Copernical Team
New advances inspire China's deep space exploration
With news of achievements pouring in these days, China is pushing forward its deep space exploration, aiming to contribute its wisdom in humankind's peaceful utilization of outer space.
On April 29, China sent into space the core module of its space station, kicking off a series of key launch missions that aim to complete the construction of the station by the end of next year.
The s Air Force Deputy Technology Executive Officer Addresses Ohio Space Forum
The Air Force Research Laboratory's Dr. Kelly Hammett spoke at the annual Ohio Space Forum May 18, joining several aerospace leaders who discussed their organizations' contributions to the space mission and Ohio politicians who lauded Ohio's contributions and their economic impact.
Facilitated by the Dayton Development Coalition and JobsOhio, the Ohio Space Forum gathers federal, military, AFRL opens SWORD lab for space warfighting operations research
The Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate held a ribbon cutting ceremony May 20 to celebrate the opening of its newest facility, the Space Warfighting Operations Research and Development, or SWORD, laboratory.
Col. Eric Felt, the director of AFRL's Space Vehicles Directorate, hosted the event with AFRL commander, Maj. Gen. Heather Pringle as the presiding officer and key Space-based capabilities are critical to U.S. National Security: DOD tells House
Space-based capabilities are vital to U.S. national security in today's era of de-stabilizing challenges from Russia and undeniable strategic competition with China, the Defense Department's principal director for space policy told a House Armed Services Committee panel today.
John D. Hill told the HASC subcommittee on strategic forces that Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III has also PLD Space receives ESA contract to study reusing MIURA 5 boosters
The new project by PLD Space and the European Space Agency (ESA), known as Liquid Propulsion Stage Recovery 2 (LPSR 2), is a continuation of the previous contract awarded by ESA to PLD Space in 2017. This contract is part of ESA's Future Launchers Programme and focuses on the study of re-entry trajectories and configurations for the safe descent of stage one of MIURA 5, which will be launched fr Surviving an in-flight anomaly: what happened on Ingenuity's 6th flight
On the 91st Martian day, or sol, of NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter performed its sixth flight. The flight was designed to expand the flight envelope and demonstrate aerial-imaging capabilities by taking stereo images of a region of interest to the west.
Ingenuity was commanded to climb to an altitude of 33 feet (10 meters) before translating 492 Competitor fears Musk's SpaceX could 'monopolise' space
The launching of thousands of satellites into low Earth orbit by tech billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX threatens the "de-facto monopolisation" of space, the head of competitor Arianespace Stephane Israel has warned.
Elon Musk's Starlink constellation project recently received authorisation from US regulator the Federal Communications Commission to provide broadband from space and place thousands of satellites lower than previously proposed, angering competitors including Amazon.
SpaceX, which asked the FCC for permission which will apply to some 2,800 satellites, plans ultimately to blanket poorly connected and isolated areas of the globe with internet connectivity.
To give astronauts better food, engineers test a fridge prototype in microgravity
Astronauts have been going to space since 1961, but they still don't have a refrigerator to use for keeping food cold on long missions to the moon or Mars.
Through experiments conducted in microgravity, a team of engineers from Purdue University, Air Squared Inc., and Whirlpool Corporation has shown that a prototype they developed could potentially overcome the challenges of getting a traditional fridge to work in space just as well as it does on Earth.
The canned and dried food that astronauts currently eat during missions has a shelf life of only about three years. The team's project, funded by NASA's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, aims to give astronauts a supply of food that could last five to six years.
Launch postponed for Soyuz rocket with UK telecom satellites
The launch of a Soyuz rocket carrying 36 UK telecommunication and internet satellites has been postponed until Friday, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said.
OneWeb, a London-headquartered company, is working to complete the construction of a constellation of low earth orbit satellites providing enhanced broadband and other services to countries around the world.
The launch of the rocket operated by European company Arianespace was scheduled for 1743 GMT on Thursday from the Vostochny cosmodrome in Russia's Far East.
"For technical reasons, the launch...has been postponed to the reserve date," Roscosmos said in a statement on Thursday.
The space agency added that the postponed launch will take place on Friday, May 28 at 1738 GMT.
The launch was postponed "due to the replacement of one item of electrical equipment," launch operator Arianespace said on Twitter.
It added that the Soyuz rocket and the satellites are in "stable and safe condition".
So far two batches of 36 OneWeb satellites have been placed into orbit from Russia this year.
The UK company plans for its global commercial internet service to be operational by next year, supported by some 650 satellites.
Juno returns to 'Clyde's Spot' on Jupiter
During its 33rd low pass over the cloud tops of Jupiter on April 15, 2021, NASA's Juno spacecraft captured the intriguing evolution of a feature in the giant planet's atmosphere known as "Clyde's Spot."
The feature is informally named for amateur astronomer Clyde Foster of Centurion, South Africa, who discovered it in 2020 using his own 14-inch telescope. On June 2, 2020, just two days after Foster's initial discovery, Juno provided detailed observations of Clyde's Spot (upper image), which scientists determined was a plume of cloud material erupting above the top layers of the Jovian atmosphere just southeast of Jupiter's Great Red Spot, which is currently about 1.3 times as wide as Earth. These powerful convective outbreaks occasionally occur in this latitude band, known as the South Temperate Belt. The initial plume subsided quickly, and within a few weeks it was seen as a dark spot.
Many features in Jupiter's highly dynamic atmosphere are short lived, but the April 2021 observation from the JunoCam instrument (lower image) revealed that nearly one year after its discovery, the remnant of Clyde's Spot had not only drifted away from the Great Red Spot but had also developed into a complex structure that scientists call a folded filamentary region.