapid access to space and cost competitive launch costs for their 20 Droid satellites and the low-cost final orbit delivery option their Droid satellites will bring to some of our own