The latest in a series of geostationary weather satellites is ready for launch as NASA takes the next step in plans for a next generation of such spacecraft.

The post GOES-T nears launch as NASA plans studies of next-generation weather satellite appeared first on SpaceNews.

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Europe’s Columbus laboratory is a hive of activity in this 360° timelapse as ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer works on an experiment called Fluidics and his NASA colleague Raja Chari carries out activity in the Veggie plant habitat.

Developed by French space agency CNES and co-funded by Airbus, the Fluidics experiment investigates how liquids behave in space. It was first run by ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet in 2017 during his Proxima mission.

Made up of six small, transparent spheres housed in the black centrifuge seen here, the experiment studies two phenomena. The first is ‘sloshing’ or how liquids move in

Images collected by commercial satellites have chronicled the buildup of Russian forces on Ukraine’s borders and the ongoing invasion, providing intelligence previously only available from government sources — and seldom released to the public.

China’s second Long March 8 rocket launched late Saturday carrying a domestic record 22 satellites for a range of commercial Chinese space companies.

Washington DC (SPX) Feb 24, 2022
Through a new prize competition, NASA is engaging minority serving institutions (MSIs) to bring ideas for new information technologies that will help address climate change. The prize competition, the MSI Space Accelerator, comes from a new partnership between NASA's Science Mission Directorate, the Minority University Research Education Project within the Office of STEM Engagement, NASA's Jet P

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Feb 24, 2022
The part of the atmosphere closest to the planet is the hardest to measure from space due to the volume of gases above it. Studying Earth's planetary boundary layer, or PBL, will enable scientists to better understand the interaction between Earth's surface and weather and how that evolves in a global, changing climate. "The planetary boundary layer is where we live and where we experience

Boston MA (SPX) Feb 25, 2022
Research scientist Alex Tinguely is readjusting to Cambridge and Boston. As a postdoc with the Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), the MIT graduate spent the last two years in Oxford, England, a city he recalls can be traversed entirely "in the time it takes to walk from MIT to Harvard." With its ancient stone walls, cathedrals, cobblestone streets, and winding paths, that small city

Maxwell AFB AL (The Conversation) Feb 25, 2022
New U.S. sanctions on Russia will encompass Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, according to a speech U.S. President Joe Biden gave on Feb. 24, 2022. In response to these sanctions, the head of Roscosmos on the same day posted a tweet saying, among other things, "If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from an uncontrolled deorbit and fall into the United States or Europe?"

Washington DC (SPX) Feb 28, 2022
An astronaut steps into a body scanner and, hours later, walks on Mars in a custom-made spacesuit, breathing oxygen that was extracted from Mars' carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere. On Venus, an inflatable bird-like drone swoops through the sky, studying the planet's atmosphere and weather patterns. Ideas like these are currently science fiction, but they could one day become reality, thanks to a ne

Boston MA (SPX) Feb 28, 2022
In 2002, the European Space Agency launched Envisat, the largest civilian satellite (at the time) to go to low Earth orbit (LEO). For a decade, it observed our planet and sent back valuable data on Earth's climate, tracking the decline of Arctic sea ice and more, until it went dark in 2012. One of the prevailing theories for its demise is that it simply ran out of fuel. As LEO becomes more