The race is on for Ingenuity and Perseverance to stay the distance
Sunday, 26 March 2023 10:08
The Perseverance rover spent the first two Earth years of its mission on Mars driving and sampling within Jezero crater. As anticipated, Jezero was found to be rich with interesting geological features, and the rover used 21 of its precious 43 sample tubes in the region. The rover wrapped up this science campaign by dropping 10 of these samples in a backup depot area for retrieval by a future mi SpaceX launches 56 Starlink satellites from Florida
Sunday, 26 March 2023 10:08
SpaceX launched 56 Starlink satellites from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Friday.
The satellites were carried into low-Earth orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket which lifted off at 11:43 a.m. EDT.
The reusable first stage booster separated shortly after liftoff and returned to Earth where it landed on the "Shortfall of Gravitas" drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean approxim UTEP joins project to 3D print batteries from lunar and Martian soil
Sunday, 26 March 2023 10:08
The University of Texas at El Paso has joined a project led by NASA to leverage 3D-printing processes with the aim of manufacturing rechargeable batteries using lunar and Martian regolith, which is the top layer of materials that covers the surface of the moon and Mars.
"UTEP is a national leader in additive manufacturing for space applications," said Kenith Meissner, Ph.D., dean of the UT Hubble monitors changing weather and seasons at Jupiter and Uranus
Sunday, 26 March 2023 10:08
Ever since its launch in 1990, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has been an interplanetary weather observer, keeping an eye on the largely gaseous outer planets and their ever-changing atmospheres. NASA spacecraft missions to the outer planets have given us a close-up look at these atmospheres, but Hubble's sharpness and sensitivity keeps an unblinking eye on a kaleidoscope of complex activities ov An explaination for unusual radar signatures in the outer solar system
Sunday, 26 March 2023 10:08
A study co-authored by Southwest Research Institute Senior Research Scientist Dr. Jason Hofgartner explains the unusual radar signatures of icy satellites orbiting Jupiter and Saturn. Their radar signatures, which differ significantly from those of rocky worlds and most ice on Earth, have long been a vexing question for the scientific community.
"Six different models have been published in New study about the 'tsunami' in Venus's clouds
Sunday, 26 March 2023 10:08
A group of scientists from the University of Seville, in collaboration with experts from the University of the Basque Country, has led the first detailed study of the evolution of the discontinuity of Venus's clouds, a gigantic atmosphere wave with the appearance of a "tsunami" that is propagated in the planet's deepest clouds and which, it is believed, may be playing a very significant role in AI finds that first stars were clustered together
Sunday, 26 March 2023 10:08
An international team has used artificial intelligence to analyze the chemical abundances of old stars and found indications that the very first stars in the Universe were born in groups rather than as isolated single stars. Now the team hopes to apply this method to new data from on-going and planned observation surveys to better understand the early days of the Universe.
After the Big Ba Small stars may host bigger planets than previously thought
Sunday, 26 March 2023 10:08
Stars with less than half the mass of our Sun are able to host giant Jupiter-style planets, in conflict with the most widely accepted theory of how such planets form, according to a new study led by UCL and University of Warwick researchers.
Gas giants, like other planets, form from disks of material surrounding young stars. According to core accretion theory, they first form a core of roc Exolaunch slots in over 15 customer satellites onto Spacex Transporter-7 from Vandenberg
Sunday, 26 March 2023 10:08
For its seventh dedicated rideshare mission with SpaceX, Exolaunch, a global leader in small satellite launch services, mission management and deployment systems, performed the integration of over 15 satellites for customers around the globe. The SpaceX Transporter-7 mission is scheduled for launch to a Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) above 500 km from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California no ea Space Force selects 18 vendors to provide space data analytics and software services
Saturday, 25 March 2023 22:25
The Space Systems Command announced March 24 it has selected 18 vendors to provide data analytics and software services to help decision makers analyze information about the space domain.
Canada agrees to ISS extension to 2030
Saturday, 25 March 2023 21:35
The Canadian government formally committed March 24 to an extension of the International Space Station to 2030, joining other Western partners but not Russia.
Large asteroid to zoom between Earth and Moon
Saturday, 25 March 2023 11:01
A large asteroid will safely zoom between Earth and the Moon on Saturday, a once-in-a-decade event that will be used as a training exercise for planetary defense efforts, according to the European Space Agency.
The asteroid, named 2023 DZ2, is estimated to be 40 to 70 meters (130 to 230 feet) wide, roughly the size of the Parthenon, and big enough to wipe out a large city if it hit our planet.
At 19:49 GMT on Saturday it will come within a third of the distance from the Earth to the Moon, said Richard Moissl, the head of the ESA's planetary defense office.
Though that is "very close", there is nothing to worry about, he told AFP.
Russians, American delayed in space to return in September
Friday, 24 March 2023 20:41
Two cosmonauts and an astronaut who were supposed to leave the International Space Station this month will be brought back to Earth in late September, doubling their time aboard the orbiting laboratory to more than a year, Russia's space agency announced Friday.
The return of Russians Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, and NASA's Frank Rubio was delayed after the Soyuz capsule they planned to ride in developed a coolant leak while docked to the space station.
An empty Soyuz was sent to the station in late February to serve as a rescue capsule. The three-person replacement crew that was originally scheduled to be aboard that capsule is now set to head for the space station on Sept. 15, the Roscosmos space agency said.
Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio are to return on Sept. 27; they launched into space on Sept. 21, 2022.
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Blue Origin hopes to resume space flights 'soon' after 2022 accident
Friday, 24 March 2023 20:39
Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin said Friday it hopes to resume rocket flights "soon" following the conclusion of an investigation into a crash last year—but it must wait for US regulators to accept the findings.
The company's New Shepard suborbital rockets, which are intended for space tourism among other purposes, have been grounded following the September 2022 accident that occurred shortly after liftoff from Texas.
The incident marked a setback for the Amazon founder's company, though observers were encouraged by the fact that had people been aboard, they would have likely survived.
SpaceX launches its 20th mission of the year with launch of 56 Starlink satellites
Friday, 24 March 2023 20:24
SpaceX launched its 20th mission of 2023 on Friday (March 24), launching 56 of its Starlink internet satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO) and landing the first stage booster on a droneship offshore.
The mission, named Starlink Group 5-5, lifted off at 11:43 AM EDT (15:43 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
About eight and a h