Cargo Dragon undocks from Station and heads for splashdown
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 06:48With NASA astronaut Victor Glover monitoring aboard the International Space Station, an upgraded SpaceX cargo Dragon spacecraft undocked from the International Docking Adapter on the station's space-facing port of the Harmony module at 9:05 a.m. EST. It is the first undocking of a U.S. commercial cargo craft from the complex. Previous cargo Dragon spacecraft were attached and removed from
DARPA's Operational Fires Ground-Launched Hypersonics program enters new phase
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 06:48DARPA's Operational Fires (OpFires) program, which is developing a ground-launched intermediate-range hypersonic weapons system, is advancing to a new phase. Phase 3b will involve full-scale missile fabrication, assembly, and flight testing from a launch vehicle. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control was awarded this new contract modification after leading a successful Phase 3a integra
NASA readies Astrobee flying robots for serious space science
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 06:48NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station are preparing new Astrobee flying robots to enhance science on the orbiting laboratory - a technology that could be vital to future deep space exploration. The cube-shaped machines float in the microgravity of orbit and use jets of compressed air to maneuver. Astrobees can be operated by the space station crew or by people on Earth
China makes progress in developing rocket engines for space missions
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 06:48China is creating a new line of rocket engines for its upcoming space missions, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced Tuesday. According to the state-owned satellite and rocket maker, progress has been made in key technologies for a hydrogen/oxygen high-thrust staged combustion cycle engine, which will serve the country's heavy-lift carrier rockets.
NASA, Japan formalize Gateway Partnership for Artemis Program
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 06:48NASA and the Government of Japan have finalized an agreement for the lunar Gateway, an orbiting outpost that commercial and international partners will build together. This agreement strengthens the broad effort by the United States to engage international partners in sustainable lunar exploration as part of the Artemis program and to demonstrate the technologies needed for human missions to Mar
Why do some regions on the dwarf planet Ceres appear blue
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 06:48This month marks the 220th anniversary of the discovery of the first asteroid. During the night of 1-2 January 1801, Giuseppe Piazzi, the director of Palermo Astronomical Observatory, noticed a 'star' on the shoulder of the bull-shaped constellation, Taurus. But the position of the star was changing each night. Piazzi had discovered Ceres, the largest body in the vast space between the planets M
New Horizons spacecraft answers question: how dark is space
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 06:48How dark is the sky, and what does that tell us about the number of galaxies in the visible universe? Astronomers can estimate the total number of galaxies by counting everything visible in a Hubble deep field and then multiplying them by the total area of the sky. But other galaxies are too faint and distant to directly detect. Yet while we can't count them, their light suffuses space with a fe
France to Invest $121.5Mln in Space Projects Over Next 2 Years, Macron Says
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 06:48French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday pointed to the excessive competition in the European space industry and called for larger investments, noting that Paris would allocate 100 million euros ($121.5 million) for space projects in the next two years. "In terms of [economic] recovery, we have decided to invest 100 million euros in space, which will cover innovations related to carrier
Russia starts mass vaccinations in cosmonaut centre
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 06:48Russia's cosmonaut training centre said Tuesday it has begun vaccinating employees against the coronavirus ahead of future space missions. The press service of the Yuri Gagarin Training Centre told AFP that around 40 of its nearly 1,500 employees had received the first dose of Russia's homemade coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V. Named after famous Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first pe
Scientists see competition of magnetic orders from 2D sheets of atoms
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 06:48For the first time, scientists have observed competition between magnetic orders from coupled sheets of atoms. The observations, described Wednesday in the journal Nature, promise new insights into the quantum qualities of two-dimensional materials. Ever since a pair of British researchers were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2010 for the discovery of graphene, material scientists, electrica
DNI Ratcliffe welcomes US Space Force as 18th Intelligence Community Member
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 06:48Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe has welcomed the U.S. Space Force (USSF) as the 18th member of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). During an afternoon ceremony, Ratcliffe and Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. "Jay" Raymond announced the designation of the intelligence element of the U.S. Space Force as a member of the IC. "This accession reaffirms our commitme
Muscles, metals, bubbles and rotifers – a month of European science in space
Tuesday, 12 January 2021 05:06The month of December comes with holidays for many, but for the International Space Station and mission controls around the world, science never rests.
NGA wants faster access to commercial geospatial data
Monday, 11 January 2021 22:52WASHINGTON — The private sector is coming out with new geospatial intelligence products and services faster than the government can figure out how to buy them. That means analysts need ways to procure commercial geoint “at a moment’s notice,” said David Gauthier, director of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency’s commercial and business operations group.
New Horizons spacecraft answers the question: How dark is space?
Monday, 11 January 2021 20:54Curiosity rover reaches its 3,000th day on Mars
Monday, 11 January 2021 20:52As the rover has continued to ascend Mount Sharp, it's found distinctive benchlike rock formations.
It's been 3,000 Martian days, or sols, since Curiosity touched down on Mars on Aug. 6, 2012, and the rover keeps making new discoveries during its gradual climb up Mount Sharp, the 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain it has been exploring since 2014. Geologists were intrigued to see a series of rock "benches" in the most recent panorama from the mission.
Stitched together from 122 images taken on Nov. 18, 2020, the mission's 2,946th sol, the panorama was captured by the Mast Camera, or Mastcam, which serves as the rover's main "eyes.