Japan's signs historic MOU with the US Space Force
Monday, 21 December 2020 12:16The U.S. Space Force and Japan's Office of National Space Policy signed an historic Memorandum of Understanding this week to launch two U.S. payloads on Japan's Quasi Zenith Satellite System. The Department of the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center is developing the payloads, which feature Space Domain Awareness optical sensors and will launch from Japan's Tanegashima Space Cente
What's with all the US space-related agencies?
Monday, 21 December 2020 12:16For centuries, the U.S. military has fought wars on land and sea. For that, America has the Army, the Navy and the Marine Corps. Then, in 1909, the U.S. Army bought America's first military aircraft with a $30,000 contract awarded to the Wright brothers. Less than four decades later, in 1947, the U.S. military gave birth to the U.S. Air Force to operate in the air domain. Now, the Defense
ULA aims for launch of new Vulcan rocket at end of 2021
Monday, 21 December 2020 12:16United Launch Alliance, which has been a launch provider to the U.S. government for 14 years, plans to send its new Vulcan rocket aloft by late 2021, CEO Tory Bruno said Thursday. The company had been aiming for the first Vulcan launch in mid-2021, but the timeline slipped for the first mission - the Peregrine lunar rover being builkt by Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic, Bruno said.
Next lunar mission to sample pole or far side
Monday, 21 December 2020 12:16China plans to use its next moon mission, Chang'e 6, to collect samples from the moon's south pole or possibly the celestial body's far side, according to a key figure in the nation's lunar exploration program. Wu Yanhua, deputy head of China National Space Administration, told China Daily on Thursday after a news conference in Beijing that project managers' current plans call for the Chan
China's space landing site chosen with utmost care
Monday, 21 December 2020 12:16For Siziwang Banner of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, falling spacecraft are nothing unusual. Before the landing of Chang'e 5 at 1:59 am on Thursday, the site also welcomed back 11 Shenzhou spacecraft designed for China's manned spaceflight program, as well as 14 astronauts over the past two decades. Siziwang Banner is located at the center of Inner Mongolia, about 80 kilomete
China ponders moon base within five years
Monday, 21 December 2020 12:16According to a report, China's national space agency said it would invite other agencies and foreign partners to work jointly on the project if possible, with the next lunar mission likely to take place in the next five years. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced it will analyse whether it can build a permanent base on the moon, media reports revealed on Thursday.
China's new Long March-8 rocket makes first flight
Monday, 21 December 2020 11:32China's new carrier rocket, the Long March-8, made its maiden flight on Tuesday, the country's space agency said, the first phase of a strategy to deploy launch vehicles that can be reused.
The Long March-8 series is part of China's endeavours to develop reusable rockets, potentially lowering mission costs and paving the way towards commercial launch services.
The programme has drawn parallels to private US rocket firm SpaceX's Falcon range, although China said in 2018 its reusable carrier vehicle would use different technologies.
The new medium-lift carrier rocket sent five satellites into planned orbit, blasting off from the Wenchang launch site on the southern Hainan island at 12:37 pm Beijing time (0437 GMT) on Tuesday.
China launches first Long March 8 from Wenchang spaceport
Monday, 21 December 2020 11:09HELSINKI — China successfully carried out a first launch of the new Long March 8 medium-lift rocket late Monday, marking a small step towards Chinese rocket reusability.
Omnibus spending bill funds Commerce Department space traffic management work
Monday, 21 December 2020 10:21WASHINGTON — The Commerce Department will be able to accelerate it work on space traffic management after Congress provided the agency with most, but not all, the funding it requested for that effort.
Space bauble
Monday, 21 December 2020 09:50Astroscale Ships ELSA-d Spacecraft to Launch Site
Monday, 21 December 2020 08:31Astroscale Holdings Inc. ("Astroscale"), the market leader in securing long-term orbital sustainability, has shipped its End-of-Life Services by Astroscale demonstration (ELSA-d) satellite to Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a March 2021 launch on a Soyuz rocket. "Shipment is always a significant milestone on any satellite development program," said Gene Fujii, Astroscale Chief Engine
China's Chang'e-5 orbiter embarks on new mission to gravitationally stable spot at L1
Monday, 21 December 2020 08:31Having finished its primary mission, the part of China's Chang'e-5 spacecraft that remained in space has departed for a new mission: exploring an unusual area of space known as a Lagrangian point. On December 16, the orbiter vehicle performed the final task of its primary mission when it dropped off the capsule carrying samples from the lunar surface. The capsule plunged back to Earth, bei
A new satellite 'Made in Belgium' with SPACEBEL software
Monday, 21 December 2020 08:31Already involved since 2018 in the Altius (Atmospheric Limb Tracker for the Investigation of the Upcoming Stratosphere) stratosphere observation mission at several levels, the software engineering company SPACEBEL is ending the year 2020 in style. The European Space Agency (ESA) has now officially awarded the SME a new contract to supply the payload data ground segment. This operational gr
SLS team completes propellant loading of Core Stage during Green Run test
Monday, 21 December 2020 08:31NASA and Boeing engineers successfully completed propellant loading during the seventh core stage Green Run test, wet dress rehearsal Sunday, Dec. 20. The massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket's tanks were loaded with more than 700,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Engineers working in the Test Control Center monitored all core stage systems during the test as propellant
SwRI-led team finds meteoric evidence for a previously unknown asteroid
Monday, 21 December 2020 08:31A Southwest Research Institute-led team of scientists has identified a potentially new meteorite parent asteroid by studying a small shard of a meteorite that arrived on Earth a dozen years ago. The composition of a piece of the meteorite Almahata Sitta (AhS) indicates that its parent body was an asteroid roughly the size of Ceres, the largest object in the main asteroid belt, and formed in the