Astroscale 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
Scientists complete yearlong pulsar timing study after reviving dormant radio telescopes
Monday, 21 December 2020 08:31While the scientific community grapples with the loss of the Arecibo radio telescope, astronomers who recently revived a long-dormant radio telescope array in Argentina hope it can help modestly compensate for the work Arecibo did in pulsar timing. Last year, scientists at Rochester Institute of Technology and the Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomia (IAR) began a pulsar timing study us
The upside of volatile space weather
Monday, 21 December 2020 08:31Although violent and unpredictable, stellar flares emitted by a planet's host star do not necessarily prevent life from forming, according to a new Northwestern University study. Emitted by stars, stellar flares are sudden flashes of magnetic energy. On Earth, the sun's flares sometimes damage satellites and disrupt radio communications. Elsewhere in the universe, however, robust stellar f
On the Hunt for a Missing Giant Black Hole
Monday, 21 December 2020 08:31The mystery surrounding the whereabouts of a supermassive black hole has deepened. Despite searching with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have no evidence that a distant black hole estimated to weigh between 3 billion and 100 billion times the mass of the Sun is anywhere to be found. This missing black hole should be in the enormous galaxy in the ce
Euclid's optical and infrared instruments integrated in spacecraft
Monday, 21 December 2020 08:31The optical and infrared instruments of Euclid, ESA's mission to study dark energy and dark matter in space, have passed their qualification and acceptance reviews and are now fully integrated into the spacecraft's payload module. This marks an important step forward in the assembly of the Euclid space telescope, which is scheduled for launch in 2022. The two Euclid instruments, the visibl
Lockheed Martin confident Aerojet deal will be approved, but it’s not a slam dunk
Sunday, 20 December 2020 21:43WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet said he expects the U.S. government to approve the company’s proposed $4.4 billion acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne despite concerns that it could reduce competition in the hypersonic missiles market.
NASA receives $23.271 billion in fiscal year 2021 omnibus spending bill
Sunday, 20 December 2020 21:36WASHINGTON — Congress will provide NASA with nearly $23.3 billion in the final fiscal year 2021 omnibus spending bill, restoring several science programs but falling far short of the funding sought for a lunar lander program.
Viasat announces agreement to acquire RigNet
Sunday, 20 December 2020 19:40SAN FRANCISCO — Viasat Inc. announced an agreement Dec. 21 to acquire Houston-based communications firm RigNet Inc. in an all-stock transaction with a value of approximately $222 million based on Viasat’s current share price and RigNet’s debt.
The more things change: Ansys acquisition isn’t likely to alter AGI or Comspoc
Sunday, 20 December 2020 16:21For three decades, Paul Graziani never seriously considered selling Analytical Graphics Inc., the Exton, Pennsylvania-based company he co-founded and has led since 1989.
“We felt like we got a pretty good gig on our own here,” Graziani said in an interview.
Study finds meteoric evidence for a previously unknown asteroid
Sunday, 20 December 2020 16:00A 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 presence of water under intermediate temperatures and pressures.