Mumbai (AFP) Dec 5, 2024
India on Thursday successfully launched into space a pair of European satellites that will create artificial solar eclipses to help scientists catch a rare glimpse of the Sun's mysterious atmosphere. Scientists broke into rapturous applause at the Sriharikota launch site as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief announced the spacecraft had been ejected as planned. "The spac

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ESA’s Proba-3 mission lifted off on its PSLV-XL rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India, on Thursday, 5 December, at 11:34 CET (10:34 GMT, 16:04 local time).

A pair of spacecraft were launched together today from India with the potential to change the nature of future space missions. ESA’s twin Proba-3 platforms will perform precise formation flying down to a single millimetre, as if they were one single giant spacecraft. To demonstrate their degree of control, the pair will produce artificial solar eclipses in orbit, giving prolonged views of the Sun’s ghostly surrounding atmosphere, the corona. 

Washington (AFP) Dec 4, 2024
US President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated Jared Isaacman, a billionaire online payments entrepreneur and the first private astronaut to conduct a spacewalk, as the next head of NASA. The nod raises questions about potential conflicts of interest, given Isaacman's financial ties to SpaceX chief Elon Musk, who is set to co-lead a government efficiency commission and is one of Trum

Boston MA (SPX) Dec 05, 2024
Dry river channels and lake beds on Mars point to the long-ago presence of a liquid on the planet's surface, and the minerals observed from orbit and from landers seem to many to prove that the liquid was ordinary water. Not so fast, the authors of a new Perspectives article in Nature Geoscience suggest. Water is only one of two possible liquids under what are

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 03, 2024
Maxar Intelligence has been chosen by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to support its Luno A program, a $290 million, five-year indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract. This initiative aims to deliver advanced geospatial insights and automated object detections using Maxar's cutting-edge capabilities. Through the Luno A contract, Maxar will deploy its soph

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Dec 03, 2024
China's space ambitions took another step forward as the Long March 12 rocket completed its inaugural flight Saturday night, launching from the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site in Hainan province. The event marked the first mission conducted by the nation's first commercial-dedicated spaceport. A crowd of onlookers witnessed the late-night liftoff at 10:25 pm, as the rocket ascended f

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 05, 2024
A 16-year study conducted by the STELLA observatory in Tenerife has unveiled unprecedented insights into the chaotic nature of star spot behavior on XX Trianguli. Using advanced robotic spectroscopy and Doppler imaging, researchers documented the star's surface evolution, showcasing a noncyclic dynamo mechanism fundamentally different from the Sun's. The findings are published in Nature Communic

Tucson AZ (SPX) Dec 05, 2024
A mysterious object discovered in the main asteroid belt in 2021 was determined to be a main-belt comet by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Henry Hsieh, Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science and Audrey Thirouin of Lowell Observatory. Main-belt comets are icy objects found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter - rather than the cold outer Solar System wh