Shoemaker Crater, Australia
Wednesday, 30 June 2021 07:30Eye of ESA’s asteroid mission
Wednesday, 30 June 2021 07:15CubeSat will sift asteroid secrets from reflected sunshine
Wednesday, 30 June 2021 06:59As ESA’s Hera mission for planetary defence probes the Didymos twin asteroid system, it will be joined by a pioneering pair of breadbox-sized ‘CubeSats’. Juventas will perform radar soundings while Milani will image the bodies in a wider range of colours than the human eye can see, prospecting the mineral makeup of individual asteroid boulders.
CubeSat named for pioneer of European planetary defence
Wednesday, 30 June 2021 06:40As ESA’s Hera mission reaches the Didymos double asteroid system, it will not be there alone: it will also serve as mothership for Europe’s first two ‘CubeSats’ into deep space. Juventas, performing subsurface radar sounding, is called after the daughter of Hera. The other, spectral surveyor Milani, takes the name of the researcher who began Europe’s asteroid risk monitoring system and came up with the original concept inspiring Hera and NASA’s DART – a double spacecraft mission for planetary defence.
Reprogrammable satellite shipped to launch site
Wednesday, 30 June 2021 06:30An advanced telecommunications satellite that can be completely repurposed in orbit has arrived at its launch site of Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
Gilmour Space rockets ahead with $61M AUD Series C funding
Wednesday, 30 June 2021 06:05Australia's leading launch services company, Gilmour Space Technologies, has secured $61 million (approximately $47 million USD) from global investors in what is the largest private equity investment raised by a space company in Australia. The Series C round, which includes US-based Fine Structure Ventures, Australian venture capital firms Blackbird and Main Sequence, and Australian supera
Russia launches cargo ship to space station
Wednesday, 30 June 2021 06:05Russia on Wednesday successfully launched an unmanned space freighter carrying supplies to the International Space Station from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz rocket carrying the Progress spacecraft launched at 02:27 am Moscow time (2327 GMT) from the Kazakh steppes and reached its target orbit, the Roscosmos space agency said in a statement. Docking with the ISS is sch
NG-15 Cygnus Spacecraft departs IS for secondary mission
Wednesday, 30 June 2021 06:05Northrop Grumman reports that its Cygnus spacecraft left the International Space Station to begin the next phase of the NG-15 mission. Cygnus was released by the station's robotic arm at 12:32 p.m. ET, carrying more than 8,000 pounds of disposable cargo. Cygnus will remain in orbit for approximately three days to carry out the secondary phase of the mission. The S.S. Katherine Johnson will
SpaceX postpones launch of 88 satellites in rideshare mission
Wednesday, 30 June 2021 06:05SpaceX postponed a launch Tuesday to send 88 small satellites into orbit from Florida in what is known as a rideshare launch due to interference from a possible plane in the region, a SpaceX announcer said. "It looks like the [launch] range was a no go. There might have been an airplane in the area. We do have a backup opportunity tomorrow, but for today, that's going to do it for us,"
NASA software benefits Earth, available for business, public use
Wednesday, 30 June 2021 06:05Many of NASA's computational innovations were developed to help explore space, but the public can download them for applications that benefit us right here on Earth. The agency's latest software catalog has hundreds of popular programs, as well as more than 180 new ones, all available for free download. "From operations here on Earth to missions to the Moon and Mars, software is integral t
After 60 years, nuclear power for spaceflight is still tried and true
Wednesday, 30 June 2021 06:05Six decades after the launch of the first nuclear-powered space mission, Transit IV-A, NASA is embarking on a bold future of human exploration and scientific discovery. This future builds on a proud history of safely launching and operating nuclear-powered missions in space. "Nuclear power has opened the solar system to exploration, allowing us to observe and understand dark, distant plane
Scientists closer to explaining Mars methane mystery
Wednesday, 30 June 2021 06:05Reports of methane detections at Mars have captivated scientists and non-scientists alike. On Earth, a significant amount of methane is produced by microbes that help most livestock digest plants. This digestion process ends with livestock exhaling or burping the gas into the air. While there are no cattle, sheep, or goats on Mars, finding methane there is exciting because it may imply tha
Japan planning soil sampling mission to Mars' Moon Phobos
Wednesday, 30 June 2021 06:05The Japanese government is considering sending a spacecraft to Mars's Phobos satellite in 2024 to obtain soil samples by 2029, public broadcaster NHK reported. The agency said that Japan's strategic council has compiled a mid-term report on space policy on Tuesday. According to it, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) intends to launch a probe and reach one of the two satellites o
Polymers in meteorites provide clues to early solar system
Wednesday, 30 June 2021 06:05Many meteorites, which are small pieces from asteroids, do not experience high temperatures at any point in their existence. Because of this, these meteorites provide a good record of complex chemistry present when or before our solar system was formed 4.57 billion years ago. For this reason, researchers have examined individual amino acids in meteorites, which come in a rich variety and m
Images emerge of galaxies headed for collision
Wednesday, 30 June 2021 06:05An international group of astronomers has created images with never-before-seen detail of a galaxy cluster with a black hole at its centre, travelling at high speed along an intergalactic 'road of matter'. The findings also support existing theories of the origins and evolution of the universe. The concept that roads of thin gas connect clusters of galaxies across the universe has been dif