The Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission captured this impressive shot of the almost cloud-free Scandinavian Peninsula on 20 March.

NASA cut short a third attempt to load propellants onto the Space Launch System for a countdown rehearsal April 14 after encountering several problems, including a hydrogen leak.

The post NASA halts third attempt at SLS practice countdown appeared first on SpaceNews.

Small GEO satellite operator Astranis sees an opportunity to break into the defense market as the military seeks to diversify its communications architecture

The post Astranis eyes U.S. military customers for its small geostationary satellites appeared first on SpaceNews.

Washington DC (UPI) Apr 14, 2021
An unusual magnetic storm from the sun will aim at the Earth soon, possibly beginning Thursday, and experts say it has the potential to cause some noticeable damage here on our planet. Scientists say that the solar activity - called a geomagnetic storm - will produce a magnetic discharge and send it in the direction toward Earth. In other words, essentially, that means that increased

KBR, a Defense Department and NASA contractor with $6 billion in annual sales, paid $800 million in 2020 to acquire Centauri, a company focused on space sensors and satellite tracking. The acquisition gave KBR an entry into the business of “space domain awareness,” a military term for the capability to track objects in space and predict potential threats.

NASA’s intention to replant bootprints on the moon is getting a kick-start by the launch of a microwave oven-sized smallsat, the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, called CAPSTONE for short.

Three decades ago, NASA embraced international cooperation as a rationale for the International Space Station. Now, the same argument that saved the station at the end of the last Cold War may produce its demise at the start of a new one.

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Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana is preparing for the arrival of Ariane 6, ESA’s new heavy-lift rocket. The latest round of testing aims to validate the system of fuel lines and mechanical supporting arms that will keep Ariane 6 topped up with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen in the critical moments before liftoff. This work is part of the final preparations of the new Ariane 6 launch complex and all the systems necessary for a launch.

With the mobile gantry fully retracted – as for a launch – two articulated arms attached to the upper part of the

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A satisfying, audible ‘pop’ marked a successful piercing of the sealed Apollo 17 sample container using the ESA designed and built piercing tool. The tool forms part of a gas sampling system with a gas extraction manifold, designed and built by Washington University St Louis, USA.

Francesca McDonald, science and project lead of ESA’s contribution to the Apollo Next-Generation Sample Analysis (ANGSA) programme, is pictured at the centre of this image with the piercing tool, which contains the pristine sample.

Francesca and colleague, Timon Schild, delivered the ESA piercing tool  to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in late 2021 in preparation