Harris says National Space Council will develop “comprehensive framework” for space priorities
Saturday, 06 November 2021 17:02
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In her first speech devoted to space since taking office, Vice President Kamala Harris said she will direct the National Space Council to develop a “comprehensive framework” for national space priorities, with an emphasis on climate change.
Satellite operators battle broadcast declines amid looming connectivity growth
Saturday, 06 November 2021 13:51 Write a comment
Lower broadcast revenues and the pandemic continue to drag on the financials of major satellite operators as they point to the traction they are gaining in their new connectivity growth engines.
Crew-2 astronauts to return before Crew-3 launch
Saturday, 06 November 2021 13:32 Write a comment
The four Crew-2 astronauts currently on the International Space Station will return to Earth ahead of the delayed launch of their replacements, NASA announced late Nov. 5.
Astronauts to return from space station next week: NASA
Saturday, 06 November 2021 05:45 Write a comment
Four astronauts are scheduled to return to Earth from the International Space Station early Monday after spending more than six months in space, NASA announced.
The four members of the Crew-2 mission, including a French and a Japanese astronaut, will therefore return to Earth before the arrival of a replacement crew, whose take-off was delayed several times due to unfavorable weather conditions.
NASA said in a statement late Friday that Crew-2 members are due to return to Earth "no earlier than 7:14 am EST (1214 GMT) Monday, Nov. 8, with a splashdown off the coast of Florida."
"As we're preparing to leave, it's kind of a bittersweet feeling, we might never come back to see the ISS, and it's really a magical place," French astronaut Thomas Pesquet said earlier Friday during a press conference from the space station.
No toilet for returning SpaceX crew, stuck using diapers
Saturday, 06 November 2021 05:27 Write a comment
The astronauts who will depart the International Space Station on Sunday will be stuck using diapers on the way home because of their capsule's broken toilet.
NASA astronaut Megan McArthur described the situation Friday as "suboptimal" but manageable. She and her three crewmates will spend 20 hours in their SpaceX capsule, from the time the hatches are closed until Monday morning's planned splashdown.
"Spaceflight is full of lots of little challenges," she said during a news conference from orbit.
Op-ed | Security clearance reforms needed to accelerate space innovation
Friday, 05 November 2021 18:00 Write a comment
The U.S. government’s restrictive security clearance process is hindering its ability to access cutting-edge space technology and protect sensitive information from foreign espionage.
Last call: fly your payload on first Ariane 6 launch
Friday, 05 November 2021 14:30 Write a comment
ESA offers an opportunity for payloads and experiments to ride on board the first flight of Ariane 6 planned in 2022. Notice of interest should reach ESA by 15 November.
To find life on other planets, NASA rocket team looks to the stars
Friday, 05 November 2021 13:44 Write a comment
A NASA sounding rocket will observe a nearby star to learn how starlight affects the atmospheres of exoplanets—key information in the hunt for life outside our solar system.
Week in images: 01 - 05 November 2021
Friday, 05 November 2021 13:20 Write a comment
Week in images: 01 - 05 November 2021
Discover our week through the lens
Virgin Orbit, Japanese airline team up for air-launch system
Friday, 05 November 2021 13:10 Write a comment
Virgin Orbit has entered an agreement with the owner of Japan's All Nippon Airways for the procurement of 20 flights of Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne rocket from an airport in Japan.
Webb unboxed in cleanroom at Europe’s Spaceport
Friday, 05 November 2021 13:00 Write a comment
Video:
00:01:19
After its arrival at Pariacabo harbour in French Guiana on 12 October 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope was transported to Europe’s Spaceport and unboxed in the cleanroom. It is now being prepared for its launch on an Ariane 5 rocket in December.
Though the telescope weighs only six tonnes, it is more than 10.5 m high and almost 4.5 m wide when folded. It was shipped in its folded position in a 30 m long container which, with auxiliary equipment, weighed more than 70 tonnes.
After arriving in the harbour, the telescope inside its container
New great observatories, including Lynx, recommended as a national priority by decadal survey
Friday, 05 November 2021 12:59 Write a comment
The 2020 Decadal Survey for Astronomy and Astrophysics has recommended a new series of three Great Observatories—or space-based telescopes—as a top national priority for the future of space astrophysics.
The Lynx X-Ray Observatory is included as part of this vision. Dozens of scientists and engineers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian teamed with colleagues around the world to define the observatory's scientific objectives, conceptualize its design and work on key technologies.
Known as the Decadal Survey, the report evaluates astrophysics and astronomy programs and prioritizes them for the next decade of transformative science. Findings from the survey are submitted as recommendations to NASA, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy to guide funding requests and allocations for astrophysics over the next 10 years.
"I am pleased to hear that the scientific community endorses a vision for the New Great Observatories that includes Lynx," says Charles Alcock, director of the Center for Astrophysics (CfA). "Lynx will transform our understanding of the cosmos by providing by far the most sensitive X-ray vision into the otherwise invisible universe.
An object is now orbiting alongside China’s Shijian-21 debris mitigation satellite
Friday, 05 November 2021 12:42 Write a comment
U.S. space tracking has detected a new object for unknown purposes orbiting along with China’s recently launched Shijian-21 space debris mitigation technology satellite.
Image: Mind the stars
Friday, 05 November 2021 11:43 Write a comment
Space can be a cruel mistress, but she is a beautiful one.
As we await the launch of ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer and the return of Thomas Pesquet, let us marvel at the fact that humans live and work in space, an environment so inhospitable to us.
As Thomas nears the end of his six-month mission Alpha on the Space Station, he took this image, noting that living on the International Space Station "really feels like flying on a spaceship into the cosmos… or wait… that's what we do."
While astronauts are often pointing their cameras down to Earth, Thomas looked up for this image. "When you let your eyes adapt to the night, you start seeing millions of stars and it's amazing…there's also a lot of beauty in the cosmos itself, it's just harder to see (and to photograph) at first."
Thanks to collective human intelligence and cooperation, the International Space Station has been a reality for over 20 years, hosting astronauts who run experiments and monitor our planet from above. While launches are quite routine these days, delays happen but that's the space business.
Development of the demonstration satellite HIBARI with variable shape attitude control
Friday, 05 November 2021 11:41 Write a comment
A research team led by Professor Saburo Matunaga of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), developed a 50-kg-class technology demonstration microsatellite called HIBARI that denotes "skylark" in English. The purpose of this satellite is the on-orbit demonstration of Variable Shape Attitude Control (VSAC) technology where attitude and orbit are controlled using a variable structure, and the satellite adjusts the attitude via the recoil from the movement of the four movable solar cell paddles. By deploying and retracting the paddles, atmospheric drag can be adjusted and used for orbit control.
HIBARI was selected as a demonstration theme for Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)'s Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration (ISTD), and it will be launched on Epsilon-5 sometime after November 2021 from the Uchinoura Space Center. The satellite will be launched into a sun-synchronous orbit at 9:30 Local Sun time at Descending Node with a perigee altitude of 547 km and apogee altitude of 565 km for demonstrating VSAC technology in space.