US and Britain enter commercial spaceflight partnership
Saturday, 14 May 2022 12:51
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The United States and Britain entered into a commercial spaceflight partnership agreement Thursday with the aim to launch cheaper, quicker and more streamlined spaceflight operations.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his British counterpart, Grant Shapps, signed the agreement at Maryland's Smithsonian Institution, London's Department for Transport said in a statement Friday. Wealthy nations carving up space and its riches, leaving others behind
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Satellites help run the internet and television and are central to the Global Positioning System. They enable modern weather forecasting, help scientists track environmental degradation and play a huge role in modern military technology.
Nations that don't have their own satellites providing these services rely on other countries. For those that want to develop their own satellite infrastr Sols 3471-3472: Up The Mountain We Go!
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After a successful 47m drive with ~5 m of elevation gain by Curiosity yestersol, we arrived at more new and interesting terrain to investigate! I was on shift as Science Operations Coordinator (SOC), and my role is to keep the pulse on both the science priorities and the rover resources and constraints. It involves a lot of interdisciplinary communication between both the international science t New NASA Black Hole Sonifications with a Remix
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Since 2003, the black hole at the center of the Perseus galaxy cluster has been associated with sound. This is because astronomers discovered that pressure waves sent out by the black hole caused ripples in the cluster's hot gas that could be translated into a note - one that humans cannot hear some 57 octaves below middle C. Now a new sonification brings more notes to this black hole sound mach Explosion on a white dwarf observed
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When stars like our Sun use up all their fuel, they shrink to form white dwarfs. Sometimes such dead stars flare back to life in a super hot explosion and produce a fireball of X-ray radiation. A research team led by FAU has now been able to observe such an explosion of X-ray light for the very first time.
"It was to some extent a fortunate coincidence Fifth Blue Origin flight scheduled for next week
Saturday, 14 May 2022 08:33 Write a comment
Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin space tourism company announced Friday that its next rocket will take off on May 20 with six passengers on board.
One of the travelers will be the first woman born in Mexico to go into space.
Liftoff is scheduled for 8:30 am (1330 GMT) from western Texas. It will be the fifth manned space flight for the company.
Katya Echazarreta, who was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, arrived in the United States at age seven. Now 26, she will become the youngest American woman in space. The engineer was sponsored by the "Space for Humanity" program, which seeks to democratize access to space and selected her from among 7,000 candidates.
The crew will also include the second Brazilian person to go into space, Victor Correa Hespanha.
Blue Origin takes passengers above the Karman line, which marks the start of space at 100 kilometers (62 miles) high. The flight lasts about 10 minutes total.
Passengers can unfasten their seat belts and float for a few moments in zero gravity while they admire the curvature of Earth through the rocket windows.
SpaceX launches Starlink satellites from California
Saturday, 14 May 2022 08:32 Write a comment
A SpaceX rocket carried 53 satellites for the Starlink internet constellation into orbit Friday after blasting off from California.
The Falcon 9 booster lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 3:07 p.m., and minutes later the first stage landed on a droneship in the Pacific Ocean while the second stage continued toward low Earth orbit.
SpaceX later tweeted that the satellites were successfully deployed.
Pace of work put strain on private astronaut mission to ISS
Friday, 13 May 2022 20:19 Write a comment
The private astronauts who spent two weeks on the International Space Station in April said they tried to pack too much into their schedules while on the station, putting a strain on both themselves and the professional astronauts there.
Moon goes blood red this weekend: 'Eclipse for the Americas'
Friday, 13 May 2022 19:31
Inmarsat agrees plan to move ground station out of the Netherlands
Friday, 13 May 2022 17:52 Write a comment
Inmarsat is seeking permission from Greece to move a ground station there from the Netherlands, which wants to sell the C-band spectrum the site uses for maritime safety services to 5G wireless operators.
The post Inmarsat agrees plan to move ground station out of the Netherlands appeared first on SpaceNews.
Inmarsat agrees to move ground station out of the Netherlands
Friday, 13 May 2022 17:52 Write a comment
Inmarsat is seeking permission from Greece to move a ground station there from the Netherlands, which wants to sell the C-band spectrum the site uses for maritime safety services to 5G wireless operators.
The post Inmarsat agrees to move ground station out of the Netherlands appeared first on SpaceNews.
Image: Penultimate sunset at Concordia research station
Friday, 13 May 2022 15:46 Write a comment
The penultimate sunset at Concordia research station in Antarctica marks the beginning of a very exciting time for the 12-member crew: the coming of Antarctic night and the winter-over.
Medical doctor Hannes Hagson and his crew mates are finally embarking on their "real" mission in Antarctica: living and work in isolation for six months in the name of spaceflight research.
The Italian-French outpost Concordia is located 3,233 m above sea level where temperatures can drop to –80°C in the complete frozen darkness outside. The sun disappears behind the horizon for four months. No supplies or people can be flown in during the winter months; and the high altitude causes the crew to experience chronic hypobaric hypoxia or lack of oxygen in the brain.
These conditions are as close to living on another planet as humans can get on Earth.
For this reason, Hannes is facilitating biomedical experiments on himself and his crewmates to understand how humans cope with living in extreme isolation. From sleep studies to gut health measurements to mindful practices, the crew are poked and prodded to help researchers understand and overcome the challenges extreme environments, like space, pose to present and future explorers.
Week in images: 09-13 May 2022
Friday, 13 May 2022 12:03 Write a comment
Week in images: 09-13 May 2022
Discover our week through the lens
Scientists successfully grow plants in soil from the Moon
Friday, 13 May 2022 11:29 Write a comment
That's one small pot of soil, one giant leap for man's knowledge of space agriculture: scientists have for the first time grown plants in lunar soil brought back by astronauts in the Apollo program.
The ground-breaking experiment, detailed in the journal Communications Biology on Thursday, has given researchers hope that it may be possible to one day grow plants directly on the Moon.
Tha MIT expands research collaboration with Commonwealth Fusion Systems
Friday, 13 May 2022 11:29 Write a comment
MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) will substantially expand its fusion energy research and education activities under a new five-year agreement with Institute spinout Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS).
"This expanded relationship puts MIT and PSFC in a prime position to be an even stronger academic leader that can help deliver the research and education needs of the burgeoning