NASA Returns Hubble to Full Science Operations
Thursday, 09 December 2021 12:13
Washington DC (SPX) Dec 08, 2021
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope team recovered the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on Monday, Dec. 6, and is now operating with all four active instruments collecting science. The team has still not detected any further synchronization message issues since monitoring began Nov. 1.
The team will continue work on developing and testing changes to instrument software that would allow them

China's lunar rover spots cube-like object on Moon, sparking curiosity
Thursday, 09 December 2021 12:13
Beijing (XNA) Dec 08, 2021
The cube-like object spotted recently by China's lunar rover on the far side of the moon aroused wild curiosity in cyberspace worldwide this week.
Yutu 2, the lander and rover of the Chang'e 4 probe, captured an obscure but intriguing image about 80 meters from its location during the mission's 36th lunar day, according to Our Space, a Chinese science channel that published the machine's l

Europe opens up a new space to commercial services
Thursday, 09 December 2021 11:02
ESA is calling on industry to come forward with ideas for crew and cargo transportation, operations, payloads, research, living quarters and even astronaut training. All of this could develop into new services in an effort to enlarge the space ecosystem to the commercial sphere.
Falcon 9 launches NASA X-ray astronomy satellite
Thursday, 09 December 2021 06:44
A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched a small NASA X-ray astronomy satellite Dec. 9 to study black holes and neutron stars, an “appetizer” for the launch later this month of the much larger James Webb Space Telescope.
Blood disc for astronaut diagnosis
Thursday, 09 December 2021 05:45
NASA Launches New Mission to Explore Universe’s Most Dramatic Objects
Thursday, 09 December 2021 05:16
Rocket Lab launches two BlackSky satellites, wins Synspective contract
Thursday, 09 December 2021 04:52
Rocket Lab launched another pair of BlackSky satellites Dec. 8, a day after the company won a contract from a Japanese firm for three launches of radar imaging satellites.
Mars helicopter flies again; encounters radio interference on 17th flight
Thursday, 09 December 2021 01:22
Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 09, 2021
Ingenuity flew for the 17th time at Mars on Sunday, Dec. 5. After the helicopter executed the planned 614-foot (187-meter) traverse to the northeast, the radio communications link between Ingenuity and the Perseverance Mars rover was disrupted during the final descent phase of the flight. Approximately 15 minutes later, Perseverance received several packets of additional Ingenuity telemetry indicating that the flight electronics and battery were healthy.

Soyuz docks at ISS with three onboard
Thursday, 09 December 2021 01:22
Baikonur, Kazakhstan (AFP) Dec 8, 2021
A Russian rocket carrying a Japanese billionaire docked with the International Space Station on Wednesday, marking the country's return to space tourism after a decade-long pause that saw the rise of competition from the United States.
Online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan earlier on Wednesday.
They dock

Blue Origin flight with Alan Shephard daughter delayed by weather
Thursday, 09 December 2021 01:22
Washington (AFP) Dec 8, 2021
A Blue Origin flight due to include the daughter of the first American to travel to space has been delayed by two days because of forecasts of bad weather, the company said Wednesday.
The flight was originally scheduled for Thursday but because of winds forecast for both that day and Friday it will now aim to lift off on Saturday at 8:45 am (1445 GMT) from West Texas.
Laura Shepard Churc

Russia's cosmos town, an isolated relic of Soviet glory
Thursday, 09 December 2021 01:22
Baikonur, Kazakhstan (AFP) Dec 8, 2021
Malik Mutaliyev walks by an abandoned amusement park in wintry Baikonur, a secretive town in Kazakhstan's inhospitable steppe that appeared alongside the eponymous Baikonur Cosmodrome where the Soviet Union's space programme rose to glory.
"Our town has lived through a lot: Perestroika, the fall of the Soviet Union, electricity shortages. We've been through it all," says the 67-year-old form

Russia strikes deal with NASA for first cosmonaut on SpaceX flight
Thursday, 09 December 2021 01:22
Orlando FL (UPI) Dec 09, 2021
Russia's only active female cosmonaut, Anna Kikina, will make her first trip into space in fall 2022 as the first Russian to fly on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, Russia's space agency announced Wednesday on Twitter.
Dmitry Rogozin, director general of Russia's Roscosmos agency, said his program has pledged a seat of a Russian Soyuz capsule to an American astronaut in return.
Rogozin

Planet decision that booted out Pluto is rooted in folklore, astrology
Thursday, 09 December 2021 01:22
Orlando FL (SPX) Dec 09, 2021
As the new space race continues, a team of top researchers says one thing needs to be cleared up - what exactly is a planet?
In a study appearing recently in the journal Icarus, the researchers hope to set the record straight with a look at how a planet's definition has changed since the time of Galileo to the controversial decision the International Astronomical Union made in 2006 to crea

NASA's IXPE X-ray telescope will study neutron stars, pulsars, black holes
Thursday, 09 December 2021 01:22
Orlando FL (UPI) Dec 09, 2021
NASA intends to learn more about stars, neutron stars, black holes, nebulae and other space objects by launching a new X-ray telescope satellite, the IXPE, from Florida early Thursday.
The $214 million IXPE satellite, or X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, will orbit the Earth as the first satellite dedicated to measuring the polarization of X-rays from a variety of cosmic sources, according to NA

ESO telescope images planet around most massive star pair to date
Thursday, 09 December 2021 01:22
Munich, Germany (SPX) Dec 09, 2021
The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) has captured an image of a planet orbiting b Centauri, a two-star system that can be seen with the naked eye. This is the hottest and most massive planet-hosting star system found to date, and the planet was spotted orbiting it at 100 times the distance Jupiter orbits the Sun. Some astronomers believed planets could not exist a
