Greenbelt MD (SPX) Sep 10, 2021
Dr. Shannon Curry, planetary scientist and the deputy assistant director of planetary science at the Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) at the University of California, Berkeley, has assumed leadership of NASA's first mission devoted to studying the Martian atmosphere. On Aug. 31, Curry started her new job as Principal Investigator of NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, or MAVEN, mission

Bonn, Germany (SPX) Sep 10, 2021
At the end of October 2021, the German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, together with the NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas H. Marshburn and Kayla Barron, are expected to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on board a Dragon space capsule from the US company SpaceX. Maurer will spend approximately six months in microgravity and return to Earth in April 2022. This will be the fir

Washington DC (UPI) Sep 9, 2021
Russian cosmonauts woke up to an emergency alarm Thursday in one of their service modules at the International Space Station. Audio from NASA's television feed caught a French astronaut identifying a smell of burning plastic, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Russian space agency Roscosmos told state news agency TASS that the cosmonauts turned on an air purification s

Cologne, Germany (SPX) Sep 10, 2021
At the end of October 2021, it will be time for German astronaut Matthias Maurer to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon. His first ISS mission has been named 'Cosmic Kiss'. Thirty-six experiments developed in Germany have been planned for his mission. One of them is Wireless Compose 2 (WICO2), which has been designed and prepared by the German Aerospace

Paris, France (SPX) Sep 10, 2021
Eutelsat Communications confirms the closing of its $550m equity investment in OneWeb announced on April 27, 2021. Subject to completion of the subsequently announced investments in OneWeb by Bharti and Hanwha, Eutelsat will hold a 17.6% stake. Rodolphe Belmer, Chief Executive Officer of Eutelsat, said: "We are delighted to close this investment in OneWeb, giving us a foothold in the Low E

Canberra, Australia (SPX) Sep 08, 2021
UPDATE: Friday's launch attempt was delayed due to strong upper winds. - The Australian Government has given regulatory approval for a commercial rocket launch to take place from a newly licensed launch facility in South Australia. Taiwanese company tiSPACE will conduct a test flight of its Hapith I - a 10m, two-stage, sub-orbital rocket - from the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex, which is operated by Southern Launch. The launch is now scheduled to take plac

Laurel MA (SPX) Sep 10, 2021
Scientists using data from NASA's Parker Solar Probe have assembled a comprehensive picture of the structure and behavior of the large cloud of space dust that swirls through the innermost solar system - and the new insight offers clues to similar clouds around stars across the universe. Research teams led by Jamey Szalay of Princeton University and Anna Pusack of University of Colorado, L

Urbana IL (SPX) Sep 10, 2021
Finding an exact copy of the Earth somewhere in the universe sounds like a far-fetched notion, but scientists believe that because Earth happened in our solar system, something similar is bound to exist someplace else. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researcher Siegfried Eggl and his colleagues say orbiting moons may play a key role in keeping planets habitable over long periods and iden

Munich, Germany (SPX) Sep 10, 2021
Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT), a team of astronomers have obtained the sharpest and most detailed images yet of the asteroid Kleopatra. The observations have allowed the team to constrain the 3D shape and mass of this peculiar asteroid, which resembles a dog bone, to a higher accuracy than ever before. Their research provides clues as to how this aste

Washington DC (SPX) Sep 10, 2021
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson joined federal government and industry leaders Thursday at a White House event highlighting sustainable aviation and the administration's focus on medium- and long-term goals to combat climate change. The event highlighted a plan to reduce aviation carbon emissions through production of more than three billion gallons of sustainable fuel by 2030. Officials fr