Soyuz rocket gets new paint job for first time in over 50 years
Sunday, 14 March 2021 00:26
The Soyuz family of expendable rockets is by far the most frequently used launch vehicle in the world, with over a thousand successful launches under its belt, and a top-notch safety record thanks to its launch abort system. For nearly a decade, Soyuz rockets were also the sole means of transporting astronauts to the International Space Station.
Russia's Soyuz-2 rocket has been given a new NASA awards Rapid IV On-Ramp 1 Contract for Spacecraft Systems, Services
Sunday, 14 March 2021 00:26
NASA has awarded contracts to Thales Alenia Space France of Cannes, France, and Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A. of Rome, Italy, under the On-Ramp feature of the Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition IV (Rapid IV) contract. The work will be performed at the contractors' facilities in Cannes and Rome.
Rapid IV is a multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract that allows the fed ISS crew to relocate Soyuz to make room for new arrivals
Sunday, 14 March 2021 00:26
Three residents of the International Space Station will take a spin around their orbital neighborhood in the Soyuz MS-17 on Friday, March 19, relocating the spacecraft to prepare for the arrival of the next set of crew members. Live coverage on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency's website will begin at 12:15 p.m. EDT.
Expedition 64 Flight Engineer Kate Rubins of NASA and Command Astronomers detect a black hole on the move
Sunday, 14 March 2021 00:26
Scientists have long theorized that supermassive black holes can wander through space--but catching them in the act has proven difficult.
Now, researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian have identified the clearest case to date of a supermassive black hole in motion. Their results are published in the Astrophysical Journal.
"We don't expect the majority of s Scientists sketch aged star system using over a century of observations
Sunday, 14 March 2021 00:26
Astronomers have painted their best picture yet of an RV Tauri variable, a rare type of stellar binary where two stars - one approaching the end of its life - orbit within a sprawling disk of dust. Their 130-year dataset spans the widest range of light yet collected for one of these systems, from radio to X-rays.
"There are only about 300 known RV Tauri variables in the Milky Way galaxy," Chinese solar telescope reveals acceleration of magnetic reconnection
Sunday, 14 March 2021 00:26
Magnetic reconnection refers to the reconfiguration of magnetic field geometry. It plays an elemental role in the rapid release of magnetic energy and its conversion to other forms of energy in magnetized plasma systems throughout the universe.
Researchers led by Dr. LI Leping from the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) analyzed the evolution of m SpaceX launches 22nd cluster of Starlink satellites
Saturday, 13 March 2021 13:06
SpaceX launched its 22nd cluster of Starlink communication satellites before dawn Sunday from Florida.
Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket came at 6:01 a.m. EDT, just hours after clocks move ahead for Daylight Saving Time, from Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center.
After the main engine cutoff, the Falcon 9 first stage landed on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship, completing the NASA astronauts complete spacewalk
Saturday, 13 March 2021 13:06
Astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover, Jr., completed a nearly 7-hour spacewalk outside of the International Space Station on Saturday afternoon.
The astronauts wrapped their spacewalk at 3:01 p.m. EST, according to NASA's Twitter feed, which also live streamed the event.
Hopkins and Glover captured video of the walk using helmet cameras, allowing the public to see from their SpaceX sets new booster reuse mark with Starlink launch
Saturday, 13 March 2021 11:18
WASHINGTON — A Falcon 9 launched another set of Starlink satellites March 14, with the rocket’s first stage setting a record with its ninth launch and landing.
The Falcon 9 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 6:01 a.m.
Russia deploys giant space telescope in Lake Baikal
Friday, 12 March 2021 19:16
Russian scientists on Saturday launched one of the world's biggest underwater space telescopes to peer deep into the universe from the pristine waters of Lake Baikal.
The deep underwater telescope, which has been under construction since 2015, is designed to observe neutrinos, the smallest particles currently known.
Dubbed Baikal-GVD, the telescope was submerged to a depth of 750-1,300 meters (2,500-4,300 feet), around four kilometres from the lake's shore.
Neutrinos are very hard to detect and water is an effective medium for doing so.
The floating observatory consists of strings with spherical glass and stainless steel modules attached to them.
On Saturday, scientists observed the modules being carefully lowered into the freezing waters through a rectangular hole in the ice.
"A neutrino telescope measuring half a cubic kilometre is situated right under our feet," Dmitry Naumov of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research told AFP while standing on the lake's frozen surface.
Spacewalkers take extra safety precautions for toxic ammonia
Friday, 12 March 2021 17:55
Spacewalking astronauts had to take extra safety precautions Saturday after possibly getting toxic ammonia on their suits from the International Space Station's external cooling system.
Arecibo telescope collapse may complicate NASA asteroid mission
Friday, 12 March 2021 09:15
The destructive collapse in December of the world's most powerful radar telescope, Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, will make some observations of an upcoming asteroid mission difficult, according to NASA.
The primary goal of the asteroid experiment, or DART mission, is to crash a spacecraft into a small moon that circles asteroid Didymos in 2022, and to observe how the impact affect Mechanical cosmos recreated inside world's first analogue computer
Friday, 12 March 2021 09:15
Scientists have reconstructed a cosmological model to fit the complex arithmetic of the Antikythera Mechanism, the world's first analogue computer.
One of the most sophisticated engineering feats to have survived from the ancient world, the 2,000-year-old Antikythera Mechanism was used by Greek astronomers to calculate the positions of the sun, moon and planets, as well as predict lunar Astronauts plan Saturday spacewalk at space station
Friday, 12 March 2021 09:15
Two NASA astronauts are scheduled for the fifth spacewalk of the year Saturday at the International Space Station.
Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover will exit the station's Quest airlock about 7:30 a.m. EST to conduct space-based maintenance on the orbiting platform for about 6 1/2 hours.
Hopkins and Glover will attempt to connect power cables for the new European science platfor SEAKR wins $60 million DARPA contract to demonstrate autonomous satellite operations
Friday, 12 March 2021 00:58
WASHINGTON — The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced March 12 it awarded SEAKR Engineering a $60.4 million contract to develop a data processing system for satellites to operate autonomously.
SEAKR, based in Centennial, Colorado, was selected by DARPA in 2019 to develop the artificial brain of the agency’s Blackjack satellite network.