No fire in the sky: preventing an astronaut’s worst nightmare
Thursday, 17 June 2021 06:00
“A risky and dangerous situation,” recalls ESA astronaut Reinhold Ewald of the in-orbit fire he experienced aboard the Mir space station back in 1997. “The fire was so enormous and the smoke and vapour coming off this fire site was such that we couldn’t see at arm’s length – and I could not at that time have imagined that we go on with the mission.”
Astronauts install new rollout solar panels on International Space Station
Thursday, 17 June 2021 05:40
Astronauts Thomas Pesquet of France and Shane Kimbrough of the United States spacewalked outside the International Space Station on Wednesday as they began the painstaking process of installing new solar panels to boost the orbital outpost's deteriorating power systems.
It was the first of several excursions to augment the ISS's existing eight solar arrays, with the first pair operating cont NASA Chief Predicts US Race with China to Put Next Human on Moon
Thursday, 17 June 2021 05:40
Chinese technical prowess demonstrated by landing a rover on Mars, plus an upcoming Russia-China announcement on cooperation in space, suggests that the United States could face competition in its bid to land two American astronauts on the Moon in 2024, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said on Tuesday.
Nelson said China's successful May 14 landing of a rover on Mars, the second nation apart Space sustainability rating to shine light on debris problem
Thursday, 17 June 2021 04:59
There’s a problem brewing overhead. Invisible to the naked eye and relatively unheard of, it threatens our future in space – space debris.
A new ‘Space Sustainability Rating’ is currently in development that will shed light on the problem, scoring space operators on the sustainability of their missions, increasing the transparency of their contributions to protecting the space environment and encouraging and recognising responsible behaviour.
Rocket blasts off carrying first Chinese crew to new space station
Thursday, 17 June 2021 02:35
The first astronauts for China's new space station blasted off Thursday for the country's longest crewed mission to date, a landmark step in establishing Beijing as a major space power.
The trio launched on a Long March-2F rocket for the Tiangong station, where they will spend three months, in a much-anticipated blast-off broadcast live on state TV.
Lift-off happened at 9:22 am (0122 GMT Boeing plans second Starliner capsule test flight in July
Thursday, 17 June 2021 02:35
Boeing will attempt a second uncrewed test flight of the company's Starliner space capsule on July 30 after a disappointing first test flight in December 2019, the company and NASA said Wednesday.
United Launch Alliance plans to send the capsule into space aboard an Atlas V rocket at 2:53 p.m. EDT from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The mission, known as Orbita China in space for cooperation, not zero-sum race
Thursday, 17 June 2021 02:35
China's Shenzhou-12 manned spacecraft with three taikonauts aboard blasted off from northwest China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center Thursday morning, marking another major milestone in the country's space exploration endeavor.
It has been almost five years since China sent its taikonauts into space last time. During the current mission, the Chinese astronauts, the first visitors to the s Commander takes place in China's space history
Thursday, 17 June 2021 02:35
Major General Nie Haisheng will become the second Chinese astronaut involved in three spaceflights, after his peer Jing Haipeng, as the country is set to launch its seventh manned space mission on Thursday morning.
Nie is commander of the three-member crew of the Shenzhou XII mission, which will be lifted into orbit by a Long March 2F carrier rocket at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center i Stringent training will help fulfill spacewalk mission
Thursday, 17 June 2021 02:35
Astronauts on the Shenzhou XII mission have undergone intensive training and exercises for their planned extravehicular activities, commonly known as spacewalks, according to Liu Boming, a member of the crew.
"Compared with the extravehicular operation in the Shenzhou VII mission, extravehicular activities in this coming mission will be much longer and more sophisticated, and I believe tha Brazil becomes first South American partner to NASA's Artemis Accords
Thursday, 17 June 2021 02:35
Brazil has become the 12th nation and the first from South America to sign onto NASA's agreement to create a safe, transparent and sustainable environment for the exploration of space.
Marcos Pontes, Brazil's minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, signed the Artemis Accords Tuesday in the capital of Brasilia during a ceremony attended by President Jair Bolsonaro, NASA said in a Lawmakers question Space Force technology investments
Wednesday, 16 June 2021 21:33
WASHINGTON — U.S. Space Force technology investments was one of the topics discussed June 16 at a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee, which held a three-hour session to review the Department of the Air Force budget request.
Satellite makers are getting to grips with component shortages
Wednesday, 16 June 2021 20:10
TAMPA, Fla. — Component shortages have been challenging manufacturers to bolster supply chains as a lack of semiconductors threatens delays and price hikes.
COVID-19-related supply chain disruption has caused a microchip shortage that could take years to settle, exacerbated by surging demand for technology during the pandemic as consumers stayed at home.
ESA and EU to sign partnership agreement
Wednesday, 16 June 2021 20:10
WASHINGTON — The European Space Agency and the European Union will sign an agreement next week governing their work on joint projects, one that the agency says will allow ESA members who are not part of the EU to participate on those projects.
Air Force defends choice of Alabama’s Redstone Arsenal to host U.S. Space Command
Wednesday, 16 June 2021 18:37
WASHINGTON — Acting Secretary of the Air Force John Roth on June 16 pushed back on suggestions that the recommendation to relocate U.S. Space Command from Colorado to Alabama was politically tainted.
“I have personally no evidence that the decision was politically motivated,” Roth told members of the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing Wednesday.
Computer trouble hits Hubble Space Telescope, science halted
Wednesday, 16 June 2021 16:53