China's Long March rocket has world's highest success rate: expert
Monday, 28 June 2021 10:21
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The success rate of the launch of China's Long March carrier rockets is the highest in the world, a space scientist said here Thursday.
Long Lehao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a chief designer of Long March rockets, said the rocket series have completed 375 launches and stressed that the accuracy of putting satellites into orbit and the number of launch times a Iridium awarded $30M contract by the US Army
Monday, 28 June 2021 10:21 Write a comment
Iridium Communications has announced it has been awarded a research and development contract worth up to $30 million by the United States Army (Army) to develop a payload to be hosted on small satellites that supports navigation systems, guidance and control for the global positioning system (GPS) and GPS-denied precision systems.
The new experimental Iridium payload is intended to be host Virgin Orbit selects new VP of Flight and Launch
Monday, 28 June 2021 10:21 Write a comment
Virgin Orbit has selected Tyler Grinnell to serve as the team's new Vice President of Flight and Launch. As Virgin Orbit works to further evolve its commercial launch services, Tyler will play a key role in enabling the Flight and Launch teams to achieve the operating pace and efficiencies required to serve the company's growing customer manifest.
Tyler brings with him a decade and a half Revisiting a quantum past for a fusion future
Monday, 28 June 2021 10:21 Write a comment
"I'm going back. It's almost like a cycle in your life," muses physicist Abhay Ram. Ram, a principal research scientist at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) at MIT, is returning to a field he first embraced as a graduate student at the Institute 50 years ago: quantum mechanics. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, he is exploring different pathways for using the power and speed of NASA helps map impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on harmful air pollution
Monday, 28 June 2021 10:21 Write a comment
Early in the pandemic, it was expected that satellite imagery around the world would show cleaner air as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns. But not all pollutants were taken out of circulation. For tiny airborne-particle pollution, known as PM 2.5, researchers using NASA data found that variability from meteorology obscured the lockdown signals when observed from space.
"Intuitively you would China building new space environment monitoring station
Monday, 28 June 2021 10:21 Write a comment
China has started building a monitoring station as part of a network to study space weather, according to China's National Space Science Center (NSSC).
The NSSC, which is affiliated to Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the station is being built in Siziwang Banner, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Spread over 400 mu (about 26.67 hectares), it is expected to be completed in 2 China’s super heavy rocket to construct space-based solar power station
Monday, 28 June 2021 06:52 Write a comment
HELSINKI — China plans to use a new super heavy-lift rocket currently under development to construct a massive space-based solar power station in geostationary orbit.
Unique use of ESA spacecraft ‘housekeeping’ data reveals cosmic ray behaviour
Monday, 28 June 2021 06:30 Write a comment
Using data originally gathered for spacecraft ‘housekeeping’ aboard ESA’s Rosetta and Mars Express missions, scientists have revealed how intense bursts of high-energy radiation, known as cosmic rays, behave at Mars and throughout the inner Solar System.
NASA team to study new roles for the agency in addressing orbital debris
Monday, 28 June 2021 01:15 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — NASA has established a working group to examine what new roles the agency can take to mitigate the growth of orbital debris and promote space sustainability.
In a talk at the Secure World Foundation’s Summit for Space Sustainability June 23, Bhavya Lal, senior adviser to the NASA administrator for budget and finance, said she is leading a recently established team that will examine how the agency could take a larger role in efforts to mitigate and remediate orbital debris.
Op-ed | Mind the gap in low Earth orbit
Sunday, 27 June 2021 16:35 Write a comment
For more than 20 years, the International Space Station (ISS) has supported continuous international crewed operations. An entire generation has never known a world where people aren’t living and working in space.
The success and longevity of the ISS is due in no small part to its international nature.
China’s Zhurong rover returns landing footage and sounds from Mars
Sunday, 27 June 2021 07:40 Write a comment
HELSINKI — China has released landing process footage from its Zhurong rover as well as video and sounds of the vehicle roving on Mars.
SpaceX aiming for July for Starship orbital launch despite regulatory reviews
Saturday, 26 June 2021 20:14 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell says the company is “shooting for July” for the first orbital launch of the company’s Starship vehicle despite lacking the regulatory approvals needed for such a launch.
Speaking at the National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference (ISDC) June 25, Shotwell said the company was pressing ahead with plans for an orbital flight involving the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage from the company’s Boca Chica, Texas, test site.
NASA completes additional tests to diagnose computer problem on Hubble space telescope
Saturday, 26 June 2021 10:44 Write a comment
NASA is continuing to diagnose a problem with the payload computer on the Hubble Space Telescope after completing another set of tests on June 23 and 24. The payload computer halted on June 13 and the spacecraft stopped collecting science data. The telescope itself and its science instruments remain in good health and are currently in a safe configuration.
The spacecraft has two payload computers, one of which serves as a backup, that are located on the Science Instrument and Command and Data Handling (SI C&DH) unit. There are various pieces of hardware which make up both payload computers, including but not limited to:
- a Central Processing Module (CPM), which processes the commands that coordinate and control the science instruments
- a Standard Interface (STINT), which bridges communications between the computer's CPM and other components
- a communications bus, which contains lines that pass signals and data between hardware
- and one active memory module, which stores operational commands to the instruments. There are three additional modules which serve as backups.
Additional tests performed on June 23 and 24 included turning on the backup computer for the first time in space.
Op-Ed | Who wants to step up to a $10 billion risk?
Friday, 25 June 2021 16:36 Write a comment
International space law and the treaty regime have remained largely theoretical constructs for most of the Space Age. While great for moot-court exercises or the occasional congressional hearing on treaty obligations, their real-world applications were scarce. Yet those of us who have practiced commercial space law have long warned that a time would come when “Space Law 101” would play an important part in opening the high frontier.
Virgin Galactic gets FAA's OK to launch customers to space
Friday, 25 June 2021 16:20 Write a comment
