Test conducted to verify spacecraft technology, FM says
Tuesday, 19 October 2021 08:47The Chinese space test that drew great attention was made to verify reusable spacecraft technologies, not to test a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile, as some foreign media claimed, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday. Responding to questions about the test, ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a daily briefing at the ministry in Beijing that he was told it was a regular test flight by
Chinese astronaut bridges gender gap
Tuesday, 19 October 2021 08:47China's landmark six-month journey in space has left many curious about the differences between male and female astronauts. Wang Yaping, a 41-year-old female astronaut from Shandong province in East China, became the first Chinese woman to enter China's space station after the trio settled inside the Tianhe core module last week. "Astronauts need to meet high physical and emotional s
Next Generation Interceptor Program Achieves Critical System Requirements Review
Tuesday, 19 October 2021 08:47Lockheed Martin has announced that the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) approved its Next Generation Interceptor (NGI) program's System Requirements Review (SRR) - six months after the initial development and demonstration contract award. The MDA's NGI program is designed to protect the United States from complex, rogue threat, ballistic missile attacks. The interceptor is an end-to-end d
Successful static firing test with DLR involvement
Tuesday, 19 October 2021 08:47On 1 October 2021, an S50 solid-propellant rocket motor, which will form the first two stages of the new VLM-1 launch vehicle, successfully completed a static firing test in the operational area of Usina Coronel Abner (UCA), in Sao Jose dos Campos, Sao Paulo state, Brazil. The test was conducted by an engineering team from the Aeronautics and Space Institute, which is headquartered in Sao Jose d
China says recent test was spacecraft not missile
Tuesday, 19 October 2021 08:47China on Monday denied a report it had recently launched a hypersonic missile, saying it tested a spacecraft to trial reusable technologies. The Financial Times reported Saturday that Beijing had launched a nuclear-capable missile in August that circled the Earth at low orbit before narrowly missing its target. FT sources said the hypersonic missile was carried by a Long March rocket and
Mixing system prototype for future greenhouses on the Moon
Tuesday, 19 October 2021 08:47Developing greenhouse systems is of great importance and requires Bio-regenerative Life Support Systems (BLSS) to ensure that the lives of crew members are sustained. Two new prototypes of a nutrient mixing system for future Moon and Mars greenhouse modules have now been completed and installed following a successful design and development phase between Priva and the German Aerospace Center (Deu
The unusual magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune
Tuesday, 19 October 2021 08:47Not all ice is the same. The solid form of water comes in more than a dozen different - sometimes more, sometimes less crystalline - structures, depending on the conditions of pressure and temperature in the environment. Superionic ice is a special crystalline form, half solid, half liquid - and electrically conductive. Its existence has been predicted on the basis of various models and has alre
Climate model shows that Venus could never have had oceans
Tuesday, 19 October 2021 08:47Whether Venus, one of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets, ever had oceans remains an unsolved puzzle. Although an American study hypothesized that it did, this is now challenged in a paper published on October 14, 2021 in Nature, involving in particular scientists from the CNRS and University of Versailles-Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines1 (UVSQ). Using a state-of-the-art climate model,
San Andreas Fault-like tectonics discovered on Saturn moon Titan
Tuesday, 19 October 2021 08:47Strike-slip faulting, the type of motion common to California's well-known San Andreas Fault, was reported recently to possibly occur on Titan, Saturn's largest moon. New research, led by planetary scientists from the University of Hawai?i at Manoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), suggests this tectonic motion may be active on Titan, deforming the icy surface. On m
Scientists find evidence the early solar system harbored a gap between its inner and outer regions
Tuesday, 19 October 2021 08:47In the early solar system, a "protoplanetary disk" of dust and gas rotated around the sun and eventually coalesced into the planets we know today. A new analysis of ancient meteorites by scientists at MIT and elsewhere suggests that a mysterious gap existed within this disk around 4.567 billion years ago, near the location where the asteroid belt resides today. The team's results, ap
The October Council edition of ESA Impact is online
Tuesday, 19 October 2021 08:35ESA Impact October Council edition
Great images and videos of climate change on view, BepiColombo flies by Mercury, Cheops gets a surprise, and more
Polish Armed Forces enlist industry consortium for imaging nanosatellites
Tuesday, 19 October 2021 04:00Under the recently launched Polish Imaging Satellites (PIAST) project, a consortium formed by local space industry players will develop three nanosatellites to be operated by the country’s armed forces and placed into orbit in 2024.
Fledgling European space businesses still lacking the funds to fly
Tuesday, 19 October 2021 02:59A lack of accessible financing options is holding European space startups back as supply shortages and price rises risk derailing the industry’s post-pandemic recovery, warns a white paper from the Access Space Alliance (ASA) small satellite industry group.
NASA selects gamma-ray telescope mission for development
Tuesday, 19 October 2021 01:48NASA will develop a gamma-ray telescope intended to study the formation of chemical elements in the galaxy as its next small astrophysics mission.
Investigations of U.S. Space Command’s basing decision to continue into 2022
Monday, 18 October 2021 22:19The Government Accountability Office and the Defense Department’s inspector general are still months away from completing their investigations of the decision to relocate U.S. Space Command from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama.