Beijing, China (SPX) Sep 08, 2023
The safe landing of the probe is one of the most difficult challenges in Mars exploration, and the Mars supersonic parachute is extremely important for this process. To date, all the successful Mars exploration missions have used disk-gap-band (DGB) parachutes. However, the DGB parachute with the highest diameter of 21.35 m cannot be further used for future Mars exploration missions with higher

Beijing, China (SPX) Sep 08, 2023
Galactic Energy has become the first Chinese private company to carry out a sea-based launch mission. The Beijing-based company announced on Tuesday evening that the sea-borne variant of its CERES 1 carrier rocket conducted its first liftoff at 5:34 pm that day from a mobile launch platform - a modified deck barge - in the Yellow Sea off the eastern province of Shandong. It then sent four

Cedar Park TX (SPX) Sep 08, 2023
Firefly Aerospace, Inc., an end-to-end space transportation company, has signed a multi-launch agreement with L3Harris Technologies [NYSE:LHX] for three dedicated launches on Firefly's Alpha vehicle in 2026. The agreement further positions Firefly as the leader in small-lift launch services as the company ramps up production of its Alpha vehicle to support the growing needs of both government an

Boca Raton FL (SPX) Sep 08, 2023
Terran Orbital (NYSE: LLAP) has announced a new lineup of seven standard satellite bus platforms. Over a decade ago, Terran Orbital pioneered the creation of CubeSat standards, and now, we are establishing new benchmarks for satellite technology for the coming decade. These standards are built upon Terran Orbital's manufacturing capabilities, featuring components and modules that can be readily

Munich, Germany (SPX) Sep 08, 2023
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have detected the magnetic field of a galaxy so far away that its light has taken more than 11 billion years to reach us: we see it as it was when the Universe was just 2.5 billion years old. The result provides astronomers with vital clues about how the magnetic fields of galaxies like our own Milky Way came to be.

Richland WA (SPX) Sep 08, 2023
The humble neutrino, an elusive subatomic particle that passes effortlessly through normal matter, plays an outsized role among the particles that comprise our universe. To fully explain how our universe came to be, we need to know its mass. But, like so many of us, it avoids being weighed. Now, an international team of researchers from the United States and Germany leading an ambitious qu

Paris (ESA) Sep 08, 2023
Scientists have used Solar Orbiter's EUI camera in a new mode of operation to record part of the Sun's atmosphere at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths that has been almost impossible to image until now. This new mode of operation was made possible with a last-minute 'hack' to the camera and will almost certainly influence new solar instruments for future missions. Solar Orbiter's Extreme Ult

Pasadena CA (SPX) Sep 08, 2023
In early August, scientists and engineers gathered in a small auditorium at Caltech to discuss how to build the first space telescope capable of detecting life on planets like Earth. The proposed mission concept, called the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), would be the next powerful astrophysics observatory after NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It would have the ability to study sta

Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 08, 2023
Riding with the Perseverance rover, the instrument has proved to be a viable technology for astronauts on Mars to produce oxygen for fuel and breathing. When the first astronauts land on Mars, they may have the descendants of a microwave-oven-size device to thank for the air they breathe and the rocket propellant that gets them home. That device, called MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utiliz

Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 08, 2023
Bound for a metal-rich asteroid of the same name, the Psyche mission is targeting Oct. 5 to launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft's solar arrays are folded like an envelope into their stowed position. Xenon gas - fuel for the journey to the asteroid belt - is loaded. All four thrusters have passed their final tests. Engineers have confirmed the massive high-gai