Space Force to establish new command in Colorado focused on training and education
Friday, 20 August 2021 17:13
The U.S. Space Force on Aug. 23 will establish the Space Training and Readiness Command at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs.
Radiation-detecting optical fibers installed on the International Space Station
Friday, 20 August 2021 14:26
In a spacecraft, in order to protect both crew and electronics from radiation, it is mandatory to invest in effective radiation monitoring systems. The International Space Station (ISS), just like the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, is a complex radiation environment that requires bespoke dosimetry devices. Optical-fiber-based technologies can provide both distributed and point radiation dose measurements with high precision.
On 18 August, ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet activated the Lumina experiment inside the ISS as part of the ALPHA mission. Developed under the coordination of the French Space Agency, CNES, and with the involvement of CERN, the Laboratoire Hubert Curien at the Université Jean-Monnet-Saint-Étienne, and iXblue, this project uses two several-kilometer-long optical fibers as active dosimeters to measure ionizing radiation in the ISS with very high sensitivity.
Op-ed | Private industry spacesuit advancements are the solution to OIG report findings
Friday, 20 August 2021 14:17
The recent Office of Inspector General report that concluded NASA's spacesuit program is out of sync with with a 2024 lunar landing excluded any consideration of the substantial privately led work that has already been accomplished by industry.
PNT alternatives champion open-market approach
Friday, 20 August 2021 13:47
Competing positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) companies are joining forces to accelerate efforts to back up global navigation satellite systems (GNSS).
Space Force awards $32 million in contracts to startups and small businesses
Friday, 20 August 2021 12:27
At a virtual pitch event Aug. 19, the U.S. Space Force selected 19 companies that each will receive $1.7 million Small Business Innovation Research Phase 2 contracts.
Week in images: 16 - 20 August 2021
Friday, 20 August 2021 12:15
Week in images: 16 - 20 August 2021
Discover our week through the lens
Musk hopes "Mechazilla" will catch and assemble the Starship and Super Heavy boosters for rapid reuse
Friday, 20 August 2021 10:25
In January of 2021, Elon Musk announced SpaceX's latest plan to increase the number of flights they can mount by drastically reducing turnaround time. The key to this was a new launch tower that would "catch" first stage boosters after they return to Earth. This would forego the need to install landing legs on future Super Heavy boosters and potentially future Starship returning to Earth.
Musk shared this idea in response to a tweet made by an animator who goes by the Twitter handle Erc X, who asked if his latest render (of a Starship landing next to its launch tower) was accurate. As usual, Musk responded via Twitter, saying:
"We're going to try to catch the Super Heavy Booster with the launch tower arm, using the grid fins to take the load… Saves mass & cost of legs & enables immediate repositioning of booster on to launch mount—ready to refly in under an hour."
Mechazilla #SpaceX#Starship@elonmuskpic.twitter.com/0hUWHj1BKe
— Erc X (@ErcXspace) August 13, 2021
The ground crews at SpaceX's South Texas Launch Facility near Boca Chica recently finished stacking the nine sections of bolted steel that make up the tower, which now stands about 145 m (440 ft) tall.
A-74 iceberg near collision with Brunt Ice Shelf
Friday, 20 August 2021 09:15
Image:
New radar images show the A-74 iceberg spinning around the western tip of the Brunt Ice Shelf, brushing slightly against it before continuing southwards. Comet Atlas may have been a blast from the past
Friday, 20 August 2021 08:30
However, this nameless space visitor is not recorded in any known historical account. So how do astronomers know that there was such an interplanetary intruder?
Enter comet ATLAS (C/2019 Y4), which first appeared near the beginning of 2020. Comet ATLAS, first detected by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), operated by the University of Hawaii, quickly met an untimely SpaceX 23rd resupply mission will carry bone and plants studies to ISS
Friday, 20 August 2021 08:30
The 23rd SpaceX cargo resupply services mission carrying scientific research and technology demonstrations to the International Space Station is targeted to launch in late August from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Experiments aboard include an investigation into protecting bone health with botanical byproducts, testing a way to monitor crew eye health, demonstrating improved dext A 'True' Blue Moon occurs this weekend
Friday, 20 August 2021 08:30
The full Moon of Sunday, August 22nd, will be a "Blue Moon" according to the original - but not the most popular - definition of the phrase.
In modern usage, "Blue Moon" has come to refer to the second full Moon in a month (the last of these occurred on October 31, 2020) - but that hasn't always been the case. This colorful term is actually a calendrical goof that worked its way into the p Kleos builds its military knowledge under US DOD program
Friday, 20 August 2021 08:30
Kleos Space S.A, a space-powered Radio Frequency Reconnaissance data-as-a- service (DaaS) company, has appointed Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Mario E. Zaltzman as a military advisor
for a 12-week period under a secondment program with the US Department of Defence.
LTC Mario Zaltzman is a member of the US Army Reserve, where he is responsible for critical technology and product acquisitio Russia's Soyuz Spacecraft Launches 34 New OneWeb Satellites Into Orbit
Friday, 20 August 2021 08:30
Initially, the launch was scheduled for August 5, but due to satellite production problems, it was reportedly postponed, as some devices had to be replaced because of low-quality components at the company's factory in Florida.
Russian space agency Roscosmos will launch a Soyuz 2.1b spaceship with a new batch of 34 UK OneWeb satellites from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Friday night. Vibration tests for Moon rocket help ensure safe travels on road to space
Friday, 20 August 2021 08:30
Driving down a bumpy gravel road, even an off-road vehicle experiences bumps and vibrations, partly because of the car's natural frequency. An object's natural frequency is the frequency or rate that it vibrates naturally when struck. When forces like speed and the smoothness of the road are just right, the car will vibrate in tune with that same frequency.
Rockets flying through the atmos NASA spacewalk briefing to highlight new solar array installation
Friday, 20 August 2021 08:30
Two astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station Tuesday, Aug. 24, for a spacewalk to install a support bracket in preparation for future installation of the orbiting laboratory's third new solar array.
NASA will discuss the upcoming spacewalk during a news conference at 2 p.m. EDT Monday, Aug. 23. Live coverage of the news conference and spacewalk will air on NASA Telev