Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 24, 2021
A plane has a pilot. A bus has a driver. A train has a conductor. But who controls a Mars rover? During the last seven years that I have operated spacecraft both in orbit and on the surface of Mars, I've come back again and again to the question of who is most responsible for making a spacecraft go. Is it the ACE who sends the commands to the Deep Space Network (DSN) to be sent to the spac

Canberra, Australia (SPX) Nov 23, 2021
Northrop Grumman Australia will partner with Inmarsat to develop an agile, resilient and sovereign satellite communications capability to support the future joint force and protect Australia's strategic interests in response to the JP9102 Australian Defence Satellite Communication System project. Under JP9102, the two companies will collaborate to deliver an Integrated Control Segment that

Beijing (XNA) Nov 24, 2021
China launched a high-resolution Earth-observation satellite from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China on Tuesday to improve its ocean surveillance capability. The Gaofen 3-02 satellite was launched by a Long March 4C carrier rocket at 7:45 am and entered a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 755 kilometers, the China National Space Administration said. The sate

Philadelphia PA (SPX) Nov 23, 2021
It's a tempting thought: With climate change so difficult to manage and nations unwilling to take decisive action, what if we could mitigate its effects by setting up a kind of chemical umbrella - a layer of sulfuric acid in the upper atmosphere that could reflect the sun's radiation and cool the Earth? According to a new study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, a collaborati

Jiuquan (XNA) Nov 24, 2021
China launched a new Earth-observation satellite from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Tuesday. The satellite, Gaofen-3 02, was launched by a Long March-4C rocket at 7:45 a.m. (Beijing Time) and has entered the planned orbit successfully. The satellite will operate in a solar synchronous orbit at an altitude of 755 km and will be networked with the orbiting G

Sunnyvale CA (SPX) Nov 24, 2021
Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Space Force conducted the system level Critical Design Review (CDR) for the Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (NGG) Block 0 space program. This marks another significant step toward the first NGG satellite launch in 2025. NGG is the Space Force's new, advanced space-based missile warning system that incorporates improved wa

Kirtland ADF NM (SPX) Nov 24, 2021
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMT) astronomers are one-step closer to having their own high-powered window to space and the universe, after receiving congressional funding for the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer (MROI). The university will receive $6.2 million in congressional funds to complete the first phase of the anticipated $30 million five-year project to

Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 23, 2021
Scientists recently added a whopping 301 newly validated exoplanets to the total exoplanet tally. The throng of planets is the latest to join the 4,569 already validated planets orbiting a multitude of distant stars. How did scientists discover such a huge number of planets, seemingly all at once? The answer lies with a new deep neural network called ExoMiner. Deep neural networks are mach

Washington (AFP) Nov 24, 2021
A health coach from Antigua and Barbuda has won two tickets worth almost $1 million to be among Virgin Galactic's first space tourists - and plans to take the trip of a lifetime with her teenage daughter. Keisha Schahaff, 44, said she wanted to cross the final frontier with her 17-year-old, a science student living in Britain who dreams of one day working for NASA. Virgin Galactic foun

London, UK (SPX) Nov 24, 2021
Exotrail signed a contract with Luxembourg-based satellite manufacturer OHB Luxspace for a co- engineering phase aiming the further integration of ExoMGTM - cluster2, a configuration of Exotrail's high thrust and flexible electric propulsion product family, into the Triton-X Heavy platform. This co-engineering phase comes as part of the development of a next generation of multi-mission microsate