Hiber demands Astrocast cash after failed acquisition
Wednesday, 30 November 2022 19:20
Dutch remote monitoring specialist Hiber is demanding $1.5 million from cash-strapped Astrocast after plans to be sold to the company ran out of time, according to the Swiss small satellite operator.
OroraTech raises funding for additional thermal mapping satellites
Wednesday, 30 November 2022 18:39
OroraTech, a German company developing a constellation of thermal mapping satellites for tracking wildfires and other applications, has raised an additional 15 million euros ($15.4 million) to support work on future satellites.
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Graphene heading to space and to the moon
Wednesday, 30 November 2022 16:18
Graphene Flagship Partners University of Cambridge (U.K.) and Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB, Belgium) paired up with the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC, United Arab Emirates), and the European Space Agency (ESA) to test graphene on the moon. This joint effort sees the involvement of many international partners, such as Airbus Defense and Space, Khalifa University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Technische Universität Dortmund, University of Oslo, and Tohoku University.
The Rashid rover is planned to be launched on December 1, 2022 from Cape Canaveral in Florida and will land on a geologically rich and, as yet, only remotely explored area on the moon's nearside—the side that always faces the Earth. During one lunar day, equivalent to approximately 14 days on Earth, Rashid will move on the lunar surface investigating interesting geological features.
The Rashid rover wheels will be used for repeated exposure of different materials to the lunar surface. As part of this Material Adhesion and abrasion Detection experiment, graphene-based composites on the rover wheels will be used to understand if they can protect spacecraft against the harsh conditions on the moon, and especially against regolith (also known as "lunar dust").
SpaceX postpones mission to put Japanese lander on Moon
Wednesday, 30 November 2022 11:06
SpaceX on Wednesday postponed by one day a mission to launch the first private - and Japanese - lander to the Moon.
A Falcon 9 rocket is now scheduled to blast off at 3:37 am (0837 GMT) Thursday from Cape Canaveral, Florida. SpaceX said on Twitter that the delay was to carry out more pre-flight checks.
Until now, only the United States, Russia and China have managed to put a robot on t NASA awards contract for 3D-printed construction on moon, Mars
Wednesday, 30 November 2022 11:06
A Texas-based company has landed a five-year contract from NASA to build landing pads, roads and shelter on the moon and on Mars.
ICON, which is known for its 3D-printed homes and military barracks, announced Tuesday it has won a $57 million contract from NASA to build Project Olympus, which will 3D-print infrastructure constructed from existing materials on the moon and Mars. The compa Vega C to launch five Copernicus spacecraft
Wednesday, 30 November 2022 10:11
The European Commission awarded a contract to Arianespace Nov. 29 for launches of five Copernicus Earth observation spacecraft on Vega C rockets between 2024 and 2026.
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China’s Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft deployed a small satellite before deorbiting
Wednesday, 30 November 2022 09:08
China’s Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft released a small satellite after its departure from the Tiangong space station and ahead of its controlled deorbiting.
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Chinese spaceship with 3 aboard docks with space station
Wednesday, 30 November 2022 08:00
NASA cancels greenhouse gas monitoring satellite due to cost
Wednesday, 30 November 2022 08:00
NASA is canceling a planned satellite that was going to intensely monitor greenhouse gases over the Americas because it got too costly and complicated.
But the space agency said it will still be watching human-caused carbon pollution but in different ways.
NASA on Tuesday announced that its GeoCarb mission, which was supposed to be a low-cost satellite to monitor carbon dioxide, methane and how plant life changes over North and South America, was being killed because of cost overruns.
When it was announced six years ago, it was supposed to cost $166 million, but the latest NASA figures show costs would balloon to more than $600 million and it was years late, according to NASA Earth Sciences Director Karen St. Germain.
Unlike other satellites that monitor greenhouse gases from low Earth orbit and get different parts of the globe in a big picture, GeoCarb was supposed to be at a much higher altitude of 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers) from one fixed place in orbit and focus intently on North and South America. That different and further perspective proved too difficult and costly to get done on budget and on time, St.
China latest astronaut crew docks at the Tiangong Space Station
Tuesday, 29 November 2022 23:56
China on Tuesday launched the Shenzhou-15 spacecraft carrying three astronauts to its space station, where they will complete the country's first-ever crew handover in orbit, state news agency Xinhua reported. The trio blasted off in a Long March-2F rocket at 11:08 pm (1508 GMT) from the Jiuquan launch centre in northwestern China's Gobi desert, Xinhua said, citing the China Manned Space Administration (CMSA) Shenzhou 15 astronauts arrive at China’s space station for first crew handover
Tuesday, 29 November 2022 22:09
China has six astronauts aboard its recently-completed space station for the first time following the arrival of three crew members aboard Shenzhou-15.
NASA cancels GeoCarb greenhouse gas monitoring mission
Tuesday, 29 November 2022 21:49
NASA has canceled a greenhouse gas monitoring mission once intended to fly as a commercial hosted payload after the mission lost its ride to orbit and suffered severe cost overruns.
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Shay Har-Noy takes the helm at Edgybees
Tuesday, 29 November 2022 21:29
Shay Har-Noy, former Spire Global general manager for aviation and a former DigitalGlobe and Maxar Technologies vice president, has taken the helm at Edgybees, a company that specializes in aligning satellite and aerial still and full-motion imagery.
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Image: Hubble Telescope spies sparkling spray of stars in NGC 2660
Tuesday, 29 November 2022 21:09
This glittering group of stars, shining through the darkness like sparks left behind by a firework, is NGC 2660 in the constellation Vela, best viewed in the southern sky. NGC 2660 is an open cluster, a type of star cluster that can contain anywhere from tens to a few hundreds of stars loosely bound together by gravity.
The stars of open clusters form out of the same region of gas and dust and thus share many characteristics, such as age and chemical composition. Unlike globular clusters—their ancient, denser, and more tightly-packed cousins—open clusters are easier to study since astronomers can more easily distinguish between individual stars. Their stars can be old or young, and they may disperse after a few million years into the spiral or irregular galaxies where they are born.
The spikes surrounding many of the stars in this image are "diffraction spikes," which occur when the glow from bright points of light reflects off of Hubble's secondary mirror support.