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ESA’s Gaia space telescope revolutionises our understanding of the Milky Way. It scans the sky to measure the position, movement, distance, and characteristics of billions of stars. It is creating the most precise map of our home galaxy yet, providing clues to its origin and evolution. Gaia not only studies the stars, but also what is in between them, as well as asteroids and planetary moons in our Solar System, binary stars and exoplanets, and quasars and galaxies outside of the Milky Way. Gaia provides us with a wealth of data, giving us a new sense of

Image: Fly far, fly true

Tucson AZ (SPX) May 11, 2022
World View, the leading stratospheric ballooning and space tourism company, has announced a partnership with Space Environment Technologies (SET) to include a suite of technologies aboard World View space capsules that will measure space radiation and other forms of data about Earth's atmosphere. SET's system, coined ARMAS (for "Automated Radiation Measurements for Aerospace Safety"), will accom

Washington DC (UPI) May 12, 2021
Scientists have managed to grow plants in lunar soil for the first time ever, setting the stage for astronauts to potentially grow their own food on the moon during future missions. University of Florida researchers were able to grow the plants in small samples of lunar soil - also known as lunar regolith - gathered during the Apollo 11, 12 and 17 missions in the 1960s and 1970s. But

Washington DC (AFNS) May 12, 2022
Cruise missiles follow unpredictable flight paths and are now capable of supersonic and hypersonic speeds. Russia and China are developing advanced cruise missiles that can be launched from aircraft, ground launchers and ships or submarines, along with hypersonic missile capabilities. Navy Vice Adm. Jon A. Hill, director, Missile Defense Agency, discussed the defense against these missiles

Moscow (Sputnik) May 12, 2022
Beijing's concerns echo criticisms of the South African-born billionaire's satellite internet system by Russia. On Sunday, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin warned that Elon Musk would be held accountable for supplying Starlink internet terminals to neo-Nazi militants fighting in Ukraine. SpaceX's plans to increase the constellation of Starlink internet satellites from 12,000 to 42,000 "shoul

Boca Raton FL (SPX) May 12, 2022
Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP), a global leader in satellite solutions, primarily serving the United States aerospace and defense industry, has announced the successful delivery of the first of ten satellite buses to Lockheed Martin in support of the Space Development Agency's Tranche 0 Transport Layer. This foundation layer represents the initial step in building an interoperable, conn

Boston MA (SPX) May 11, 2022
MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) will substantially expand its fusion energy research and education activities under a new five-year agreement with Institute spinout Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS). "This expanded relationship puts MIT and PSFC in a prime position to be an even stronger academic leader that can help deliver the research and education needs of the burgeoning

Washington (AFP) May 13, 2022
That's one small pot of soil, one giant leap for man's knowledge of space agriculture: scientists have for the first time grown plants in lunar soil brought back by astronauts in the Apollo program. The ground-breaking experiment, detailed in the journal Communications Biology on Thursday, has given researchers hope that it may be possible to one day grow plants directly on the Moon. Tha

Week in images: 09-13 May 2022

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