Landing on Mars is one step closer for British-built rover
Monday, 05 July 2021 10:19A new and upgraded parachute for the UK-built Rosalind Franklin Mars rover has successfully passed a series of high-altitude tests, bringing further exploration of the Red Planet one step closer. Rosalind Franklin has been built with government backing to try to detect life, past or present, on the Red Planet. After several weeks of delays due to bad weather the latest tests to deter
Second iteration of successful Vanguard Incubation Process approaches Summit
Monday, 05 July 2021 10:19As the Department of the Air Force stands up Rocket Cargo, its recently announced fourth Vanguard program, the WARTECH incubator process that birthed Rocket Cargo continues onward with the upcoming WARTECH 2.0 Summit July 15-16, where more future Vanguards could be fresh in the making. On June 15, a WARTECH pre-executive committee board finalized its recommendations concerning which advanc
Equipment for shooting 1st movie in space delivered to ISS by Russia
Monday, 05 July 2021 10:19Russia's Progress MS-17 cargo spacecraft has delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) the equipment for shooting the first feature film in space known by the working title "Challenge," according to documents by Russian state space agency Roscosmos. The space freighter was launched by the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday and docked
China launches five new satellites
Monday, 05 July 2021 10:19China sent five satellites into planned orbits from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern Shanxi Province on Saturday. The satellite Jilin-1 01B, Xingshidai-10 and three Jilin-1 Gaofen 03D satellites were launched by a Long March-2D rocket at 10:51 a.m. (Beijing Time). This was the 376th flight mission of the Long March rocket series, the launch center said. span cla
Observation, simulation, and AI join forces to reveal a clear universe
Monday, 05 July 2021 10:19Japanese astronomers have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) technique to remove noise in astronomical data due to random variations in galaxy shapes. After extensive training and testing on large mock data created by supercomputer simulations, they then applied this new tool to actual data from Japan's Subaru Telescope and found that the mass distribution derived from using this metho
Proximity to Sun's magnetic field influenced Mercury's hefty iron core
Monday, 05 July 2021 10:19For decades, many scientists argued that hit-and-run collisions with other bodies during the formation of our solar system blew away much of Mercury's rocky mantle and left the big, dense, metal core inside. But new research reveals that collisions don't explain the planet's composition-the sun's magnetism does. William McDonough, a professor of geology at the University of Maryland, and T
Exolaunch Delivers One Ton of Small Satellites into Orbit on SpaceX's Transporter-2 Rideshare Mission
Monday, 05 July 2021 10:19Exolaunch, the launch, deployment and integration services provider for the New Space industry, announced a successful launch of 29 satellites totaling one metric ton for its customers from the United States, South America and Europe on a dedicated rideshare mission of SpaceX's SmallSat Rideshare Program. The mission, named 'Fingerspitzengefuhl', lifted off on June 30 at 19:31 UTC on Falco
Northrop Grumman Delivers ESPAStar bus to L3Harris for Air Force NTS-3 Mission
Monday, 05 July 2021 10:19Northrop Grumman has reported the successful delivery of an ESPAStar-D spacecraft bus from Gilbert, Ariz., to L3Harris in Melbourne, Fla. The platform supports the Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3) mission for the Air Force Research Laboratory set to launch from Cape Canaveral in 2022. Built to provide affordable, rapid access to space, ESPAStar-D can accommodate combinations of ho
AFRL holds high power electromagnetic wargaming event
Monday, 05 July 2021 10:19The Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate held its second in a series of wargaming, modeling, and simulation events June 21 - 25 at Kirtland AFB. The latest Directed Energy Utility Concept Experiment, or DEUCE, focused on the use of high power electromagnetic (HPEM) weapons as part of an integrated air defense system, whereas the DEUCE held in January concentrated on th
Department of Space's commercial arm NewSpace India can also lease ISRO assets
Monday, 05 July 2021 10:19The NewSpace India Ltd, the commercial arm of Department of Space (DOS) apart from buying satellites from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) can also lease assets from the latter, said K. Sivan, Secretary, DOS. Sivan, also the Chairman of ISRO told IANS: "NSIL will acquire three communication satellites- GSAT 20, GSAT 22 and GSAT 24- made by ISRO. The company will be the owner and o
Suspected secret satellite launched from ISS was just Japanese CubeSat
Monday, 05 July 2021 10:19The US Space Command has clarified recent reports of a "secret satellite" launched from the International Space Station which actually was a Japanese CubeSat mistakenly registered by the space tracking service as an American object, USSPACECOM Director of Public Affairs, Lieutenant Colonel Erin Dick told Sputnik on Friday. Sputnik reported on 1 July that the United States had secretly laun
Lunar Exploration as a Service: From landers to spacesuits, NASA is renting rather than owning
Monday, 05 July 2021 08:00NASA’s Human Landing System (HLS) program is the biggest bet the agency has made on the commercial space industry since the commercial crew program a decade ago. NASA decided to procure landing services rather than the landers themselves, awarding a $2.9 billion contract to SpaceX April 16 to fund development of a lunar lander based on the company’s Starship vehicle and fly one demonstration mission with astronauts.
Astronauts complete first spacewalk at China's new Tiangong station
Sunday, 04 July 2021 08:33Chinese astronauts successfully performed the country's first tandem spacewalk on Sunday, working for seven hours on the outside of the new Tiangong station in orbit around Earth.
Tiangong's construction is a major step in China's ambitious space programme, which has seen the nation land a rover on Mars and send probes to the Moon.
Three astronauts blasted off last month to become the station's first crew, where they are to remain for three months in China's longest crewed mission to date.
On Sunday morning, two of them exited the station for around seven hours of work in the first spacewalk at Tiangong, the China Manned Space Agency said.
Chinese astronauts make first spacewalk outside new station
Sunday, 04 July 2021 08:33Chinese astronauts successfully performed the country's first tandem spacewalk on Sunday, working for seven hours on the outside of the new Tiangong station in orbit around Earth.
Tiangong's construction is a major step in China's ambitious space programme, which has seen the nation land a rover on Mars and send probes to the Moon.
Three astronauts blasted off last month to become the station's first crew, where they are to remain for three months in China's longest crewed mission to date.
On Sunday morning, two of them exited the station for around seven hours of work in the first spacewalk at Tiangong, the China Manned Space Agency said.
Astronauts complete first Chinese space station spacewalk
Sunday, 04 July 2021 07:09Hausjärvi, FINLAND — Two Shenzhou-12 astronauts conducted a spacewalk late Saturday to carry to install equipment required for the long-term operation of China’s space station.