Biden lauds NASA team for giving US 'dose of confidence'
Thursday, 04 March 2021 08:51
President Joe Biden on Thursday congratulated the NASA team responsible for last month's successful landing of an six-wheeled rover on Mars and for giving the country a "dose of confidence" at a moment when the nation's reputation as a scientific leader has been tattered by the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden speaking in video conference call with the leadership of space agency's jet propulsion laboratory team expressed awe over the Feb. 18 landing of Perseverance.
Perseverance, the biggest, most advanced rover ever sent by NASA, became the ninth spacecraft since the 1970s to successfully land on Mars, traveling some 300 million miles in nearly seven months, as part of an ongoing quest to study whether there was once life on the planet.
Planet-hunting eye of Plato
Thursday, 04 March 2021 08:22
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Planet-hunting eye of Plato ExoMars goes for a spin
Thursday, 04 March 2021 08:00
- The full ExoMars 2022 mission comprising the carrier module, descent module, Kazachok surface platform and Rosalind Franklin rover have completed essential ‘spin tests’ in preparation for their journey to Mars
- Rosalind Franklin’s rover twin on Earth has executed trial science activities for the first time, including drill sample collection and close-up imaging
- A new parachute strategy has been adopted ahead of the next series of high altitude drop tests
SpaceX successfully launches 20th Starlink mission
Thursday, 04 March 2021 07:27
SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket loaded with dozens of additional Starlink communications satellites into space early Thursday after previous launch attempts were delayed.
The rocket lifted off at 3:24 EST from the historic pad 39A of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with the mission to put 60 more Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit as part of the plan to offer l SpaceX: more risks, better rockets?
Thursday, 04 March 2021 07:27
A prototype of SpaceX's unmanned rocket Starship exploded on Wednesday, the third time a test flight ended in flames.
The mishaps may seem like disasters but experts say these incidents are part of the spaceship's development, and even, in a way, beneficial.
- What is Starship? -
SpaceX is developing the rocket with the goal of sending humans to the Moon on it from 2023, and then t NASA, Japanese astronauts plan spacewalk Friday
Thursday, 04 March 2021 07:27
Astronauts Kate Rubins and Soichi Noguchi are scheduled to conduct the 236th spacewalk in International Space Station history Friday morning.
Rubins, of NASA, and Noguchi, of the Japanese Space Agency, will spend about 6 1/2 hours outside the orbiting space station starting about 7 a.m. EST.
They will perform such maintenance as venting ammonia from an external fixture and instal 'Astounding' Mars rover landing inspired world, Biden says in call to NASA
Thursday, 04 March 2021 07:27
President Joe Biden called NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Thursday to congratulate staff on last month's Mars rover Perseverance landing, which he said inspired the world during a difficult time.
The call included thousands of JPL employees, JPL Director Michael Watkins and Swati Mohan, an operations lead for the Feb. 8 landing.
Biden made the call just after 5 p.m. EST whil Mission Commander Thrives as 'Space Gardener'
Thursday, 04 March 2021 07:27
NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins' enthusiasm for learning to grow plants in space has proven fruitful for the agency's Vegetable Production System (Veggie).
The Expedition 64 crew member, who arrived at the International Space Station in November 2020 aboard NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 for a six-month science mission, has tended to multiple plant experiments on station. Astronaut Kate Rubins had alrea Space Traffic Management
Thursday, 04 March 2021 07:27
Those familiar with air traffic management architectures understand the constraints of aircraft flying in the atmosphere, vehicle dynamics and command and control techniques. Unfortunately, space traffic has many more degrees of freedom and much less control capability. Add to this the completely uncontrolled nature of space debris and the reality that most debris objects cannot be tracked and m NASA and Boeing Evaluating Launch Date for Orbital Flight Test-2
Thursday, 04 March 2021 07:27
NASA and Boeing are evaluating a new target launch date for the CST-100 Starliner's Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) to the International Space Station after winter storms in Houston, and the recent replacement of avionics boxes, set the program back about two weeks. NASA also is weighing the volume of verification and validation analysis required prior to the test flight and the visiting vehicle s NASA Awards Mars Ascent Propulsion System Contract for Sample Return
Thursday, 04 March 2021 07:27
NASA has awarded the Mars Ascent Propulsion System (MAPS) contract to Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation of Elkton, Maryland, to provide propulsion support and products for spaceflight missions at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Coupled with the successful touchdown of the Mars Perseverance rover, this award moves NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) one China's Tianwen-1 probe to land on Mars in May or June
Thursday, 04 March 2021 07:27
China's Mars probe Tianwen-1 is traveling at a speed of 4.8 km per second in the Mars orbit, and is expected to land on the red planet in May or June, a senior space expert said on Thursday.
The probe is functioning normally and has sent home China's first high-definition images of Mars, which contain a large quantity of scientific information, said Bao Weimin, director of the Committee of Volcanoes might light up the night sky of this planet
Thursday, 04 March 2021 07:27
On Earth, plate tectonics is not only responsible for the rise of mountains and earthquakes. It is also an essential part of the cycle that brings material from the planet's interior to the surface and the atmosphere, and then transports it back beneath the Earth's crust. Tectonics thus has a vital influence on the conditions that ultimately make Earth habitable.
Until now, researchers hav Earth has a hot new neighbour - and it's an astronomer's dream
Thursday, 04 March 2021 07:27
A newly discovered planet could be our best chance yet of studying rocky planet atmospheres outside the solar system, a new international study involving UNSW Sydney shows.
The planet, called Gliese 486b (pronounced Glee-seh), is a 'super-Earth': that is, a rocky planet bigger than Earth but smaller than ice giants like Neptune and Uranus. It orbits a red dwarf star around 26 light-years a A super-Earth is discovered which can be used to test planetary atmosphere models
Thursday, 04 March 2021 07:27
During the past 25 years astronomers have discovered a wide variety of exoplanets, made of rock, ice and gas, thanks to the construction of astronomical instruments designed specifically for planet searches. Also, using a combination of different observing techniques they have been able to determine a large numher of masses, sizes, and hence densities of the planets, which helps them to estimate 
