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Copernical Team

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ESA is taking the first steps towards the in-flight demonstration of a prototype reusable rocket first stage called Themis

Recently completed tests of two propellant tanks set a first technological milestone in the ESA reusability roadmap towards the demonstration of a reusable first stage vehicle called Themis.

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Soon, 1 out of every 15 points of light in the sky will be a satellite
Starlink satellites are quite visible in the night sky. Credit: Shutterstock

I'm outside at my rural Saskatchewan farm, chatting with my neighbors who I've invited over to appreciate the night sky through my telescope. After exclamations and open-mouthed wonder over Saturn's rings, and light that has been traveling through space for more than two million years to reach our eyes from the Andromeda Galaxy, our conversation inevitably turns to the pandemic, our work-from-home arrangements and complaints about rural internet. My neighbor casually mentions they've just switched to using Starlink for their internet provider.

I glance up and notice a bright satellite moving across the sky, almost certainly a Starlink, since they now make up almost half of the nearly 4,000 operational satellites and they're extremely bright. I take a deep breath and carefully consider how to discuss the substantial cost that we're all going to have to pay for Starlink internet.

I don't blame my neighbors for switching.

Tuesday, 01 December 2020 04:08

Carrier rocket takes off from Sichuan province

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Beijing (XNA) Nov 30, 2021
China launched a Long March 3B carrier rocket early on Saturday morning to send a communication satellite into space, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the country's leading space contractor. The State-owned company said the rocket blasted off at 12:40 am from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province and later deployed the ChinaSat 1D satellite in its
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Daytona Beach FL (SPX) Nov 30, 2021
An Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University professor and his co-inventors patented a device that provides a workable strategy for combating the problem of debris accumulating in space from defunct satellites. Known as the Drag De-Orbit Device, or D3, the invention can guide small satellites from low Earth orbit, maneuvering them through Earth's atmosphere, where they burn up. Destruction of t
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Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Nov 26, 2021
Solid-solution organic crystals have been brought into the quest for superior photon upconversion materials, which transform presently wasted long-wavelength light into more useful shorter wavelength light. Scientists from Tokyo Institute of Technology revisited a materials approach previously deemed lackluster-using a molecule originally developed for organic LEDs-achieving outstanding performa
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Perth, Australia (SPX) Nov 30, 2021
Curtin University researchers have helped unravel the enduring mystery of the origins of the Earth's water, finding the Sun to be a surprising likely source. A University of Glasgow-led international team of researchers including those from Curtin's Space Science and Technology Centre (SSTC) found the solar wind, comprised of charged particles from the Sun largely made of hydrogen ions, cr
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Tempe AZ (SPX) Nov 29, 2021
In the strange, dark world of the ocean floor, underwater fissures, called hydrothermal vents, host complex communities of life. These vents belch scorching hot fluids into extremely cold seawater, creating the chemical forces necessary for the small organisms that inhabit this extreme environment to live. In a newly published study, biogeoscientists Jeffrey Dick and Everett Shock have det
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College Park MD (SPX) Dec 01, 2021
A new study by University of Maryland astronomers shows that comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein (BB), the largest comet ever discovered, was active long before previously thought, meaning the ice within it is vaporizing and forming an envelope of dust and vapor known as a coma. Only one active comet has been observed farther from the sun, and it was much smaller than comet BB. The finding will
Tuesday, 01 December 2020 04:08

NASA and industry embrace laser communications

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Greenbelt MD (SPX) Nov 30, 2021
Our televisions and computer screens display news, movies, and shows in high-definition, allowing viewers a clear and vibrant experience. Fiber optic connections send laser light densely packed with data through cables to bring these experiences to users. NASA and commercial aerospace companies are applying similar technologies to space communications, bringing optical speeds to the final
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Washington DC (UPI) Nov 30, 2021
NASA delayed a spacewalk that was scheduled to occur Tuesday morning, to replace broken hardware outside the International Space Station, due to a warning about possible dangerous debris. NASA had planned for Thomas Marshburn, 61, and Kayla Barron, 34, to exit the space station about 7:10 a.m. EST for more than six hours. The spacewalk would be Marshburn's fifth and Barron's first.
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