Astra to go public through merger with SPAC
Monday, 01 February 2021 16:59
WASHINGTON — Small launch vehicle developer Astra will go public by merging with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), providing the company with nearly $500 million in cash and valuing it at more than $2 billion.
Satellite observations prove crucial in new climate science report
Monday, 01 February 2021 14:15
With impacts from climate change threatening major disruption to society in the coming years, leading scientists have released a compilation of the 10 most important insights on climate to help inform collective action on the ongoing climate crisis, in which satellites have played a crucial role in aiding scientific understanding.
MDA Announces Radarsat-2 Continuity Mission
Monday, 01 February 2021 14:00
SAN FRANCISCO – MDA is designing the follow-on to Radarsat-2, the C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite the Canadian firm built through a public-private partnership with the Canadian government.
“We are announcing today that we are well into our project to design and develop our next generation of radar-based Earth observation capabilities to ensure that our Radarsat-2 customers have data and information product continuity moving forward,” MDA CEO Mike Greenley told SpaceNews.
NASA to delay decision on Artemis lunar landers
Monday, 01 February 2021 12:27
WASHINGTON — NASA is delaying a decision on which companies will proceed in its effort to develop human lunar landers for the Artemis program as it grapples with a funding shortfall and a change in administrations.
Three more service modules for Artemis to be built in Europe
Monday, 01 February 2021 10:46
ESA signed a further contract with Airbus for the construction of three more European Service Modules for Orion, NASA’s spacecraft that will fly astronauts to the Moon and lunar Gateway as part of the Artemis programme.
SpaceX aims to launch 'all-civilian' trip into orbit
Monday, 01 February 2021 09:10
SpaceX announced Monday it's aiming to launch this year the first all-civilian mission into Earth's orbit, led by a tech billionaire who plans to raffle off one of the spots aboard the craft.
Entrepreneur Jared Isaacman is to be joined by three other novice astronauts for a multi-day journey into space, including one lucky winner of a drawing.
"It's a once-in-a-lifetime adventure: a journey into outer space on the first all-civilian space flight," according to a website dedicated to the mission.
SpaceX, the company started by Elon Musk, said Isaacman is "donating the three seats alongside him.
Juice Up Your Rocket! art competition
Monday, 01 February 2021 09:00
Juice Up Your Rocket! art competition
Businessman plans first all-civilian SpaceX flight to benefit St. Jude's hospital
Monday, 01 February 2021 08:48
SpaceX announced plans on Monday for the first all-civilian mission to space in late 2021 - a days long orbit of the Earth, to be led by finance company executive and pilot Jared Isaacman.
Isaacman has purchased a four-person mission in the SpaceX Dragon capsule Resilience to launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida. He expects a mission duration ranging from two to four days. Virgin Galactic flight test program update
Monday, 01 February 2021 08:48
Virgin Galactic has announced the date of its new flight window for a rocket-powered test flight of its SpaceShipTwo Unity. The flight window will open on February 13 with opportunities to fly throughout February, pending good weather conditions and technical readiness. The test flight will be crewed by two pilots and will carry research payloads as part of the NASA Flight Opportunities program. NASA completes spacewalk to finish power system upgrades
Monday, 01 February 2021 08:48
Two NASA astronauts completed a major upgrade to the orbiting platform's power systems and other tasks during a spacewalk on Monday.
The project began at 6:56 a.m. EST and lasted for five hours and 20 minutes. The expedition was the second spacewalk in five days for Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover.
"You guys had a great day. You guys rocked it," astronaut Bob Hines said from gr NASA will pay $500,000 for good ideas on food production in space
Monday, 01 February 2021 08:48
NASA is prepared to pay $500,000 for a good idea to help feed astronauts on long-term space missions with something other than dried, packaged food from Earth.
The space agency has set a July 30 deadline on its Deep Space Food Challenge, when it will choose a winning idea. The Canadian Space Agency launched a similar challenge with phased awards totaling $500,000 that will result in a g Could the surface of Phobos reveal secrets of the Martian past
Monday, 01 February 2021 08:48
The Martian moon Phobos orbits through a stream of charged atoms and molecules that flow off the Red Planet's atmosphere, new research shows.
Many of these charged particles, or ions, of oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and argon, have been escaping Mars for billions of years as the planet has been shedding its atmosphere. Some ions, scientists predict, have been smashing into the surface of Phob Study reveals MESSENGER watched a meteoroid strike Mercury
Monday, 01 February 2021 08:48
NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission to Mercury has been out of operation for nearly six years, but the data it collected keeps on giving, from revealing new insights about Venus' atmosphere to providing a new way to measure the length of time neutrons can survive on their own.
Now, a recent study in Nature Communications shows the spacecr NASA names leaders to key Agency roles
Monday, 01 February 2021 08:48
NASA has named appointees for senior agency positions. Bhavya Lal joins the agency as acting chief of staff, Phillip Thompson will serve as White House liaison, Alicia Brown will serve as associate administrator for the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs, and Marc Etkind will serve as associate administrator for the agency's Office of Communications. In addition, Jackie McGuinne Backreaction observed for first time in water tank black hole simulation
Monday, 01 February 2021 08:48
Scientists have revealed new insights into the behaviour of black holes with research that demonstrates how a phenomenon called backreaction can be simulated.
The team from the University of Nottingham have used their simulation of a black hole, involving a specially designed water tank, for this latest research published in Physical Review Letters. This study is the first to demonstrate t