Historic private astronaut mission prepares for splashdown
Sunday, 15 September 2024 16:42
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The SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission, which made history when its crew conducted the first ever spacewalk by non-government astronauts, is returning to Earth on Sunday.
Splashdown is scheduled to take place at approximately 3:36 am Eastern Time (0736 GMT) off the coast of Dry Tortugas, Florida.
A live webcast will be carried by SpaceX starting around an hour beforehand.
The four-member Iran says new research satellite launched into orbit
Sunday, 15 September 2024 16:42 Write a comment
Iran on Saturday blasted a new research satellite into orbit, state media said, in the latest such development for an aerospace programme that has long faced Western criticism.
"The Chamran-1 research satellite was successfully launched and put into orbit by the Ghaem-100 carrier," state television said.
The satellite, which weighs around 60 kilograms (132 pounds), is designed to test h Australia advances hypersonic flight testing with Southern Launch and Hypersonix collaboration
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South Australia is set to enhance its position as a global aerospace hub following a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Southern Launch, a prominent spaceport provider, and Hypersonix Launch Systems, a Queensland-based developer of hypersonic vehicles and scramjet technology. The MoU outlines a collaboration to develop a hypersonic test bed service that will utilize Southern Launch's spac What next for Boeing Starliner sans astronauts
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Boeing's crew transport space capsule, the Starliner, returned to Earth without its two-person crew right after midnight Eastern time on Sept. 7, 2024. Its remotely piloted return marked the end of a fraught test flight to the International Space Station which left two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams, on the station for months longer than intended after thruster failures led Rosetta's influence: How has it inspired you?
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It's been ten years since the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta mission reached Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. In the past decade, the mission's scientific achievements have significantly contributed to unraveling the mysteries of comets and deepened our understanding of the Solar System's origins. However, the mission has also impacted people beyond the realm of science.
To mark thi NASA recreates Mars' Spider formations in lab for the first time
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NASA scientists have successfully recreated the mysterious spider-shaped formations found on Mars, providing new insights into how these unique geologic features form. The laboratory experiments were conducted under simulated Martian conditions, helping to confirm a theory that these "spiders" are carved by processes involving carbon dioxide ice.
First discovered in 2003 through orbiter im JunoCam identifies new volcanic feature on Io
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NASA's Juno mission has detected a new volcanic feature on Jupiter's moon Io, known for being the most geologically active body in the Solar System. Close-up images captured by JunoCam, marking the first such views of Io in over 25 years, show a fresh volcano with extensive lava flows and volcanic deposits across a 180-kilometre by 180-kilometre region. These findings were presented at the Europ Inouye Solar Telescope maps magnetic fields in the Sun's corona
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The U.S. National Science Foundation's (NSF) Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, operated by the NSF's National Solar Observatory (NSO), has successfully mapped the magnetic fields in the solar corona for the first time. The solar corona, visible during a total solar eclipse, is the outermost layer of the Sun's atmosphere. This achievement is expected to significantly improve our ability to unders Astronomers capture detailed motion of gas bubbles on a star's surface
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For the first time, astronomers have captured highly detailed images of a star, other than our Sun, that reveal the movement of bubbling gas on its surface. These observations were made using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in July and August 2023. The star, R Doradus, is located around 180 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Dorado. The images show enormous, Satellogic chosen for NASA's SmallSat Data Acquisition Program
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Satellogic Inc. (NASDAQ: SATL), a provider of sub-meter resolution Earth observation data, has been selected as one of eight companies awarded a contract in NASA's Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition (CSDA) Program. The On-Ramp1 Multiple Award contract, which holds a cumulative maximum value of $476 million, was announced on September 6, 2024. This selection reflects Satellogic's dedication to NASA conducts key telemedicine and health research with Polaris Dawn Crew
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NASA is set to gain significant new insights through a range of experiments aboard a commercial spaceflight, reinforcing the agency's scientific efforts as it aims for deeper space exploration to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
These experiments are part of the Polaris Dawn mission, which launched earlier today aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket.
The Polaris Dawn crew Tech billionaire returns to Earth after first private spacewalk
Sunday, 15 September 2024 07:32 Write a comment
A billionaire spacewalker returned to Earth with his crew on Sunday, ending a five-day trip that lifted them higher than anyone has traveled since NASA's moonwalkers.
SpaceX's capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida's Dry Tortugas in the predawn darkness, carrying tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, two SpaceX engineers and a former Air Force Thunderbird pilot.
They pulled off the first private spacewalk while orbiting nearly 460 miles (740 kilometers) above Earth, higher than the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope.
Catch a partial lunar eclipse during September's supermoon
Sunday, 15 September 2024 07:32 Write a comment
Get ready for a partial lunar eclipse and supermoon, all rolled into one.
The spectacle will be visible in clear skies across North America and South America Tuesday night and in Africa and Europe Wednesday morning.
A partial lunar eclipse happens when the Earth passes between the sun and moon, casting a shadow that darkens a sliver of the moon and appears to take a bite out of it.
Since the moon will inch closer to Earth than usual, it'll appear a bit larger in the sky. The supermoon is one of three remaining this year.
"A little bit of the sun's light is being blocked so the moon will be slightly dimmer," said Valerie Rapson, an astronomer at the State University of New York at Oneonta.
The Earth, moon and sun line up to produce a solar or lunar eclipse anywhere from four to seven times a year, according to NASA.
Crew Dragon splashes down to conclude Polaris Dawn mission
Sunday, 15 September 2024 07:03
Boeing 'ran out of time' on Starliner: astronaut stuck on ISS
Saturday, 14 September 2024 07:30 Write a comment
A US astronaut stuck on the International Space Station said Friday he believed Boeing's Starliner could have carried him home, if more time had been available to work through the beleaguered spacecraft's issues.
Last week, Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams watched the Boeing Starliner they rode to the ISS three months prior head back to Earth without them.
"We could have gotten to the point, I believe, where we could have returned on Starliner, but we just simply ran out of time," Wilmore said Friday in a video press conference.
On June 5, Wilmore and Williams took off aboard the Starliner as part of the vessel's first crewed mission, in what was originally meant to be eight days in orbit.