Meteorites remember conditions of stellar explosions
Saturday, 27 February 2021 02:04A team of international researchers went back to the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago to gain new insights into the cosmic origin of the heaviest elements on the periodic table. Led by scientists who collaborate as part of the International Research Network for Nuclear Astrophysics (IReNA) (irenaweb.org) and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics - Center for the E
Canada to join US mission to moon
Saturday, 27 February 2021 02:04Canada announced on Thursday that it will send an astronaut to orbit the moon in 2023 as part of NASA's Artemis II mission. "It's official!" Canadian Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Francois-Philippe Champagne tweeted. "Canada will join the US on the first crewed mission to the moon in over 50 years." The Gateway Treaty was signed between the Canadian Space Agency (CSA)
Investigating dense plasmas with positron waves
Saturday, 27 February 2021 02:04The investigation of Electron-Positron-Ion (EPI) plasma - a fully ionised gas of electrons and positrons that includes astrophysical plasmas like solar winds - has attracted a great deal of attention over the last twenty years. A new study published in EPJ D by Garston Tiofack, Faculty of Sciences, University of Marousa, Cameroon, and colleagues, assesses the dynamics of positron acoustic
The GRANTECAN discovers the largest cluster of galaxies known in the early universe
Saturday, 27 February 2021 02:04A study, led by researchers at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) and carried out with OSIRIS, an instrument on the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), has found the most densely populated galaxy cluster in formation in the primitive universe. The researchers predict that this structure, which is at a distance of 12.5 billion light years from us, will have evolved becoming a cluste
L3Harris Technologies Awarded Second Year of Space Object-Tracking Modernization Contract
Saturday, 27 February 2021 02:04L3Harris Technologies (has been awarded $89 million for option-year two of a U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command contract to continue maintaining and modernizing infrastructure to track objects in space. The Maintenance Of Space Situational Awareness Integrated Capabilities (MOSSAIC) program has an estimated contract value of $1.2 billion over 10 years. "MOSSAIC improves the syst
Astra, Rocket Lab win launch contracts
Friday, 26 February 2021 16:10WASHINGTON — Astra has won a NASA contract to launch a small constellation of Earth science cubesats, while General Atomics selected Rocket Lab for the launch of a small satellite with a NOAA hosted payload.
NASA announced Feb.
Lockheed Martin to upgrade GPS satellites for in-orbit servicing
Thursday, 25 February 2021 19:11WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin is redesigning the bus used for Global Positioning System satellites so they can be upgraded with new hardware on orbit, a company executive said Feb. 25.
Eric Brown, senior director of military space mission strategy at Lockheed Martin, said this is significant because the thinking today is that “once something was on orbit you were done with it.
Automaker Geely gains approval for satellites for self-driving constellation
Thursday, 25 February 2021 14:56HELSINKI — Chinese private automaker Geely has got the green light to begin manufacturing satellites for navigation, connectivity and communications needed for self-driving cars.
Week in images: 22 - 26 February 2021
Thursday, 25 February 2021 14:24Week in images: 22 - 26 February 2021
Discover our week through the lens
Blue Origin delays heavy-lift New Glenn rocket launch to 2022
Thursday, 25 February 2021 14:04Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' space company, Blue Origin, has delayed the first launch of its big New Glenn rocket until late 2022 because, the company said, it failed to win large government contracts recently. The company had planned to launch by this year, but lost billions of dollars in U.S. Space Force business to SpaceX and United Launch Alliance in an August decision by the governme
Testing proves its worth with successful mars parachute deployment
Thursday, 25 February 2021 14:04The giant canopy that helped land Perseverance on Mars was tested here on Earth at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Test. Test again. Test again. Testing spacecraft components prior to flight is vital for a successful mission. Rarely do you get a do-over with a spacecraft after it launches, especially those bound for another planet. You need to do everything possible
Imaging space debris in high resolution
Thursday, 25 February 2021 14:04Litter is not only a problem on Earth. According to NASA, there are currently millions of pieces of space junk in the range of altitudes from 200 to 2,000 kilometers above the Earth's surface, which is known as low Earth orbit (LEO). Most of the junk is comprised of objects created by humans, like pieces of old spacecraft or defunct satellites. This space debris can reach speeds of up to 18,000
Keeping an eye on the fusion future
Thursday, 25 February 2021 14:04"That was your warmup. Now we're really in the thick of it." Daniel Korsun '20 is reflecting on his four years of undergraduate preparation and research at MIT as he enters "the thick" of graduate study at the Institute's Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC). The nuclear science and engineering student's "warmup" included enough fusion research on the SPARC tokamak to establish him as part of
DARPA launches entrepreneurial initiative to bring 150 national security innovations to market
Thursday, 25 February 2021 14:04Over the past two years, DARPA's Embedded Entrepreneurship Initiative (EEI) pilot program helped 30 pre-seed research teams raise over $100 million in U.S. investment, spin out a dozen new companies, establish numerous joint development agreements with corporate partners, and commission multiple manufacturing facilities. Today, DARPA is launching an expansion of EEI with the goal of accele
China launches new satellites to survey electromagnetic environment
Thursday, 25 February 2021 14:04The third group of China's Yaogan 31 remote sensing satellites were sent into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China at 10:22 am (Beijing Time) Wednesday. The satellites were carried by a Long March 4C rocket. It was the 361st flight mission of the Long March carrier rocket series, the launch center said. Having entered their planned orbits, the satellites