Virgin Orbit, Rocket Lab schedule first launches of 2021
Tuesday, 05 January 2021 00:27
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WASHINGTON — Virgin Orbit has rescheduled its second orbital launch attempt for Jan. 10 as another small launch vehicle company, Rocket Lab, announces plans for its first launch of 2021.
Virgin Orbit announced Jan.
Head of U.S. Strategic Command blasts GBSD critics: ‘Minuteman 3 cannot be life-extended’
Monday, 04 January 2021 23:06 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — The commander of U.S. Strategic Command Adm. Charles Richard said the Pentagon has to procure a new intercontinental ballistic missile and updating Cold War-era missiles is not an acceptable option.
NASA's first mission to the Trojan asteroids integrates its second scientific instrument
Monday, 04 January 2021 21:07 Write a comment
NASA's Lucy mission is one step closer to launch as L'TES, the Lucy Thermal Emission Spectrometer, has been successfully integrated on to the spacecraft.
"Having two of the three instruments integrated onto the spacecraft is an exciting milestone," said Donya Douglas-Bradshaw, Lucy project manager from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "The L'TES team is to be commended for their true dedication and determination."
Lucy will be the first space mission to study the Trojan asteroids, leftover building blocks of the Solar System's outer planets orbiting the Sun at the distance of Jupiter. The mission takes its name from the fossilized human ancestor (called "Lucy" by her discoverers) whose skeleton provided unique insight into humanity's evolution. Likewise, the Lucy mission will revolutionize our knowledge of planetary origins and the birth of our solar system more than 4 billion years ago.
L'TES, developed by a team at Arizona State University (ASU), is effectively a remote thermometer.
Delta Air Lines adds Viasat in-flight connectivity service
Monday, 04 January 2021 18:54 Write a comment
SAN FRANCISCO – Delta Air Lines announced plans Jan. 5 to turn to Viasat for in-flight Ka-band connectivity for passengers flying in more than 300 of the carrier’s mainline narrow-body aircraft.
The announcement, which Delta says will lay the groundwork to make in-flight internet fast and free, covers new deliveries and retrofits of Airbus A321ceo, Boeing 737-900ER and select Boeing 757-200 aircraft.
Remote sensing data sheds light on when and how asteroid Ryugu lost its water
Monday, 04 January 2021 17:43 Write a comment
Last month, Japan's Hayabusa2 mission brought home a cache of rocks collected from a near-Earth asteroid called Ryugu. While analysis of those returned samples is just getting underway, researchers are using data from the spacecraft's other instruments to reveal new details about the asteroid's past.
In a study published in Nature Astronomy, researchers offer an explanation for why Ryugu isn't quite as rich in water-bearing minerals as some other asteroids. The study suggests that the ancient parent body from which Ryugu was formed had likely dried out in some kind of heating event before Ryugu came into being, which left Ryugu itself drier than expected.
AAC Clyde subsidiary Hyperion to fly CubeCAT laser terminal
Monday, 04 January 2021 17:14 Write a comment
SAN FRANCISCO – AAC Clyde Space subsidiary Hyperion Technologies won a 150,000 euro ($185,000) contract to perform an in-orbit verification flight for CubeCAT, the company’s small satellite laser communications terminal.
Hyperion announced plans Jan. 5 to launch CubeCAT in early 2022 onboard NorSat-TD, a technology demonstration mission coordinated by the Norwegian Space Agency.
A good GRASP on the New Year
Monday, 04 January 2021 15:31 Write a comment
Image:
NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins performs the Grasp experiment in the Columbus module of the International Space Station ahead of the New Year. The experiment studies how the central nervous system, specifically hand-eye coordination, adapts to microgravity.
Grasp stands for Gravitational References for Sensimotor Performance and seeks to better understand how the central nervous system integrates information from different senses, such as sight, sound and touch, to coordinate hand movements and determine what role gravity plays.
How does the experiment work? Mike dons virtual reality (VR) gear that is coupled with a laptop and driven by an audio/graphics system. The VR
Check out what's coming in 2021
Monday, 04 January 2021 14:44 Write a comment
Check out what's coming in 2021
Making methane on Mars
Monday, 04 January 2021 12:56 Write a comment
Among the many challenges with a Mars voyage, one of the most pressing is: How can you get enough fuel for the spacecraft to fly back to Earth?
Houlin Xin, an assistant professor in physics & astronomy, may have found a solution.
He and his team have discovered a more efficient way of creating methane-based rocket fuel theoretically on the surface of Mars, which can make the return trip all more feasible.
The novel discovery comes in the form of a single-atom zinc catalyst that will synthesize the current two-step process into a single-step reaction using a more compact and portable device.
SpinLaunch expands New Mexico test site
Monday, 04 January 2021 12:33 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — SpinLaunch expects to perform the first suborbital tests of a prototype of its centrifugal system for launching small satellites later this year from New Mexico.
The company, based in Long Beach, California, has said little about its efforts to develop a mass accelerator that would, in effect, serve as the first stage of a smallsat launch system, an approach the company argues will allow it to launch payloads at lower costs and higher frequencies than traditional launch vehicles.
Houston Spaceport aims to be first commercial space station builder
Monday, 04 January 2021 04:29 Write a comment
Houston Spaceport, the nation's 10th commercially licensed Spaceport, will be home to the world's first commercial space station builder, Axiom Space. The aerospace company announced plans to create a 14-acre headquarters campus to train private astronauts and begin production of its Axiom Station-the world's first free-flying, internationally available private space station that will serve as h Roscosmos Head reveals likely cause of crack in ISS module hull
Monday, 04 January 2021 04:29 Write a comment
While the crack has already been located and patched up by the space station's crew, a more permanent solution is expected once special repair equipment reaches the ISS in February.
The crack discovered in the hull of the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) in October might have been caused by a micrometeorite impact, head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos Dmitry Rogo Space-bred seeds offer valuable opportunities
Monday, 04 January 2021 04:29 Write a comment
China's historic 23-day Chang'e 5 mission has not only obtained precious rocks and soil samples from the moon, but has also brought back a group of seeds that traveled the furthest in the nation's agricultural and forestry histories.
More than 30 kinds of seeds, including rice, oats, alfalfa and orchid, were placed inside the multi-module Chang'e 5 spacecraft and orbited around the moon fo Advantages of thin-film coating in aircraft coating
Monday, 04 January 2021 04:29 Write a comment
Aircraft and aeronautics are one of the essential industries for every developed country. It will cost very high, and heavy investment loads tend to make them secure from damaging and rusting. Even a single paint coating is very expensive for an aircraft.
Then the question is how to save them from rust, dust, and radiation particles. The innovation is a thin film coating that brings revolu UK eyes plan to send first rover to Moon in 2021
Monday, 04 January 2021 04:29 Write a comment
According to the report, the robot, designed by London-based Spacebit, is expected to join the NASA mission, landing on the lunar surface next summer, which will be the first step towards Britain having a rover on the Moon.
Britain is to launch a little "space spider" Asagumo probe to the Moon in 2021, the Telegraph reported.
The designers opted for multiple legs instead of wheels so