Australia just flew its own 'vomit comet'. It's a big deal for zero-gravity space research
Thursday, 23 June 2022 12:30
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Last Saturday, a two-seater SIAI-Marchetti S.211 jet took off from Essendon Fields Airport in Melbourne with an expert aerobatic pilot at the controls and a case full of scientific experiments in the passenger seat.
Pilot Steve Gale took the jet on Australia's first commercial "parabolic flight", in which the plane flies along the path of a freely falling object, creating a short period of weightlessness for everyone and everything inside.
Parabolic flights are often a test run for the zero-gravity conditions of space. This one was operated by Australian space company Beings Systems, which plans to run regular commercial flights in coming years.
As Australia's space program begins to take off, flights like these will be in high demand.
What was on the plane?
The experiments aboard the flight were small packages developed by space science students at RMIT University.
Microsoft, Xplore and NOAA demonstrate cloud-based satellite operations
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Over the last year, Microsoft and Xplore worked with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to show how commercial services could support operations of polar-orbiting weather satellites.
The post Microsoft, Xplore and NOAA demonstrate cloud-based satellite operations appeared first on SpaceNews.
Methane levels surged in 2020 despite lockdowns
Thursday, 23 June 2022 11:45 Write a comment
Levels of methane, the second most important greenhouse gas in our atmosphere, continued their unrelenting rise in 2020 despite the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A team of scientists, from the University of Leeds, have used data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite to pinpoint locations with large surges of methane emissions. These findings were presented during ESA’s Living Planet Symposium which took place last month in Bonn, Germany.
Office of Space Commerce on a “listening tour” for civil space traffic management
Thursday, 23 June 2022 11:00 Write a comment
The new head of the Office of Space Commerce says he’s talking with industry on how his office can best take over civil space traffic management while also potentially taking on more regulatory responsibilities.
A modern space race needs to be built on sustainability
Thursday, 23 June 2022 10:29 Write a comment
Researchers have called for a more sustainable approach to the UK's National Space Strategy in a new publication from The University of Manchester, On Space.
Based on leading research and expertise on innovative and emerging technologies, experts are calling for sustainability to be at the forefront of humanity's next phase of space exploration. In On Space, experts ask policymakers to con China looks set to build space solar power station
Thursday, 23 June 2022 10:29 Write a comment
China has made a milestone advance in its effort to build a solar power station in space to convert the sunlight in outer space into an electrical supply to drive the satellites in orbits or transmit power back to the Earth.
A research team from Xidian University has wrapped up the world's first full-chain, system-wide ground verification for space solar power station this month, displayin A Long History of Flowing Water Recorded in Clay-Bearing Sediments on Mars
Thursday, 23 June 2022 10:29 Write a comment
A region on Mars may have been repeatedly habitable until relatively late in Martian history, says a new paper by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Catherine Weitz.
Some of the most extensively preserved landforms on Mars created by running water on its surface are found within the Margaritifer Terra region where deposits of clay-bearing sediments have been identified. "The pres NASA's Curiosity Captures Stunning Views of a Changing Mars Landscape
Thursday, 23 June 2022 10:29 Write a comment
Striking rock formations documented by the rover provide evidence of a drying climate in the Red Planet's ancient past.
For the past year, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has been traveling through a transition zone from a clay-rich region to one filled with a salty mineral called sulfate. While the science team targeted the clay-rich region and the sulfate-laden one for evidence each can offe First Ariane 5 launch of 2022 is a success for Malaysia and India clients
Thursday, 23 June 2022 10:29 Write a comment
On Wednesday, June 22, 2022 at 06:50 pm local time, an Ariane 5 launcher lifted off from the Guiana Space Center, Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana (South America), successfully orbiting two geostationary telecommunication satellites, MEASAT-3d and GSAT-24.
"With this Ariane 5 mission, Arianespace is honored to support the ambitions of two key actors in the Asia-Pacific region: M Lockheed Martin partners with US Indo-Pacific Command in Multi-Domain Experiments
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Lockheed Martin paired its DIAMONDShield battle management system with four Virtualized Aegis Weapon System (VAWS) nodes deployed across hundreds of miles to successfully demonstrate multi-domain operations during a recent U.S. military exercise.
The exercise, called Valiant Shield 2022, is a biennial training activity involving thousands of U.S. military personnel and more than 200 ships, Globalstar announces successful launch of spare satellite
Thursday, 23 June 2022 10:29 Write a comment
Globalstar, Inc. (NYSE American: GSAT), a leading provider of satellite-powered innovation, has announced the successful launch of the FM-15 spare satellite from Cape Canaveral's Kennedy Space Center. FM-15 is the 25th and final satellite of Globalstar's second-generation constellation, which was manufactured and stored by Thales Alenia Space.
The satellite is expected to remain as an in-o Key milestones achieved in Manned-Unmanned Teaming for future air power
Thursday, 23 June 2022 10:29 Write a comment
The ability to task unmanned systems from a manned aircraft is an important force multiplier in Airbus' vision for future air power, with a wide range of applications extending to combat scenarios and beyond.
As a pioneer in the realm of Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T), Airbus has developed an ambitious technological roadmap to make this innovative concept - which boosts the effectiveness China launches new test satellite
Thursday, 23 June 2022 10:29 Write a comment
China on Wednesday sent a new satellite into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.
The Tianxing-1 test satellite was launched by a Kuaizhou-1A carrier rocket at 10:08 a.m. (Beijing Time) and entered the planned orbit.
The satellite is mainly used for experiments such as space environment detection.
It was the 15th flight mission of the Kuaizhou-1A r NASA's Webb to Uncover Riches of the Early Universe
Thursday, 23 June 2022 10:29 Write a comment
For decades, telescopes have helped us capture light from galaxies that formed as far back as 400 million years after the big bang - incredibly early in the context of the universe's 13.8-billion-year history. But what were galaxies like that existed even earlier, when the universe was semi-transparent at the beginning of a period known as the Era of Reionization?
NASA's next flagship obse You can help scientists study the atmosphere on Jupiter
Thursday, 23 June 2022 10:29 Write a comment
A new citizen science project, led by researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities with support from NASA, allows volunteers to play an important role in helping scientists learn more about the atmosphere on Jupiter. Citizen scientists can help astrophysicists categorize tens of thousands of stunning images taken from the Juno spacecraft with just a web browser.
The planet Jupite