Hubble returns to normal operations after switch to backup computer
Saturday, 17 July 2021 15:45
WASHINGTON — NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope returned to science operations July 17 after a hiatus of more than a month as controllers successfully switched the orbiting observatory to a backup payload computer.
NASA said the instruments of the 31-year-old telescope are now operational nearly five weeks after a payload computer, which commands those instruments, malfunctioned.
Malaysia’s Measat-3 satellite tumbling in GEO
Friday, 16 July 2021 21:12
TAMPA, Fla. — Malaysian operator Measat has likely lost control of an aging satellite that has been drifting westward in geostationary orbit for nearly a month, according to analysts at space tracking company ExoAnalytic Solutions.
Biden to nominate CSIS’ Andrew Hunter as top Air Force acquisition executive
Friday, 16 July 2021 20:31
WASHINGTON — The White House announced July 16 that President Biden intends to nominate defense procurement expert Andrew Hunter to be assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics.
Events expanding to mark 100 years since John Glenn's birth
Friday, 16 July 2021 19:57
SES spearheading quantum technology encryption network for Luxembourg
Friday, 16 July 2021 18:25
TAMPA, Fla. — Satellite operator SES is leading a consortium to design a system for guarding communications in Luxembourg against cyberattacks, which could feed into Europe’s broader plan for a network that is also protected by quantum technology.
Hubble Space Telescope fixed after month of no science
Friday, 16 July 2021 16:16
China launches secretive suborbital vehicle for reusable space transportation system
Friday, 16 July 2021 15:32
HELSINKI — China conducted a clandestine first test flight of a reusable suborbital vehicle Friday as a part of development of a reusable space transportation system.
Umbra and Hypergiant among firms selected for Air Force JADC2 contract
Friday, 16 July 2021 15:03
SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Air Force awarded indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts to 29 companies including Umbra, Kymeta, Hughes Network Systems and Hypergiant Galactic Systems to support the Defense Department’s campaign to ensure sensors from all the services feed data into a common network.
James Webb Space Telescope testing progress continues
Friday, 16 July 2021 13:06
Engineers have made considerable progress in checking off NASA's James Webb Space Telescope's final series of tests. Three big milestones have recently been completed, bringing the world's most complex and powerful space science telescope ever built much closer to being fully prepared for its million-mile journey to orbit. These three testing milestones are outlined below:
Deployable Tower Assembly Testing: Completed
This telescoping tower helps Webb maintain its necessary super cool operating temperatures by separating its mirrors and instruments from the comparatively warmer Sun-facing side and spacecraft bus.
Activity discovered on largest comet ever found
Friday, 16 July 2021 13:01
A newly discovered visitor to the outer edges of our solar system has been shown to be the largest known comet ever, thanks to the rapid response telescopes of Las Cumbres Observatory. The object, which is named Comet C/2014 UN271 Bernardinelli-Bernstein after its two discoverers, was first announced on Saturday, June 19th, 2021. C/2014 UN271 was found by reprocessing four years of data from the Dark Energy Survey, which was carried out using the 4-m Blanco telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile between 2013 and 2019.
Satellites map floods in western Europe
Friday, 16 July 2021 13:00
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Record rainfall has caused swollen rivers to burst their banks and wash away homes and other buildings in western Europe. Data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission are being used to map flooded areas to help relief efforts. Rescuing Integral: No thrust? No problem
Friday, 16 July 2021 13:00
A year ago tomorrow, a failure on the Integral spacecraft meant it fired its thrusters for likely the last time. In the days since, the spacecraft in Earth orbit has continued to shed light on the violent gamma ray Universe, and it should soon be working even more efficiently than before, as mission control teams implement an ingenious new way to control the 18-year-old spacecraft.
NASA studies bigger, better Mars helicopter
Friday, 16 July 2021 12:33
As the Mars helicopter Ingenuity breaks interplanetary records and captures the public's attention, NASA is quietly researching a bigger, better Mars chopper to navigate the Red Planet's rough terrain.
The next aircraft sent to Mars has no budget, no confirmed design and no launch date, but researchers at NASA and various universities have studied possible destinations for such a missio Zhurong rover visits parachute and backshell
Friday, 16 July 2021 12:33
The China National Space Administration published on Thursday three pictures taken recently by its Zhurong Mars rover that showed the parachute and bowl-shaped back shell used in the rover's landing.
The pictures - one color and two black-and-white - were shot by Zhurong's navigation camera on Monday as the rover was traveling southward for its scientific exploration, the administration sa Juno tunes into Jovian radio triggered by Jupiter's volcanic moon Io
Friday, 16 July 2021 12:33
By listening to the rain of electrons flowing onto Jupiter from its intensely volcanic moon Io, researchers using NASA's Juno spacecraft have found what triggers the powerful radio emissions within the monster planet's gigantic magnetic field. The new result sheds light on the behavior of the enormous magnetic fields generated by gas-giant planets like Jupiter.
Jupiter has the largest, mos