Berlin, Germany (SPX) Mar 25, 2025
Researchers from Delft University of Technology and Brown University have introduced a breakthrough in nanotechnology with the development of large-scale, ultrathin lightsails, poised to accelerate advances in both space travel and experimental physics. Published in Nature Communications, their work outlines novel materials and techniques that yield the thinnest extensive reflectors ever fabrica

Image: ESA's Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space at NASA's Kennedy Space Center

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 24, 2025
Botswana has entered the space age with the successful launch of BOTSAT-1, the nation's first satellite, developed through a collaboration between Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) and Dragonfly Aerospace. Carried into orbit aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 during the Transporter-13 rideshare on March 15, 2025, BOTSAT-1 marks a significant step forward in Botswana's amb

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Mar 24, 2025
China has reached a pivotal achievement in space science with the official completion and national acceptance of Phase II of the Chinese Meridian Project (CMP) on March 21. This endeavor marks the establishment of the world's first integrated ground-based system capable of monitoring the entire Sun-Earth space environment, from the solar atmosphere through to near-Earth regions. Initiated

Urbana, IL (SPX) Mar 24, 2025
Interstellar objects are among the last unexplored classes of solar system objects, holding tantalizing information about primitive materials from exoplanetary star systems. They pass through our solar system only once in their lifetime at speeds of tens of kilometers per second, making them elusive. Hiroyasu Tsukamoto, a faculty member in the Department of Aerospace Engineering in The Grainger

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 24, 2025
Data from the European Space Agency's Euclid satellite is already delivering significant scientific insights, even though the survey has only just begun. Launched in July 2023, Euclid is embarking on a six-year mission to chart over one billion galaxies, offering fresh perspectives on dark matter and dark energy. The newly released dataset, which represents less than 0.5 percent of Euclid'

Fairbanks AK (SPX) Mar 24, 2025
Three NASA-funded rockets are set to launch from Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks, Alaska, in an experiment that seeks to reveal how auroral substorms affect the behavior and composition of Earth's far upper atmosphere. The experiment's outcome could upend a long-held theory about the aurora's interaction with the thermosphere. It may also improve space weather forecasting, critical

London, UK (SPX) Mar 24, 2025
A startling cosmic discovery has shed light on a potential future for the Milky Way, revealing that it could one day generate powerful radiation jets capable of endangering life on Earth. Astronomers led by CHRIST University in Bangalore have identified an enormous spiral galaxy, located nearly one billion light-years from our planet, housing a supermassive black hole billions of times the

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 24, 2025
The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory's (NRL) Narrow Field Imager (NFI) has officially commenced operations in orbit after being launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of NASA's Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission on March 11. The NFI payload successfully deployed from the launch vehicle on March 12 and is now gathering data from low Earth orbit. PUNCH co

Washington DC (UPI) Mar 21, 2025
SpaceX has set a rocket re-use record for launch-turnaround by sending a Falcon 9 up twice within nine days early Friday morning. The previous record was 14 days. The rocket launched at 2:49 a.m. EDT Friday form Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The mission was for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office. The NROL-57 mission came nine days after the rocket was used to ta