Copernical Team
Europe's all-new weather satellite arrives at launch site
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After a two-week voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, the ship transporting the first Meteosat Third Generation satellite docked at Pariacabo in French Guiana and the precious cargo unloaded. Now safe and sound in one of the spaceport's cleanrooms, satellite engineers will ready it for liftoff on an Ariane 5 rocket in December. Once in geostationary orbit, this new satellite, which carries two new Beyond Gravity to supply power electronics for Loft Orbital's satellites
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Beyond Gravity, a leading space systems company, has been selected to supply equipment for Loft Orbital's Longbow spacecraft based on Airbus Arrow platform. The physical equipment is referred to as the Power Control and Distribution Unit (PCDU).
The PCDU provides mission critical power supply capabilities and in-orbit configurability for "The Hub" that carries all payloads of a Loft Orbita Climate change to increase lifetime of space pollution
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Increasing levels of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere will result in a long-term decline in air density at high altitudes, according to new research from British Antarctic Survey. Such decreased density will reduce drag on objects orbiting in the upper atmosphere, between 90 and 500 km altitude, extending the lifetime of space debris and elevating the risk of collisions between debris and satellite Packing up at the Canaima drill site: Sols 3626-3627
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Curiosity is focused on wrapping up the drill campaign at the Canaima site before hitting the road again. Curiosity started out with an unexpected 10% surplus in energy known as a "power gift." This two-sol plan will allow Curiosity to complete the Canaima drilling activities before driving away along the Mount Sharp Ascent Route (MSAR).
One planned activity is to analyze the Canaima drill Relativity Space to operate major rocket engine test facilities at NASA
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Relativity Space, the first company to 3D print rockets and build the largest metal 3D printers in the world, has detailed its plans to operate one of the largest rocket engine test facilities in the United States. Through an agreement with NASA, Relativity is significantly expanding its facilities and infrastructure at NASA's historic Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, Mississippi.
T The UK is about to have its first space launch
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Virgin Orbit, a US company which provides launch services for satellites, has announced that the first orbital space mission from the UK will blast off from Cornwall. The rocket, which will carry nine satellites, along with a launch aircraft have been delivered by an RAF C-17 - a military, heavy-lift strategic transport plane.
This is primed to be a new phase for the UK and its involvement Life may have thrived on early Mars, until it drove climate change that caused its demise
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If there ever was life on Mars - and that's a huge "if" - conditions during the planet's infancy most likely would have supported it, according to a study led by University of Arizona researchers. Dry and extremely cold, with a tenuous atmosphere, today's Mars is extremely unlikely to sustain any form of life at the surface. But 4 billion years ago, Earth's smaller, red neighbor may have been mu Webb takes a stunning, star-filled portrait of the Pillars of Creation
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The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured a lush, highly detailed landscape – the iconic Pillars of Creation – where new stars are forming within dense clouds of gas and dust. The three-dimensional pillars look like majestic rock formations, but are far more permeable. These columns are made up of cool interstellar gas and dust that appear – at times – semi-transparent in near-infrared light.
New research facility houses largest plasma wind tunnel in the US
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In hypersonic flight, an aircraft or spacecraft moves at least five times faster than the speed of sound—producing extreme heat that can push the craft beyond its physical limits. The difficulty and importance of protecting vehicles against those conditions were tragically illustrated in 2003 when slight damage to heat-shielding tiles caused the Space Shuttle Columbia to disintegrate while re-entering Earth's atmosphere.
A unique experimental facility at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will help ensure that such a tragedy is never repeated—and enable unprecedented new adventures in space exploration.
The Plasmatron X is the largest inductively coupled plasma wind tunnel in the United States.
Uncontrolled rocket reentries are a bigger problem than you think
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More than 60% of the launches in 2020 resulted in one or more rocket parts making an uncontrolled reentry into the atmosphere. While thankfully no one was hurt by that debris, with the expected rise in rocket launches over the coming decade the chances of a casualty are increasing. A new study paints the picture of how current methods of assessing risk are inadequate and new steps need to be taken.
Rocketry is a complex business. A typical lunch will usually require multiple stages to get the payload into orbit. Most of the time everything goes well, with the individual stages designed to either burn up in the atmosphere or end up on an escape trajectory away from the Earth. But in 2020 alone, 60% of the launches to low Earth orbit ended up with at least one significantly sized rocket part simply abandoned in an uncontrolled orbit.