Sydney, Australia (SPX) May 01, 2024
The crew of Shenzhou XVII has successfully returned to Earth after a six-month tenure aboard the Tiangong space station, marking the conclusion of their extensive orbital mission. The crew's spacecraft, Shenzhou XVII, landed its reentry capsule in the Gobi Desert at the Dongfeng Landing Site in Inner Mongolia at precisely 5:46 pm following a nine-hour return journey. Upon landing, th

Sydney, Australia (SPX) May 01, 2024
Slingshot Aerospace, Inc., a leader in AI-powered solutions for satellite tracking, space traffic coordination, and space modeling and simulation, has released its first State of Satellite Deployments and Orbital Operations report. The report draws on data from the Slingshot Seradata satellite and launch database and is the result of analyses by Slingshot Seradata analysts and the Slingshot Aero

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 01, 2024
NASA encourages public participation in space technology development through its Cube Quest Challenge, launched in 2015 with a $5 million prize pool. This initiative aims to foster the creation of small satellites, or CubeSats, equipped for deep space missions by university and private groups. The competition unfolds in two phases: design and construction of CubeSats capable of orbit opera

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) May 01, 2024
In the quest to unravel the mysteries of planetary formation, galaxy evolution, and the origins of the universe itself, a pioneering astronomical observatory commences its exploration on April 30, 2024. Sitting atop a desert mountain in northern Chile at an altitude of 5,640 meters, the University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO) emerges as the world's highest astronomical observatory, o

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 01, 2024
NASA's Advanced Composite Solar Sail System has now connected with ground operators following its April 23 launch aboard Rocket Lab's Electron rocket. The satellite is on its way to testing next-generation solar sail technology, which uses the power of sunlight to propel a spacecraft. The results from this mission will advance future space travel to expand our understanding of our Sun and solar

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 01, 2024
The Artemis IV mission is advancing with key components for Gateway, set to be humanity's first orbiting lunar space station, being prepared in Turin, Italy. NASA is gearing up to launch the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO), depicted in the image's background, and the Power and Propulsion Element to lunar orbit as initial parts of Gateway. These components will precede the Artemis I

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 01, 2024
Over the course of its elliptical orbit, the moon Enceladus is squeezed unevenly by Saturn's gravitational pull and deforms from a spherical shape into a football shape and back again. This cyclic stress causes a phenomenon called "tidal heating" within Enceladus and dissipates enough energy to maintain what is believed to be a global ocean underneath the moon's icy crust. At Enceladus's s

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 01, 2024
Despite most phone cameras possessing millions of pixels, the XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) satellite uses just 36 pixels in its Resolve instrument to capture critical scientific data. "That may sound impossible, but it's actually true," said Richard Kelley, the U.S. principal investigator for XRISM at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "The Resolve

Paris, France (SPX) May 01, 2024
The European Space Agency (ESA) has secured a Vega-C rocket for the launch of its Smile mission, a collaborative venture with the Chinese Academy of Sciences aimed at exploring solar wind dynamics. The Smile mission, standing for 'Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer', is designed to enhance our understanding of solar and terrestrial interactions, representing a significant Eu

London, UK (SPX) May 01, 2024
NYU Abu Dhabi researchers at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Science, including Research Scientist Jasmina Blecic and Associate Professor Ian Dobbs-Dixon, have utilized NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to study the climate of WASP-43b, a Jupiter-sized exoplanet. Their findings, published in Nature Astronomy, unveil the first observation of thick, dust-like clouds on the planet's nightside