Op-ed | Are we there yet? A journey to more clearly see the changing planet
Friday, 30 April 2021 15:57
We’ve all been there. Either as a child, in the back of your parents’ car, probably squashed between two obnoxious siblings or, as a parent of a restless toddler, 15 minutes into a four-hour road trip, the question always arises, “Are we there yet?”
Lessons learnt from simulated strike
Friday, 30 April 2021 14:33
In an alternate reality playing out at this year’s international Planetary Defense Conference, a fictional asteroid crashes over Europe, 'destroying' a region about 100 km wide near the Czech Republic and German border. The scenario was imagined, but the people who took part are very real, and the lessons learnt will shape our ability to respond to dangerous asteroids for years to come.
Lithuania becomes ESA Associate Member state
Friday, 30 April 2021 13:41
Lithuania signed an Association Agreement with ESA on 28 April 2021.
This Association Agreement between ESA and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, builds on the successful results achieved under the previous frameworks of cooperation and enters into force for a duration of seven years. Comprising 18 Articles and two Annexes, it orchestrates the strengthening of Lithuania’s relations with ESA.
Kleos Space develops tool for in-space manufacturing of large structures
Friday, 30 April 2021 13:40
SAN FRANCISCO — Kleos Space is conducting a six-month test of technology for in-space manufacturing of large 3D carbon fiber structures that could be used to construct solar arrays, star shades and interferometry antennas.
The company with operations in Luxembourg, the United States and United Kingdom is best known for radio frequency reconnaissance satellites.
Conférence de presse de Thomas Pesquet depuis l'ISS
Friday, 30 April 2021 12:30
Video:
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L’astronaute de l’ESA Thomas Pesquet a échangé depuis la Station spatiale internationale avec des journalistes européens rassemblés à Paris, le vendredi 30 avril 2021, pour partager ses premiers jours de retour en impesanteur, la vie à bord et les enjeux de la mission Alpha.
A l’issue d’un voyage de près de 24 heures à bord d’une capsule Crew Dragon de SpaceX, il était arrivé samedi 24 avril 2021 sur la Station spatiale internationale. Dans le cadre de sa mission Alpha, il réalisera plus de deux cents expériences scientifiques – y compris 12 nouvelles manipulations du CNES, l’agence spatiale
Week in images: 26 - 30 April 2021
Friday, 30 April 2021 12:13
Week in images: 26 - 30 April 2021
Discover our week through the lens
NASA Wallops May 7 rocket launch exploring energy transport in space
Friday, 30 April 2021 11:54
A mission to explore energy transport in space using a NASA suborbital sounding rocket is scheduled to be conducted the evening of May 7 from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
Launch for the mission is scheduled for 7:58 p.m. EDT with a 40-minute launch window, Friday, May 7, 2021, on a NASA Black Brant XII sounding rocket. Backup launch days run through May 16. The launch may be visible in much of the eastern United States and Bermuda.
The mission, called the KiNETic-scale energy and momentum transport eXperiment, or KiNet-X, is designed to study a very fundamental problem in space plasmas, namely, how are energy and momentum transported between different regions of space that are magnetically connected?
For example, auroras. Auroras are formed when particles in the Earth's near-space environment interact with the atmosphere.
"The electrons in Earth's space environment and in the solar wind have relatively low energies. Yet the aurora is generated by very high energy electrons.
Stratolaunch aircraft returns to the skies after two-year hiatus
Friday, 30 April 2021 10:26
WASHINGTON — Stratolaunch flew its giant aircraft for the first time in more than two years April 29, marking the start of a new test flight campaign to prepare the plane to serve as a platform for hypersonic vehicles.
Huge rocket looks set for uncontrolled reentry following Chinese space station launch
Friday, 30 April 2021 10:04
HELSINKI — China launched the first module for its space station into orbit late Wednesday, but the mission launcher also reached orbit and is slowly and unpredictably heading back to Earth.
China wants new space station to be more international
Friday, 30 April 2021 08:35
China successfully launched the core module of its space station on Thursday, opening a new foothold for humanity in space.
China's space station, guided by the idea of building a community with a shared future for humanity, will become a common home transcending Earthly bonds and an outpost for countries worldwide to explore the universe through cooperation.
Tianhe, the name of the SpaceX successfully launches into space carrying 60 more Starlink satellites
Friday, 30 April 2021 08:35
Elon Musk's SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying an additional 60 Starlink Internet network satellites into space late Wednesday.
The two-stage, 70-meter rocket lifted off at 11:44 p.m. EDT as scheduled from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Some nine minutes after liftoff, SpaceX recovered its first-stage Falcon 9 booster upon the football field-size d Eutelsat invests in OneWeb, future SpaceX rival
Friday, 30 April 2021 08:35
A year after collapsing into bankruptcy, satellite operator OneWeb has revived its goal of providing broadband satellite internet service after European operator Eutelsat said Tuesday it would invest $550 million in the project.
Eutelsat's "roughly 24 percent" stake will allow OneWeb to position itself as a rival to Elon Musk's SpaceX as Eutelsat joins the British government and Indian multi Glacier avalanches more common than thought
Friday, 30 April 2021 08:00
One tends to think of mountain glaciers as slow moving, their gradual passage down a mountainside visible only through a long series of satellite imagery or years of time-lapse photography. However, new research shows that glacier flow can be much more dramatic, ranging from about 10 metres a day to speeds that are more like that of avalanches, with obvious potential dire consequences for those living below.
Earth from Space: Antofagasta, Chile
Friday, 30 April 2021 07:00
Antofagasta, a port city in northern Chile, is featured in this image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.
How Zhurong will attempt to touch down on the red planet
Friday, 30 April 2021 03:28
For the first few months of 2021, the Martian atmosphere was buzzing with new visitors from Earth. First, it was the UAE Space Agency's Hope probe, followed by the Chinese Tianwen-1 entering orbit.
More recently Nasa landed the biggest-ever rover on Mars and its companion, an ingenious helicopter, both of which have been setting new milestones since.
The next visitor to the planet wi