SpaceX launches 40 Internet satellites for rival OneWeb into orbit
Sunday, 11 December 2022 11:52SpaceX launched its 55th flight of the year on Thursday, as its Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, carrying 40 Internet satellites for a competitor. Conditioners were about 90% favorable for liftoff at 5:27 p.m. EST with the three-batch deployment of the OneWeb satellites being completed about an hour and a half later. "All 40 satellites have successfully separated
Sol 3676 Another: 'Bore-ing' Day on Mars
Sunday, 11 December 2022 11:52After yesterday's check-out, Curiosity is GO to attempt to make our 37th drill hole on Mars. The prior plan's DRT cleaned up our target Amapari beautifully - it is in the middle of the clean area in the attached MAHLI image. Today is just a one-sol plan, but it is a full one! Before drilling, we have a short amount of time for imaging. Drilling take a lot of time and power, so we had to li
China launches Long March 2D carrier rocket
Sunday, 11 December 2022 11:52China launched a Long March 2D carrier rocket early on Friday morning to transport an Earth-observation satellite into space, according to the China National Space Administration. The rocket blasted off at 2:31 am at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China's Shanxi province and soon placed the Hyperspectral Multifunctional Observation Satellite into a sun-synchronous orbit 70
Meteorites plus gamma rays could have given Earth the building blocks for life
Sunday, 11 December 2022 11:52Even as detailed images of distant galaxies from the James Webb Space Telescope show us more of the greater universe, scientists still disagree about how life began here on Earth. One hypothesis is that meteorites delivered amino acids - life's building blocks - to our planet. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have experimentally shown that amino acids could have formed in
NASA's retired SOFIA aircraft finds new home at Arizona Museum
Sunday, 11 December 2022 11:52NASA's now-retired Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) aircraft will find a permanent home in the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona. The airplane is expected to make its final flight from NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, California, to Tucson on Tuesday, Dec. 13. "The SOFIA mission has a powerful potential to inspire, from its discoveries
Japanese company's lander rockets toward moon with UAE rover
Sunday, 11 December 2022 10:26A Tokyo company aimed for the moon with its own private lander Sunday, blasting off atop a SpaceX rocket with the United Arab Emirates' first lunar rover and a toylike robot from Japan that's designed to roll around up there in the gray dust.
It will take nearly five months for the lander and its experiments to reach the moon.
Falcon 9 launches ispace lander and NASA cubesat to the moon
Sunday, 11 December 2022 08:45A new era of commercial lunar missions started Dec. 11 with the Falcon 9 launch of a Japanese lander mission that also carried a NASA cubesat.
The post Falcon 9 launches ispace lander and NASA cubesat to the moon appeared first on SpaceNews.
Europe celebrates performance of Orion service module
Saturday, 10 December 2022 14:38As the Artemis 1 mission nears its conclusion, European Space Agency and industry officials praised the performance of the Orion spacecraft’s service module, which some see as a step towards a European crewed spacecraft.
Orion splashdown
Saturday, 10 December 2022 12:35Antenna maker Anywaves plots aggressive US expansion
Friday, 09 December 2022 21:50French satellite antenna maker Anywaves said Dec. 8 it has raised around $3 million to help capture more business from U.S. customers.
The post Antenna maker Anywaves plots aggressive US expansion appeared first on SpaceNews.
House committee leaders introduce bipartisan bills to update satellite rules
Friday, 09 December 2022 18:44The top Democrat and Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee introduced bipartisan legislation Dec. 8 to reform the Federal Communication Commission’s satellite licensing rules.
The post House committee leaders introduce bipartisan bills to update satellite rules appeared first on SpaceNews.
Space Development Agency’s first launch slips to March due to satellite glitch
Friday, 09 December 2022 17:55The first launch of the Space Development Agency’s constellation planned for mid-December will slip to March 2023 due to an anomaly detected in York Space’s satellites.
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NASA spacecraft will soon enter Earth's atmosphere at nearly 25,000 mph. What will happen next?
Friday, 09 December 2022 17:28Sunday at around 10:40 a.m. MT, NASA's Orion spacecraft will splash down in the Pacific Ocean after its several week-long journey to the moon and back. Space buffs can tune into NASA's livestream to witness some extreme physics—what will be the last leg of the historic Artemis 1 mission, which launched from Florida Nov. 15.
The numbers are mind-boggling: The Orion capsule will hit Earth's atmosphere flying at speeds of almost 25,000 mph (or about 11 kilometers per second) and experience temperatures nearing 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit in the process.
Iain Boyd is a professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences who has spent his career studying hypersonics, or vehicles that travel far faster than the speed of sound. He also leads a $15 million NASA institute called the Advanced Computational Center for Entry System Simulation (ACCESS). This effort investigates new ways to protect spacecraft as they undergo the extremes of entering atmospheres on Earth, Mars and beyond.
Looking back from beyond the moon: How views from space have changed the way we see Earth
Friday, 09 December 2022 15:30A photograph taken by NASA's Orion spacecraft has given us a new perspective on our home planet.
The snap was taken during the Artemis I mission, which sent an uncrewed vehicle on a journey around the Moon and back in preparation for astronauts' planned lunar return in 2025.
We get pictures of Earth every day from satellites and the International Space Station. But there's something different about seeing ourselves from the other side of the Moon.
How does this image compare to other iconic views of Earth from the outside?
Earthrise
In December 1968, three astronauts were orbiting the Moon to test systems in preparation for the Apollo 11 landing. When they saw Earth rise over the lunar horizon, they knew this was something special. The crew scrambled to find color film in time to capture it.
Photographer Galen Rowell called the resulting image "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken.