Virgin Galactic cleared to launch after US closes safety probe
Thursday, 30 September 2021 12:36
Virgin Galactic said Wednesday it had been cleared for spaceflight after the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) concluded a probe into a safety "mishap" related to its high-profile mission in July that featured company founder Richard Branson.
The FAA told the company it had accepted its proposed corrective actions related to the flight, which saw the SpaceShipTwo vehicle drop below its assigned Space Force upskilling Guardians with process mapping and automation
Thursday, 30 September 2021 12:36
The Space Force held its first Robotic Process Automation Workshop to explore how to effectively leverage bots to execute repetitive processes, as part of efforts to modernize the world-class fighting force at the speed of relevance. Permanent staff from the U.S. Space Force Space Operations Command, Headquarters U.S. Space Force, Air Force Personnel Center, and Air Force Reserve Personnel Cente Recreating "real food meals" as small cubes that taste like candy
Thursday, 30 September 2021 12:36
According to "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World," approximately 811 million people around the world were undernourished in 2020. Although proper nutrition is the cornerstone of good health, it is something many people still do not have access to. To help overcome this global challenge, MealCubes recreate the world's healthiest meals in the convenience of a few tasty candies t DARPA'S Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept achieves successful flight
Thursday, 30 September 2021 12:36
DARPA, in partnership with the U.S. Air Force, completed a free flight test of its Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) last week. The missile, built by Raytheon Technologies, was released from an aircraft seconds before its Northrop Grumman scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) engine kicked on. The engine compressed incoming air mixed with its hydrocarbon fuel and began igniting th NASA launches new mission to monitor Earth's landscapes
Thursday, 30 September 2021 12:36
Landsat 9, a NASA satellite built to monitor the Earth's land surface, successfully launched at 2:12 p.m. EDT Monday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
A joint mission with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Landsat 9 lifted off on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex 3E. Norway's Svalbard satellite-monitoring ground station acquired s Did a cosmic impact destroy an ancient city in the Jordan Valley
Thursday, 30 September 2021 12:36
In the Middle Bronze Age (about 3600 years ago or roughly 1650 BCE), the city of Tall el-Hammam was ascendant. Located on high ground in the southern Jordan Valley, northeast of the Dead Sea, the settlement in its time had become the largest continuously occupied Bronze Age city in the southern Levant, having hosted early civilization for a few thousand years. At that time, it was 10 times large Microgravity on demand with Earth return through ESA's Boost!
Thursday, 30 September 2021 12:36
A new round-trip commercial space transportation service from 2022, backed by ESA, will enable companies to manufacture in space very pure and more capable materials, discover new pharmaceutical drugs and bring them back for use on Earth.
Space Forge, based in the UK, is working with partners to develop ForgeStar - a reusable suitcase-sized vehicle that can be lofted to space and which wil Nitrogen-fixing bacteria help clover plants grow in Mars-like soil
Thursday, 30 September 2021 12:36
If astronauts are to set up a base and spend extended periods of time on Mars, they're going to need to be able to synthesize water and grow their own food.
Growing conditions are quite different on the Red Planet, so scientists on Earth have been conducting experiments to better understand how plants will behave in Martian regolith.
New research, published Wednesday in the journ Climate change and its environmental impacts on crop growth
Thursday, 30 September 2021 12:36
The Earth is heating up. The effects of human-caused global climate change are becoming more and more apparent as we see more record-breaking heat waves, intense droughts, shifts in rainfall patterns and a rise in average temperatures. And these environmental changes touch every part of crop production.
NASA, along with partner agencies and organizations, monitors all of these environmenta National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency funds Phase 4a of MagQuest Challenge
Thursday, 30 September 2021 12:36
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) just launched the Demonstration Phase (Phase 4a) of its MagQuest Challenge to develop novel data collection approaches for the World Magnetic Model.
The WMM ultimately ensures the accuracy of navigation because it corrects for differences in magnetic forces at a user's location. The model is used by thousands of systems for mobile navigation app Microscopic metavehicles powered by nothing but light
Thursday, 30 September 2021 12:36
Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have succeeded in creating tiny vehicles powered by nothing but light. By layering an optical metasurface onto a microscopic particle, and then using a light source to control it, they succeeded in moving the tiny vehicles in a variety of complex and precise ways - and even using them to transport other objects.
Light has an inher Image: Cosmic kit
Thursday, 30 September 2021 12:32
ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer is suited, booted and ready for his Cosmic Kiss mission. As a member of US Commercial Crew-3 he will be launched to the International Space Station in a Crew Dragon spacecraft in around one month's time for his first six-month stay in orbit.
Matthias is pictured in the SpaceX spacesuit that he will wear alongside his crew mates, NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, Thomas Marshburn and Raja Chari, during their journey to and from space.
Each SpaceX spacesuit is tailor-made for its wearer. The helmet is 3D printed and its gloves are designed to work with the touchscreens on board. The suit's primary purpose is to protect astronauts from the unlikely event of depressurisation. However, it also helps regulate an astronaut's body temperature and provides hearing and fire protection.
When an astronaut enters the Dragon capsule, they plug the suit into their seat using an umbilical. This provides the electronics to power communications, air to cool the suit and gas to pressurize the garment when needed.
This suit is only worn in the Crew Dragon capsule, not during spacewalks. Matthias is trained and certified in both the US Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) and Russian Orlan spacesuits for any spacewalk he may perform in orbit.
ESA Open Day on our Web TV
Thursday, 30 September 2021 12:19
ESA Web TV is offering live coverage of events across ESA establishments during Sunday afternoon’s ESA Open Day.
Eutelsat rejects unsolicited takeover bid
Thursday, 30 September 2021 12:17
Satellite fleet operator Eutelsat has rejected an unsolicited $3.2 billion takeover offer from telecom magnate Patrick Drahi.
Lunar landers could spray instant landing pads as they arrive at the moon
Thursday, 30 September 2021 11:32
Space exploration requires all kinds of interesting solutions to complex problems. There is a branch of NASA designed to support the innovators trying to solve those problems—the Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC). They occasionally hand out grant funding to worthy projects trying to tackle some of these challenges. The results from one of those grants are now in, and they are intriguing. A team from Masten Space Systems, supported by Honeybee Robotics, Texas A&M, and the University of Central Florida, came up with a way a lunar lander could deposit its own landing pad on the way down.
Lunar dust poses a significant problem to any powered landers on the surface. The retrograde rockets needed to land on the moon's surface softly will also kick dust and rock up into the air, potentially damaging the lander itself or any surrounding human infrastructure.