Slovakia becomes ESA Associate Member state
Wednesday, 12 October 2022 22:05Following its unanimous approval by ESA Council on 17 March, the Association Agreement between ESA and the Slovak Republic was signed on 14 June at ESA ESTEC in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.
Amazon to launch two Project Kuiper satellites on Vulcan’s first flight
Wednesday, 12 October 2022 16:09The first two satellites of Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband constellation — Kuipersat-1 and Kuipersat-2 — will launch on the maiden flight of United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan Centaur rocket
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NASA's new November targets mean night launch for Artemis
Wednesday, 12 October 2022 15:59If NASA gets to finally ignite its massive candle for the Artemis I moon mission, it's going to light up the night skies across Florida with three November launch dates that all fall after midnight targeted for liftoff from Kennedy Space Center.
NASA's first attempt to launch the Space Launch System rocket topped with the Orion space capsule falls on Monday, Nov. 14 with a 69-minute window that opens at 12:07 a.m. Two two-hour backup windows are available on Wednesday, Nov. 16 starting at 1:04 a.m. and Saturday, Nov. 19 starting at 1:45 a.m.
If it goes up, SLS with its 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff would become the most powerful rocket to ever launch from Earth besting the Saturn V rockets from the Apollo missions.
Next month's full moon falls on Nov. 8, so the first attempt should feature a waning gibbous moon still rising high in the eastern sky at midnight. Florida's notorious afternoon showers during the summer will also be not as much of a concern in the overnight hours.
If it hits its first target, the uncrewed Orion capsule would make several orbits around the moon traveling farther from Earth than any other human-rated spacecraft before returning on Dec.
On space matters, Biden’s national security strategy adopts a less combative tone
Wednesday, 12 October 2022 15:03The White House on Oct. 12 released a long-delayed national security strategy that lays out challenges the United States faces in a tripolar world.
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OneWeb unveils Innovation Challenge competition
Wednesday, 12 October 2022 14:44OneWeb is holding a competition for individuals, companies and academic organizations to propose applications for the London-based company’s low-Earth orbit satellite constellation.
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30 000 near-Earth asteroids discovered and rising
Wednesday, 12 October 2022 14:30We have now discovered 30 039 near-Earth asteroids in the Solar System – rocky bodies orbiting the Sun on a path that brings them close to Earth’s orbit. The majority of these were discovered in the last decade, showing how our ability to detect potentially risky asteroids is rapidly improving.
Webb finds star duo forms ‘fingerprint’ in space
Wednesday, 12 October 2022 14:00A new image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope reveals a remarkable cosmic sight: at least 17 concentric dust rings emanating from a pair of stars. Located just over 5000 light-years from Earth, the duo is collectively known as Wolf-Rayet 140. Each ring was created when the two stars came close together and their stellar winds (streams of gas they blow into space) met, compressing the gas and forming dust. The stars’ orbits bring them together about once every eight years; like the rings of a tree’s trunk, the dust loops mark the passage of time.
In addition
Japan’s Epsilon fails after liftoff, destroying smallsat payload
Wednesday, 12 October 2022 13:08A Japanese Epsilon small launch vehicle failed to reach orbit during an Oct. 11 launch, resulting in the loss of all eight smallsats on board.
The post Japan’s Epsilon fails after liftoff, destroying smallsat payload appeared first on SpaceNews.
World's 1st space tourist signs up for flight around moon
Wednesday, 12 October 2022 12:20Solar Orbiter speeds towards its next rendezvous with the Sun
Wednesday, 12 October 2022 12:00The ESA-led Solar Orbiter mission arrives at its next close approach to the Sun on 12 October 2022 at 19:12 UTC (21:12 CEST). This sequence of images shows the progress of the ESA/NASA spacecraft as it heads inwards on its voyage of discovery. The sequence begins on 20 September and finishes on 10 October.
The sequence was taken by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) using the Full Sun Imager (FSI) telescope, and shows the Sun at a wavelength of 17 nanometers. This wavelength is emitted by gas in the Sun’s atmosphere with a temperature of around one million
Ariane 6 assembly timelapse
Wednesday, 12 October 2022 11:00At Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, a test model of the Ariane 6’s central core has been assembled for the first time. Ariane 6 is the first Ariane rocket to be assembled horizontally, which is simpler and less costly than more traditional vertical assembly. One of the P120C boosters can be seen from different angles during installation, before the rocket’s central core is moved to its launchpad and placed upright in its mobile gantry. With the central core and boosters in place, combined tests validate compatibility between all components of the complete launch system.
First kinetic impact test succeeds in shifting asteroid orbit
Wednesday, 12 October 2022 10:08The kinetic impact of NASA’s DART spacecraft with the Dimorphos asteroid around its larger Didymos parent body has succeeded in shifting its orbit, meaning humankind’s first planetary defence test has been successful. Observations are continuing of the debris plume caused by the collision for as long as possible, as the asteroid system gradually recedes from Earth.
Mexico denies Russia space deal will aid spying
Wednesday, 12 October 2022 09:47Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday denied that a space cooperation agreement signed with Russia last year would help Moscow spy on North America. The pact was inked before Russia's invasion of Ukraine and "now a scandal is being made because there's talk that Mexico is allowing Russian satellites to be used to spy on Mexican and North American airspace," Lopez Obrador to
Memories of Minerva – Samantha Cristoforetti returns to Earth
Wednesday, 12 October 2022 09:00ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti is returning to Earth alongside NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins, marking the end of her second mission to the International Space Station, Minerva. Watch Crew-4's return live on ESAwebTV2 from 23:00 CEST (22:00 BST) 12 October.
Seasonal changes in Antarctic ice sheet flow dynamics detected for the first time
Wednesday, 12 October 2022 08:00Certain estimates of Antarctica’s total contribution to sea-level rise may be over, or even underestimated, after researchers detected a previously unknown source of ice loss variability. In a new paper published in The Cryosphere, researchers using Copernicus Sentinel-1 data, found that glaciers feeding the George VI Ice Shelf speed up by approximately 15% during the Antarctic summer. This is the first time that such seasonal cycles have been detected on land ice flowing into ice shelves in Antarctica.