China satellite in close encounter with Russian debris: state media
Thursday, 20 January 2022 14:24
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A Chinese satellite had a near collision with one of the many chunks of debris left by the fallout of a recent Russian anti-satellite missile test, state media reported.
Moscow blew up one of its old satellites in November in a missile test that sparked international anger because of the space debris it scattered around the Earth's orbit.
US officials accused Moscow of carrying out a "dangerous and irresponsible" strike that had created a cloud of debris and forced the International Space Station's crew to take evasive action.
Russia dismissed those concerns and denied that the space debris posed any danger but a new incident with a Chinese satellite suggests otherwise.
In the latest encounter, China's Tsinghua Science Satellite came as close as 14.5 metres from a piece of debris, the state-run Global Times reported late Wednesday.
The "extremely dangerous" event happened on Tuesday, the report added, citing a social media post by Chinese space authorities that has since been removed.
Space debris expert Liu Jing told the Global Times that it was rare for debris and spacecraft to be just a dozen metres apart, adding that the probability of collision this time was "very high" and should theoretically have called for evasive action.
National Reconnaissance Office signs agreements with five commercial radar satellite operators
Thursday, 20 January 2022 14:00 Write a comment
The National Reconnaissance Office announced Jan. 20 it has signed agreements with commercial radar imagery providers Airbus U.S., Capella Space, Iceye U.S., PredaSAR and Umbra.
Update on Yutu-2 rover findings from far side of the moon
Thursday, 20 January 2022 13:48
Mission Space signs on with EnduroSat to launch space weather instruments
Thursday, 20 January 2022 13:00 Write a comment
Mission Space announced an agreement Jan. 20 to launch a set of high energy particle detectors later this year on a cubesat manufactured by EnduroSat.
NASA foresees gap in lunar landings after Artemis 3
Thursday, 20 January 2022 11:51 Write a comment
After landing astronauts on the moon in the mid-2020s for the first time in more than a half-century, NASA will wait at least two more years before making a second crewed lunar landing as part of the Artemis program.
Sulphur dioxide from Tonga eruption spreads over Australia
Thursday, 20 January 2022 09:54 Write a comment
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The Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcano near Tonga in the South Pacific erupted with such force on 15 January that it is thought to be the biggest eruption recorded anywhere on the planet in 30 years. Ready to become a YGT?
Thursday, 20 January 2022 09:00 Write a comment
The call for 2022 Young Graduate Trainee opportunities is nearly open! Get ready to apply and prepare your CVs and cover letters ahead of schedule! Find out more about this year's call for applications below.
Russia's only female cosmonaut to travel to space in September
Thursday, 20 January 2022 08:17 Write a comment
Russia's sole active female cosmonaut, Anna Kikina, is due to travel to the International Space Station in September on a Soyuz rocket, the national space agency said Thursday.
Kikina, a 37-year-old engineer, will be only the fifth professional woman cosmonaut from Russia or the Soviet Union to fly to space.
Last year, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said "our beauty" Kikina would fly aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon as part of a cross-flights deal between Roscosmos and NASA.
On Thursday, Roscosmos said that if the two countries finalise the deal, Kikina will fly to space with the Americans in August, while NASA's Francisco Rubio will travel on a Soyuz.
But if the deal does not work out, she will travel to the ISS on a Soyuz rocket in September.
The last Russian woman to fly to space was Elena Serova, who spent 167 days aboard the ISS from September, 2014 to March, 2015.
Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space when she travelled into orbit on June 16, 1963.
Svetlana Savitskaya was the second woman in space, and the first woman to perform a spacewalk in July, 1984.
Mega iceberg released 152 billion tonnes of freshwater
Thursday, 20 January 2022 08:00 Write a comment
In July 2017, a giant iceberg, named A-68, snapped off Antarctica’s Larsen-C ice shelf and began an epic journey across the Southern Ocean. Three and a half years later, the main part of iceberg, A-68A, drifted worryingly close to South Georgia. Concerns were that the berg would run aground in the shallow waters offshore. This would not only cause damage to the seafloor ecosystem but also make it difficult for island wildlife, such as penguins, to make their way to the sea to feed. Using measurements from satellites, scientists have charted how A-68A shrunk towards the end
IMDO, MDA complete flight tests for the Arrow Weapon System and Arrow 3 Interceptor
Thursday, 20 January 2022 07:30 Write a comment
the Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO) of the Directorate of the Defense Research and Development (DDR and D) at Israel's Ministry of Defense, together with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and Israeli Defense Forces, conducted a successful flight test of the Arrow Weapon System (AWS) and the Arrow 3 interceptor at a test site in central Israel.
AWS radars detected the target Grounded: First Flight Delay Due to Inclement Weather on Another World
Thursday, 20 January 2022 05:37 Write a comment
The atmosphere of Mars is much less dense than Earth's; however, the Mars climate shares many similarities to Earth: seasons, changing winds, ice clouds, and dust storms, among others. Predicting weather events, as is true for Earth, is always an uncertain endeavor. In preparing for Flight 19, we found out that unexpected Mars weather can result in a familiar and unfortunate scenario here on Ear Russian cosmonauts conduct EVA to complete Nauka Lab Module integration to ISS
Thursday, 20 January 2022 05:37 Write a comment
Russia launched the multipurpose laboratory module "Nauka" from the Baikonur cosmodrome on 21 July and it docked at the ISS on 29 July.
Watch a live broadcast from the International Space Station (ISS) as Roscosmos astronauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov are performing a spacewalk to integrate the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module into the Russian segment of the ISS.
The modu Cosmonauts complete first spacewalk of 2022 to prepare Russian ISS segment
Thursday, 20 January 2022 05:37 Write a comment
Two Russian cosmonauts completed the first spacewalk of 2022 outside the International Space Station to perform tasks that will allow spacecraft to dock with a new Russian segment.
Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, spent seven hours, 11 minutes outside the space station after exiting just after 7 a.m. EST.
The pair installed handrails, ante Sol 3361: Keeping the Dog Leashed
Thursday, 20 January 2022 05:37 Write a comment
Our initial plan was to conduct a MAHLI "dog's eye" imaging sequence on the beautiful Panari outcrop that we are parked before.
During a dog's eye sequence, the rover's arm walks the MAHLI camera along a feature near ground level, just how your martian canine (obviously named "Rover") would see it. But, we had to move that to tomorrow's plan due to a couple issues that need resolving first Hubble Finds a Black Hole Igniting Star Formation in a Dwarf Galaxy
Thursday, 20 January 2022 05:37 Write a comment
Often portrayed as destructive monsters that hold light captive, black holes take on a less villainous role in the latest research from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. A black hole at the heart of the dwarf galaxy Henize 2-10 is creating stars rather than gobbling them up. The black hole is apparently contributing to the firestorm of new star formation taking place in the galaxy. The dwarf galaxy