Space challenges for President Biden: Four issues for the next four years
Tuesday, 19 January 2021 21:23
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As Joe Biden begins the first year of his presidency, there is still much we don’t know about where he and his vice president, Kamala Harris, stand on major issues in civil and national security space.
Policy experts named for DoD space, missile defense posts
Tuesday, 19 January 2021 19:18 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — David Zikusoka, aerospace research fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, will serve as special assistant at the office of the assistant secretary of defense for space policy, CSBA announced Jan.
Genesis of blue lightning into the stratosphere detected from ISS
Tuesday, 19 January 2021 17:33 Write a comment
SpaceX surpasses 1,000-satellite mark in latest Starlink launch
Tuesday, 19 January 2021 15:28 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — SpaceX launched its latest set of Starlink satellites Jan. 20, bringing the total number of spacecraft launched so far for that broadband constellation to more than 1,000.
The Falcon 9 lifted off at 8:02 a.m.
Genesis of blue lightning into the stratosphere detected from the International Space Station
Tuesday, 19 January 2021 14:48 Write a comment
Dark clouds, the smell of rain on a hot sidewalk, the flashes of intense light followed by a loud crackling and then a low, rolling thunder – who doesn’t love a good summer thunderstorm? We’ve all seen one, heard one, or been completely soaked by one. But how much do we really know about this weather phenomenon?
Physicist proposes human-populated mega-satellite orbiting Ceres
Tuesday, 19 January 2021 14:10 Write a comment
Physicist Pekka Janhunen with the Finnish Meteorological Institute has developed a novel idea to colonize a place other than the Earth—and it is not the moon or Mars. Instead, Janhunen is suggesting in a paper posted on the arXiv preprint server that humans populate a giant satellite that orbits Ceres, a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars.
Many space scientists have noted the difficulties and dangers of attempting to colonize either the moon or Mars—both have extremely hostile environments. So many in the field have been promoting the idea of building a structure large enough to host tens of thousands of people somewhere in space. But doing so would present its own set of problems. Paying for the construction of such a mammoth project, for example, and protecting the inhabitants from solar radiation—and what about providing gravity, and where would the structure reside? In his paper, Janhunen suggests that Ceres would be an ideal place to put such a structure, which would make it a satellite. He notes that such an orbit would be close enough to the dwarf planet that a 636-mile-long space elevator could carry material from the surface to the satellite for construction and resupply—Ceres has more than enough nitrogen, water and carbon dioxide to support such a venture.
Saturn's tilt caused by its moons
Tuesday, 19 January 2021 12:37 Write a comment
Two scientists from CNRS and Sorbonne University working at the Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Ephemeris Calculation (Paris Observatory—PSL/CNRS) have just shown that the influence of Saturn's satellites can explain the tilt of the rotation axis of the gas giant. Their work, published on 18 January 2021 in the journal Nature Astronomy, also predicts that the tilt will increase even further over the next few billion years.
Rather like David versus Goliath, it appears that Saturn's tilt may in fact be caused by its moons. This is the conclusion of recent work carried out by scientists from the CNRS, Sorbonne University and the University of Pisa, which shows that the current tilt of Saturn's rotation axis is caused by the migration of its satellites, and especially by that of its largest moon, Titan.
Recent observations have shown that Titan and the other moons are gradually moving away from Saturn much faster than astronomers had previously estimated.
Bridenstine, departing NASA, hopes Artemis continues
Tuesday, 19 January 2021 10:39 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Jim Bridenstine used part of his final full day as NASA administrator to call on the incoming administration to continue the Artemis program and return humans to the moon.
A Jan. 19 briefing on the Green Run static-fire test of the Space Launch System three days earlier became an opportunity for Bridenstine, who leaves the agency Jan.
Rocket Lab launches secretive communications satellite for OHB
Tuesday, 19 January 2021 09:40 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab successfully launched a communications satellite for German company OHB Group Jan. 20 in the first Electron mission of the year.
The Electron lifted off from the company’s Launch Complex 1 at Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand, at 2:26 a.m.
Alabama museum to restore full-sized mockup of space shuttle
Tuesday, 19 January 2021 09:00 Write a comment
Tests prove carbon-fibre fuel tank for Phoebus upper stage
Tuesday, 19 January 2021 09:00 Write a comment
Recent tests show that lightweight carbon-fibre reinforced plastic is strong enough to replace metal used in upper-stage rocket structures. This is an important milestone in Europe for the development of a prototype of a highly-optimised ‘black’ upper stage, Phoebus, a joint initiative by MT Aerospace and ArianeGroup, funded by ESA.
Seeing in a flash
Tuesday, 19 January 2021 08:15 Write a comment
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Seeing in a flash New Year, New Record for Australia's Gilmour Space
Tuesday, 19 January 2021 02:51 Write a comment
Australia's leading rocket company, Gilmour Space Technologies, has ushered in the New Year with a successful hotfire of the world's largest single-port hybrid rocket engine. [See video]
"We achieved a record 91 kilonewtons (or 9 tonnes-force) of thrust in this initial verification test of our main engine," said Adam Gilmour, CEO and co-founder of Gilmour Space, a Queensland-based company NanoAvionics' built satellite for Aurora Insight to fly on SpaceX's Transporter 1 mission
Tuesday, 19 January 2021 02:51 Write a comment
NanoAvionics, a leading nanosatellite bus manufacturer and mission integrator, has announced that the first of two nanosatellites, built and integrated for US radio frequency spectrum and wireless data provider Aurora Insight, will be part of SpaceX's "Transporter 1" rideshare launch onboard a Falcon 9.
The nanosatellite, nicknamed "Charlie", forms one half of the two-satellite mission con Florida's Space Coast the Number 1 Launch Site in the World in 2020
Tuesday, 19 January 2021 02:51 Write a comment
Historical launches like the return to crewed space flight and Mars2020 helped propel Florida's Space Coast to their busiest launch year in decades, putting the region on the top of the list for launch activity in the world.
In 2020, 31 successful attempts flew from Florida's Space Coast surpassing the record in 1966 of 29 successful launches out of 31 orbital attempts and two suborbital a