Former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine joins Viasat’s board
Wednesday, 31 March 2021 12:56
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TAMPA, Fla. — Jim Bridenstine has joined satellite operator Viasat’s board of directors in his second corporate role since stepping down as NASA’s administrator.
U.S.-based Viasat is enlarging its board to eight members to add Bridenstine, who became a senior advisor for private equity firm Acorn Growth Companies soon after resigning from NASA Jan.
NASA's Roman mission predicted to find 100,000 transiting planets
Wednesday, 31 March 2021 11:50 Write a comment
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will create enormous cosmic panoramas, helping us answer questions about the evolution of our universe. Astronomers also expect the mission to find thousands of planets using two different techniques as it surveys a wide range of stars in the Milky Way.
Roman will locate these potential new worlds, or exoplanets, by tracking the amount of light coming from distant stars over time. In a technique called gravitational microlensing, a spike in light signals that a planet may be present. On the other hand, if the light from a star dims periodically, it could be because there is a planet crossing the face of a star as it completes an orbit. This technique is called the transit method. By employing these two methods to find new worlds, astronomers will capture an unprecedented view of the composition and arrangement of planetary systems across our galaxy.
Scheduled for launch in the mid-2020s, Roman will be one of NASA's most prolific planet hunters.
FCC proposes to allocate spectrum for commercial launches
Wednesday, 31 March 2021 11:25 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission will take up a long-awaited proposal at its next meeting to set aside a spectrum band for commercial launches.
Jessica Rosenworcel, acting chairwoman of the FCC, said in a March 31 statement that the commission would include on the agenda of its next open meeting April 21 a proposed rule to grant a secondary allocation of S-band spectrum, currently reserved for government uses, for telemetry for commercial launches.
ESA invites ideas to open up in-orbit servicing market
Wednesday, 31 March 2021 10:50 Write a comment
ESA is seeking to open the way to a new era of in-space activities such as refuelling, refurbishment, assembly, manufacturing, and recycling. The Agency is now soliciting ideas for In-Orbit Servicing activities from European industry and academia.
Tesat Technology chosen for US Govt Program
Wednesday, 31 March 2021 07:51 Write a comment
Manufacturer with long-time heritage in laser communication selected for US governmental program.
Backnang, 31.03.2021: TESAT continues its success story for broadband laser communication in space. The development that ranges back to the laying of the cornerstone within the US NFIRE and TerraSar-X success in the year 2008, where TESAT first proved the functionality and capability of optica New reports highlight Russian, Chinese advances in space weapons
Wednesday, 31 March 2021 07:10 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Russia over the past year has stepped up threats against satellites in orbit, a trend that is not likely to slow down. China, meanwhile, continues to display advances in space capabilities including the launch of an experimental spaceplane that may have deployed at least one small satellite on orbit.
The quarterly ESA Impact is out now!
Wednesday, 31 March 2021 06:00 Write a comment
The quarterly ESA Impact is out now!
Nevada company plans space station with inflatable pods
Wednesday, 31 March 2021 03:15 Write a comment
Nevada-based Sierra Nevada Corp. plans to launch a commercial space station with inflatable human habitats within seven years, the company announced in a press conference Wednesday.
Sierra Nevada already has seven NASA contracts to launch its Dream Chaser spaceplane, which is being developed to fly cargo to the International Space Station starting in 2022.
Now, the firm said it aims Florida rocket company rebrands, plans bigger rocket
Wednesday, 31 March 2021 03:15 Write a comment
A Florida rocket company, Rocket Crafters, has rebranded as Vaya Space and plans a new, larger rocket than it had been pursuing, now named Dauntless, according to company president Rob Fabian.
Rocket Crafters - now called Vaya - is one of many new companies pursuing new rockets considered small or medium, and far less powerful than SpaceX's Falcon 9.
The plan for Dauntless is to lift Sparkwing solar panels selected to power Aerospacelab's first Very High Resolution satellite
Wednesday, 31 March 2021 03:15 Write a comment
By selecting Sparkwing for their first Very High Resolution (VHR) mission, the Belgian space company Aerospacelab is the launching customer for the novel off-the-shelf solar panels. The satellite is a first step towards Aerospacelab's VHR constellation and will be equipped with two standardised and readily available Sparkwing solar arrays to perform its Earth Observation task in space.
Spa New study sews doubt about the composition of 70 percent of our universe
Wednesday, 31 March 2021 03:15 Write a comment
Until now, researchers have believed that dark energy accounted for nearly 70 percent of the ever-accelerating, expanding universe.
For many years, this mechanism has been associated with the so-called cosmological constant, developed by Einstein in 1917, that refers to an unknown repellant cosmic power.
But because the cosmological constant - known as dark energy - cannot be measure New study discovers ancient meteoritic impact over Antarctica 430,000 years ago
Wednesday, 31 March 2021 03:15 Write a comment
A research team of international space scientists, led by Dr Matthias van Ginneken from the University of Kent's School of Physical Sciences, has found new evidence of a low-altitude meteoritic touchdown event reaching the Antarctic ice sheet 430,000 years ago.
Extra-terrestrial particles (condensation spherules) recovered on the summit of Walnumfjellet (WN) within the Sor Rondane Mountain First X-rays from Uranus Discovered
Wednesday, 31 March 2021 03:15 Write a comment
Astronomers have detected X-rays from Uranus for the first time, using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This result may help scientists learn more about this enigmatic ice giant planet in our solar system.
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and has two sets of rings around its equator. The planet, which has four times the diameter of Earth, rotates on its side, making it different Roman Space Telescope predicted to find 100,000 transiting planets
Wednesday, 31 March 2021 03:15 Write a comment
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will create enormous cosmic panoramas, helping us answer questions about the evolution of our universe. Astronomers also expect the mission to find thousands of planets using two different techniques as it surveys a wide range of stars in the Milky Way.
Roman will locate these potential new worlds, or exoplanets, by tracking the amount of light comi Decades of hunting detects footprint of cosmic ray superaccelerators in our galaxy
Wednesday, 31 March 2021 03:15 Write a comment
An enormous telescope complex in Tibet has captured the first evidence of ultrahigh-energy gamma rays spread across the Milky Way. The findings offer proof that undetected starry accelerators churn out cosmic rays, which have floated around our galaxy for millions of years. The research is to be published in the journal Physical Review Letters on Monday, April 5.
"We found 23 ultrahigh-ene