China plans four Tiangong Space Station launches in 2021
Friday, 30 April 2021 03:28
China plans to launch two cargo spaceships and two manned spacecraft for building its own orbit station within this year, Hao Chun, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) director, said on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, the country successfully sent off the core module of China's new space station Tiangong, which means "heavenly palace," by launching a rocket from Wenchang spaceport, locate Top Things to Know about Space Station Crew Handovers
Friday, 30 April 2021 03:28
The International Space Station is our home in low-Earth orbit. Humans have been living and working continuously on the station for more than 20 years. Astronauts and cosmonauts visiting the space station have arrived on the space shuttle, the Russian Soyuz, and now, the SpaceX Crew Dragon, with Boeing's CST-100 Starliner to be added to the mix. With these new flights on U.S. commercial spacecra Jacobs and NASA begin processing of SLS Core Stage at Cape
Friday, 30 April 2021 03:28
Jacobs and NASA have begun processing the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage after receiving it at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on April 28, marking delivery of the final piece of Artemis I flight hardware to the team in Florida, a critical step in preparation for launch.
The SLS rocket will send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft on a test flight around the moon and back to Earth later this yea How long is a day on Venus
Friday, 30 April 2021 03:28
Venus is an enigma. It's the planet next door and yet reveals little about itself. An opaque blanket of clouds smothers a harsh landscape pelted by acid rain and baked at temperatures that can liquify lead.
Now, new observations from the safety of Earth are lifting the veil on some of Venus' most basic properties. By repeatedly bouncing radar off the planet's surface over the last 15 years Private firms expected to help build space station
Friday, 30 April 2021 03:28
Commercial enterprises will have opportunities to take part in the construction and operation of the nation's space station, according to a senior space official.
Hao Chun, head of the China Manned Space Agency, told China Daily in an interview earlier this month that his agency, which administers the space station program, will take advantage of private space companies' technologies and c Core capsule launched into orbit
Friday, 30 April 2021 03:28
Sixty years after Yuri Gagarin undertook mankind's first space journey, China launched the core capsule of its space station on Thursday morning, formally embarking on the construction of one of the world's largest and most sophisticated space-based facilities.
President Xi Jinping sent a letter after the launch, extending congratulations and greetings to those involved in the landmark mis China launches space station core module Tianhe
Friday, 30 April 2021 03:28
China on Thursday sent into space the core module of its space station, kicking off a series of key launch missions that aim to complete the construction of the station by the end of next year.
The Long March-5B Y2 rocket, carrying the Tianhe module, blasted off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the coast of the southern island province of Hainan at 11:23 a.m. (Beijing Time). Boeing’s Chris Johnson to lead space programs at Maxar Technologies
Thursday, 29 April 2021 23:53
TAMPA, Fla. — Maxar Technologies has appointed Chris Johnson as senior vice president of space programs delivery (SPD), overseeing spacecraft and robotic systems from design to distribution.
Johnson has spent more than 20 years at Boeing, where he was most recently president of Boeing Satellite Systems International.
Senate unanimously confirms Nelson as NASA administrator
Thursday, 29 April 2021 22:36
Updated 8 p.m. Eastern with NASA statement.
WASHINGTON — The Senate unanimously confirmed Bill Nelson to be NASA’s next administrator, wrapping up a whirlwind confirmation process that was vastly different from that experienced by his predecessor.
The Senate confirmed Nelson’s nomination to be NASA administrator late April 29 via unanimous consent, a mechanism used for the expedited passage of bills and nominations where no senator disapproves.
Fourth flight postponed for Mars Ingenuity helicopter
Thursday, 29 April 2021 19:54
NASA's Mars Ingenuity helicopter missed its fourth scheduled flight on Thursday, with the space agency blaming a software glitch and vowing to try again the next day.
"The helicopter is safe and in good health," said a statement, adding the rotorcraft had failed to transition to "flight mode."
The team plans to attempt the flight once more on Friday at 10:46 am Eastern Time (1446 GMT) with data expected back at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory around three hours later.
The software issue is thought to be the same one that delayed Ingenuity's maiden voyage, the first powered flight on another planet. Initially scheduled for April 11, the historic feat occurred April 19.
Op-ed | Sen. Nelson is strong choice to advance 21st century space priorities
Thursday, 29 April 2021 19:00
When looking to strategically position the United States. as the dominant force in space for the 21st century, it made perfect sense to select a nominee to lead NASA who literally served our nation in space. Former Sen.
'The line is getting fuzzier': Asteroids and comets may be more similar than we think
Thursday, 29 April 2021 13:42
As anyone who has ever tried to clean a home knows, ridding yourself of dust is a Sisyphean effort. No surface stays free of it for long. It turns out that space is somewhat similar. Space is filled with interplanetary dust, which the Earth constantly collects as it plods around the sun—in orbit, in the atmosphere, and if it's large enough, on the ground as micrometeorites.
While specimens may not be large, it turns out such dust particles are reforming scientists' conception of asteroids and comets and are enough to reconstruct entire scenes in the history of the solar system.
Dragon fire
Thursday, 29 April 2021 13:21
Image:
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew Dragon spits fire as it lifts off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, 23 April at 05:49 local time. On board are ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.
The crew of four spent around 23 hours orbiting Earth and catching up with the International Space Station after their launch before docking to the Node-2 Harmony module, marking the start of ESA’s six-month mission Alpha.
Thomas is the first European to be launched to space on a US spacecraft in over
The Chinese Mars lander: How Zhurong will attempt to touch down on the red planet
Thursday, 29 April 2021 12:57
For the first few months of 2021, the Martian atmosphere was buzzing with new visitors from Earth. First, it was the UAE Space Agency's Hope probe, followed by the Chinese Tianwen-1 entering orbit.
More recently Nasa landed the biggest-ever rover on Mars and its companion, an ingenious helicopter, both of which have been setting new milestones since.
The next visitor to the planet will be Tianwen-1 mission's lander, which will attempt to reach the surface of the Mars in mid-May. To enter the Martian atmosphere, it will use a slightly different technique to previous missions.
Landing on Mars is notoriously dangerous—more missions have failed than succeeded. A successful Mars landing requires entering the atmosphere at very high speeds, then slowing the spacecraft down just the right way as it approaches its landing location.
This phase of the mission, known as entry-descent-landing, is the most critical.
Lofted by NASA balloons, new experiments will study sun-Earth system
Thursday, 29 April 2021 12:14
A suite of scientific balloons is about to lift off from NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility's field site in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, carrying instruments that will help scientists understand the connection between the Sun and Earth.
The Sun sizzles at the center of our solar system 93 million miles away, but its influence doesn't end there. It exhales the solar wind, a continuous stream of charged particles that whisks past Earth and continues for more than 4 billion miles. Sudden bursts in the solar wind can trigger beautiful auroras on Earth, but can also disrupt radio and GPS signals, threaten our satellites, and pose a risk to electrical power grids at the surface.