Blue Origin to fly Mercury 13 woman on first crewed New Shepard flight
Thursday, 01 July 2021 13:35
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WASHINGTON — Blue Origin announced July 1 that it will fly one of the “Mercury 13” women who underwent astronaut training in the early years of the space program on the company’s first crewed New Shepard suborbital flight.
Russian rocket launches UK telecom satellites
Thursday, 01 July 2021 13:25 Write a comment
A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying 36 UK telecommunication and internet satellites blasted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome in Russia's Far East on Thursday, the Roscosmos space agency said.
Images released by Roscosmos showed the Soyuz rocket, launched by Europe's Arianespace, taking off against dark skies at 1248 GMT.
"We have lift-off," OneWeb, a London-headquartered company, said on Twitter.
OneWeb is working to complete the construction of a constellation of low earth orbit satellites providing enhanced broadband and other services to countries around the world.
The company is competing against billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos in the race to provide fast internet for the world's remote areas via satellites.
The UK company plans for its global commercial internet service to be operational by next year, supported by some 650 satellites.
Arianespace, which has worked with Russia for close to two decades, is under contract to make 16 Soyuz launches between December 2020 and the end of 2022.
This year launches of 36 satellites took place in March, April and May.
"Taking our constellation to a total of 254 satellites, this launch will allow us to provide complete coverage north of 50 degrees latitude by the end of the 2021," OneWeb said.
Jeff Bezos picks female aerospace pioneer to launch with him
Thursday, 01 July 2021 13:11
Asteroid-hunting space telescope gets two-year mission extension
Thursday, 01 July 2021 12:40 Write a comment
NEOWISE has provided an estimate of the size of over 1,850 near-Earth objects, helping us better understand our nearest solar system neighbors.
For two more years, NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) will continue its hunt for asteroids and comets—including objects that could pose a hazard to Earth. This mission extension means NASA's prolific near-Earth object (NEO) hunting space telescope will continue operations until June 2023.
Webb passes key launch clearance review
Thursday, 01 July 2021 12:00 Write a comment
The international James Webb Space Telescope has passed the final mission analysis review for its launch on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
Virgin Orbit launches 7 small satellites from jumbojet
Thursday, 01 July 2021 11:52 Write a comment
Launch company Virgin Orbit sent seven satellites into space on Wednesday from a rocket carried by a jet plane over the Pacific Ocean.
The Cosmic Girl jet, a modified 747, took off at 9:53 a.m. EDT from Mojave Air and Space Port about 90 miles north of Los Angeles.
Just under an hour later, the LauncherOne rocket dropped from the wing of the jet. Seconds after release, the rocket SpaceX launches 88 satellites on rideshare mission
Thursday, 01 July 2021 11:52 Write a comment
SpaceX successfully launched 88 small satellites from Florida on Wednesday after postponing the mission Tuesday because of an airplane in the launch area.
The Falcon 9 rocket on the Transporter-2 rideshare mission lifted off at 3:31 p.m. EDT from Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. SpaceX confirmed all satellites were deployed properly almost 90 minutes after liftoff. Deep Space Atomic Clock moves toward increased spacecraft autonomy
Thursday, 01 July 2021 11:52 Write a comment
Designed to improve navigation for robotic explorers and the operation of GPS satellites, the technology demonstration reports a significant milestone.
Spacecraft that venture beyond our Moon rely on communication with ground stations on Earth to figure out where they are and where they're going. NASA's Deep Space Atomic Clock is working toward giving those far-flung explorers more autonom New funding from UK Space Agency will kickstart space technology projects
Thursday, 01 July 2021 11:52 Write a comment
The call for Grants for Exploratory Ideas, part of the National Space Technology Programme aims to fund short, three-month long projects that support innovative space technology activities, encourage collaboration between industry and academia, and encourage new entrants to the space sector.
Projects could include knowledge transfer, skills development, market studies, and proof of concept OneWeb fully-funded with new $500m investment
Thursday, 01 July 2021 11:52 Write a comment
OneWeb, the global Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications company, has secured further fund-raising on the anniversary of the successful bid by UK Government and Bharti Global (Bharti) to purchase OneWeb from US Chapter 11 to bring its total funding to $2.4 billion. OneWeb has completed its transformation with the exercise of a Call Option by Bharti to invest an additional $500m into the Astronauts demonstrate CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing in space
Thursday, 01 July 2021 11:52 Write a comment
Researchers have developed and successfully demonstrated a novel method for studying how cells repair damaged DNA in space. Sarah Stahl-Rommel of Genes in Space and colleagues present the new technique in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on June 30, 2021.
Damage to an organism's DNA can occur during normal biological processes or as a result of environmental causes, such as UV light. In hu NASA satellites see upper atmosphere cooling and contracting due to climate change
Thursday, 01 July 2021 11:52 Write a comment
The sky isn't falling, but scientists have found that parts of the upper atmosphere are gradually contracting in response to rising human-made greenhouse gas emissions. Combined data from three NASA satellites have produced a long-term record that reveals the mesosphere, the layer of the atmosphere 30 to 50 miles above the surface, is cooling and contracting. Scientists have long predicted this Astra completes SPAC merger and begins trading publicly
Thursday, 01 July 2021 10:42 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Small launch vehicle company Astra will begin trading on the Nasdaq exchange July 1 after completing its merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
Astra said June 30 that shareholders of Holicity, a SPAC, had overwhelmingly approved the merger.
Assembly of satellite to track world's water shifts from US to france
Thursday, 01 July 2021 10:26 Write a comment
Set for launch next year, the Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission will help scientists monitor Earth's ocean, as well as the amount of fresh water in its lakes and rivers.
The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission took a big step toward launch this week when a team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California shipped the scientific heart of the satellite to Satellites launched to boost connectivity and create jobs
Thursday, 01 July 2021 09:00 Write a comment
Three more nano-satellites have been launched as part of ESA’s efforts to boost the European space industry, fostering innovation and creating jobs.