Light show over US sky likely SpaceX debris re-entering atmosphere
Thursday, 25 March 2021 11:49
A spectacular display of lights that streamed across the night sky over the US Pacific Northwest was probably debris from a SpaceX mission re-entering the atmosphere, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.
"While we await further confirmation on the details, here's the unofficial information we have so far. The widely reported bright objects in the sky were the debris from a Falcon 9 rocket 2nd stage," NWS Seattle tweeted.
Videos posted on social media showed a thick cluster of glowing dots with blazing trails of light moving slowly across the sky before fizzling out, with users speculating the phenomenon might be a meteor shower or even, jokingly, an alien invasion.
Local media reported multiple sightings just after 9 pm local time, with videos posted online from Washington state and Oregon.
NWS Seattle said the sight was more likely to be caused by space debris rather than a meteor or similar object because the latter would be moving far faster, a conclusion backed up by several meteorologists quoted by local media.
Jonathan McDowell from Harvard's Center for Astrophysics also pointed to the Falcon 9 rocket stage as the source of the firework-like display.
Redwire goes public with SPAC Buyout
Thursday, 25 March 2021 10:48
Redwire, a mission-critical space solutions company, and Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: GNPK) ("Genesis Park"), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, announced today that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement that will result in Redwire becoming a publicly traded company. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2021, Redwire goes public like SPAC Buyout
Thursday, 25 March 2021 10:40
Redwire, a mission-critical space solutions company, and Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: GNPK) ("Genesis Park"), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, announced today that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement that will result in Redwire becoming a publicly traded company. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2021, NASA Provides $45M Boost to US Small Businesses
Thursday, 25 March 2021 10:40
Small businesses are vital to NASA's mission, helping expand humanity's presence in space and improve life on Earth. NASA has selected 365 U.S. small business proposals for initial funding from the agency's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program, a total investment of more than $45 million.
"At NASA, we recognize that small businesse Rogue taps NanoAvionics for key satellite bus systems
Thursday, 25 March 2021 10:40
Rogue Space Systems Corporation and NanoAvionics US have signed a cooperation agreement where Rogue has selected NanoAvionics US to be their provider for hardware, systems engineering and integration services for Rogue's Laura, Charlie and Fred Orbot programs. These programs will include both demonstration missions currently planned for 2022 and the follow-on deployment of the servicing fleet co The PI's Perspective: Far From Home
Thursday, 25 March 2021 10:40
New Horizons remains healthy and continues to send valuable data from the Kuiper Belt, even as it speeds farther and farther from Earth and the Sun.
I'm going to focus this PI's Perspective on a major upcoming mission mile marker - namely, New Horizons being 50 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun next month. But first, some mission news.
Our biggest news is that most of our latest f SKY Perfect JSAT signs contract with Airbus to build Superbird-9 telco satellite
Thursday, 25 March 2021 10:40
SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation, the main satellite operator in Japan and the world leading Fixed Satellite Service provider, has selected Airbus to build Superbird-9, a fully digital in-orbit reconfigurable telecommunications satellite.
The satellite will be based on Airbus' standardised OneSat product line. Airbus will provide a turnkey solution, including design and manufacture of the Supe Processing begins with the Pleiades Neo 3 satellite for Arianespace's next Vega launch
Thursday, 25 March 2021 10:40
Payload preparations have begun in French Guiana for Arianespace's next mission - which is to utilize the light-lift Vega in deploying the first Pleiades Neo constellation satellite and other passengers in a piggyback configuration.
Produced by Airbus Defence and Space, Pleiades Neo 3 arrived yesterday at Felix Eboue Airport near Cayenne, then traveled by road to the Spaceport to begin its Wright brothers' wing fragment to take flight again on Mars
Thursday, 25 March 2021 10:40
A piece of cloth from the Wright brothers' first flight in 1903 is set to become part of aviation history again - this time on Mars.
Carillon Historical Park, the Ohio home of the Wright Brio home of the Wright Brothers National Museum, said NASA officials got in contact in 2019 about finding a way to connect Wilbur and Orville Wright's first successful flight in Kitty Hawk, N.C., with the South Korea aims for moon landing vehicle by 2030
Thursday, 25 March 2021 10:40
South Korea says it ranks seventh in satellites, after the country conducted a successful test of a domestically developed rocket for satellite launch.
President Moon Jae-in said Thursday that his goal is to ensure South Korea has a launch vehicle capable of landing on the moon by 2030 and to help local enterprises become leading aerospace manufacturers like SpaceX, the firm founded by Elo The very first structures in the Universe
Thursday, 25 March 2021 10:40
The very first moments of the Universe can be reconstructed mathematically even though they cannot be observed directly. Physicists from the Universities of Gottingen and Auckland (New Zealand) have greatly improved the ability of complex computer simulations to describe this early epoch. They discovered that a complex network of structures can form in the first trillionth of a second after the Ocean currents predicted on Enceladus
Thursday, 25 March 2021 10:40
Buried beneath 20 kilometers of ice, the subsurface ocean of Enceladus--one of Saturn's moons--appears to be churning with currents akin to those on Earth.
The theory, derived from the shape of Enceladus's ice shell, challenges the current thinking that the moon's global ocean is homogenous, apart from some vertical mixing driven by the warmth of the moon's core.
Enceladus, a tiny fr Launcher opens California facility to develop small launch vehicle
Thursday, 25 March 2021 10:20
WASHINGTON — Small launch vehicle company Launcher has moved across the country to California as it takes its next steps in the development of its rocket.
Launcher, which had been based in New York City, is in the process of moving into a 24,000-square-foot building it is leasing in Hawthorne, California, a few blocks from the sprawling headquarters of SpaceX.
Raspberry Pi-powered cybersecurity for future missions, tested on Space Station
Thursday, 25 March 2021 10:11
One of the cheapest experiments ever flown in orbit has finished operating after 22 months on the International Space Station. Running on a Raspberry Pi Zero costing just a few Euros, ESA’s CryptIC payload was exploring cryptography techniques running on off-the-shelf hardware, to ensure cybersecurity for future low-cost space missions.
Op-ed | The use of AI in space systems: opportunities for mission improvement
Thursday, 25 March 2021 09:29
From analyzing the terrain on Mars to enhancing communications between satellites and ground communications, artificial intelligence (AI) is playing an increasing important role in space operations and exploration.