Aviation Week awards NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter with laureate
Wednesday, 11 August 2021 01:42The "little helicopter that could" has garnered attention, fans, and numerous accolades, with the latest coming from Aviation Week Network in the form of a 2021 Laureate Award. The Laureate Awards honor "extraordinary achievements in aerospace." When the 4-pound (1.8 kilogram) rotorcraft hovered on Mars for 39.1 seconds on April 19, 2021, it was the first instance of powered, controlled fl
New evidence of recent Venusian volcanism
Wednesday, 11 August 2021 01:42New data analysis techniques allow evidence of recent volcanism to be found in old Magellan spacecraft data. It is unclear if this activity is occurring today, or if it occurred within tens of million years, but geologically speaking, either case is recent. This adds to the growing body of evidence that volcanoes on Venus didn't go extinct as long ago as many had thought. This work was conducted
Dragonfly mission to Titan announces big science goals
Wednesday, 11 August 2021 01:42Among our solar system's many moons, Saturn's Titan stands out - it's the only moon with a substantial atmosphere and liquid on the surface. It even has a weather system like Earth's, though it rains methane instead of water. Might it also host some kind of life? NASA's Dragonfly mission, which will send a rotorcraft relocatable lander to Titan's surface in the mid-2030s, will be the first
NASA Exploration has LEGS
Wednesday, 11 August 2021 01:42NASA plans to implement three new ground stations that will provide near-continuous communications support to missions up to two million kilometers from Earth through NASA's Near Space Network. These Lunar Exploration Ground Sites (LEGS) will be critical to the success of NASA's Artemis program, providing needed and enhanced direct-to-Earth communications capabilities to lunar missions. "T
Lockheed Martin LINUSS Small Satellites ready for 2021 launch
Wednesday, 11 August 2021 01:42Littleton CO (SPX) Aug 11, 2021 Lockheed Martin's In-space Upgrade Satellite System (LINUSS) completed environmental testing and is ready for launch later this year, demonstrating how small CubeSats can regularly upgrade satellite constellations to add timely new capabilities and extend spacecraft design lives. LINUSS is a pair of LM 50 12U CubeSats - each about the size of a four-slice t
BlackSky to expand constellation with three back-to-back missions
Wednesday, 11 August 2021 01:42BlackSky will add six satellites to its constellation through three dedicated missions via Rocket Lab and launch services provider, Spaceflight Inc. The first mission, called "Love at First Insight," is scheduled to occur in late-August and will be quickly followed by the next two missions. The series of missions planned to take place between late-August through September represent the company's
Blobs in space: Slime mould to blast off for ISS experiment
Wednesday, 11 August 2021 01:42Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are set to welcome a most unusual guest, as "the Blob" blasts off into orbit on Tuesday. An alien on its own planet, the Blob is an unclassifiable organism - neither fish nor fowl. Nor is it plant, animal or fungus. As such, Physarum polycephalum - a type of slime mould - has long fascinated scientists and will now be part of a unique
Spacebound study began with astronaut medical mystery
Wednesday, 11 August 2021 01:42An 18-year-old high school graduate has developed an elegant new way to gauge the liver health of astronauts-and it could someday help solve an enduring medical mystery in space. Each year, the Genes in Space program, founded by Boeing and miniPCR bio and supported by the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory and New England Biolabs, holds an annual student research co
Antares launches NG-16 Cygnus space station cargo spacecraft
Tuesday, 10 August 2021 21:38A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket launched a Cygnus cargo spacecraft Aug. 10 carrying more than 3,700 kilograms of cargo for the International Space Station.
Blobs in space: Slime mold to blast off for ISS experiment
Tuesday, 10 August 2021 19:07Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are set to welcome a most unusual guest, as "the Blob" blasts off into orbit on Tuesday.
An alien on its own planet, the Blob is an unclassifiable organism—neither fish nor fowl. Nor is it plant, animal or fungus.
As such, Physarum polycephalum—a type of slime mold—has long fascinated scientists and will now be part of a unique experiment carried out simultaneously by astronauts hundreds of kilometers above the Earth and by hundreds of thousands of French school students.
The slime mold first appeared on Earth around 500 million years ago, and defies conventional biology because it is made up of one cell with multiple nuclei.
While most organisms grow and reproduce through the division and multiplication of cells, Physarum polycephalum does not.
Lockheed Martin takes aim at satellite servicing market
Tuesday, 10 August 2021 18:09Lockheed Martin plans to launch two cubesats later this year to demonstrate how small satellites can service other satellites in orbit.
Intuitive Machines selects SpaceX for launch of third lunar lander mission
Tuesday, 10 August 2021 18:07Commercial lunar lander developer Intuitive Machines will launch its third lunar lander mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9, the same vehicle the company selected for its first two lander missions.
Unseenlabs lines up Vega flight for fourth maritime surveillance satellite
Tuesday, 10 August 2021 17:48French startup Unseenlabs is set to fly its next maritime surveillance nanosatellite on an Arianespace Vega rocket in mid-August, instead of launching with Rocket Lab as it did for the first three BRO spacecraft the venture has launched since mid-2019.
Interoperability, sustainability and cybersecurity pose challenges for small satellite sector
Tuesday, 10 August 2021 17:24Ensuring that small satellites can communicate not only within their own constellations but within a broader ecosystem is one of the primary challenges cited by Lt. Gen. John Shaw, U.S. Space Command deputy commander, in an Aug.
IHI Aerospace to offer Epsilon rocket commercially
Tuesday, 10 August 2021 16:50Japanese company IHI Aerospace plans to market a version of the little-used Epsilon small launch vehicle to commercial customers, although at prices significantly higher than similar vehicles in development.