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Remembering Challenger and Her Crew

Thursday, 28 January 2021 06:43
Washington DC (SPX) Jan 29, 2021
The year 1986 was shaping up to be the most ambitious one yet for NASA's Space Shuttle Program. The agency's plans called for up to 15 missions, including the first flight from the West Coast launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Other important missions included the launch of two planetary spacecraft with very tight launch windows, an astronomy mission to study Halley's Comet,
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jan 29, 2021
With a suite of new national and international spacecraft primed to explore the Red Planet after their arrival next month, NASA's MAVEN mission is ready to provide support and continue its study of the Martian atmosphere. MAVEN launched in November 2013 and entered the Martian atmosphere roughly a year later. Since that time, MAVEN has made fundamental contributions to understanding the hi
Toulouse, France (SPX) Jan 29, 2021
Airbus has been awarded a CLTV (Cis-Lunar Transfer Vehicle) study for a "Moon Cruiser" by the European Space Agency (ESA). According to the study concept (two parallel Phase A/B1), the CLTV is a versatile, autonomous logistics vehicle that could, for example, provide timely and efficient support to NASA and ESA in the implementation of the future Artemis Moon missions. The spacecraft will be bas
Heidelberg, Germany (SPX) Jan 29, 2021
Scientists have been finding ring-like structures indicating planet formation in the disks surrounding young Sun-like stars for several years. Astronomers led by Nicolas Kurtovic from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, have now detected similar signals in disks of young very low-mass stars that are considerably smaller and less massive than their counterparts. A
Boston MA (SPX) Jan 29, 2021
MIT researchers have discovered four new exoplanets orbiting a sun-like star just over 200 light-years from Earth. Because of the diversity of these planets and brightness of their star, this system could be an ideal target for atmospheric characterization with NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope. Tansu Daylan, a postdoc at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, led
Dalian, China (SPX) Jan 29, 2021
Studying the creation and evolution of sulfur-containing compounds in outer space is essential for understanding interstellar chemistry. CS2 is believed to be the most important molecule in comet nuclei, interstellar dust, or ice cores. CS and S2 are the photodissociation fragments of CS2. Forty years ago, the emission spectra of only CS and S2 species, and not those of CS2 species, were o
Dresden, Germany (SPX) Jan 29, 2021
The study of warm dense matter helps us understand what is going on inside giant planets, brown dwarfs, and neutron stars. However, this state of matter, which exhibits properties of both solids and plasmas, does not occur naturally on Earth. It can be produced artificially in the lab using large X-ray experiments, albeit only at a small scale and for short periods of time. Theoretical and
Plainsboro NJ (SPX) Jan 29, 2021
A new type of rocket thruster that could take humankind to Mars and beyond has been proposed by a physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. The device would apply magnetic fields to cause particles of plasma, electrically charged gas also known as the fourth state of matter, to shoot out the back of a rocket and, because of the conservation of moment
Solna, Sweden (SPX) Jan 29, 2021
Swedish Space Corporation has announced the formation of SSC Space Thailand, a subsidiary targeted at the Asian-Pacific market, further expanding the company's presence in the region. The announcement marks further investment in the Asian-Pacific region, adding to SSC's already strong presence in Australia and Thailand, including ground station facilities in both countries. "SSC has
Noordwijk, Netherlands (SPX) Jan 29, 2021
While most ESA personnel work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, essential activities continue to take place on site across Agency establishments while following social distancing protocols. In ESA's Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory -one of a suite of labs based at the ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands -testing has continued on critical elements for se

Low-cost high resolution nighttime light data

Thursday, 28 January 2021 06:43
Washington DC (SPX) Jan 29, 2021
New Light Technologies Inc. (NLT) is partnering with Alba Orbital to provide agencies in and outside of the US with innovative solutions that utilize the first available low-cost, high-resolution satellite nighttime light data. Alba Orbital, headquartered in Scotland, has developed a unique PocketQube Satellite platform developed in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA). The pla

WASHINGTON — The commander of U.S. Space Command warns in a new document that keeping satellites safe from hostile attack will require a coordinated response involving all elements of the U.S. military and allies.

Glavkosmos to sell seats on Soyuz missions

Wednesday, 27 January 2021 20:46

DOUGLAS, U.K. — Glavkosmos, the commercial arm of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, has announced its intent to enter the space tourism market, selling a minimum of four Soyuz seats to commercial astronauts through 2023. 

Roscosmos has previously sold such seats through a long-standing relationship with American company Space Adventures.

35 years since Challenger launch disaster: 'Never forgotten'
Flowers line the railing placed their by visitors at the Space Mirror Memorial during a ceremony to honor fallen astronauts at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The memorial displays the names of astronauts that lost their lives furthering the cause of space exploration. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

NASA leaders, retired launch directors, families of fallen astronauts and space fans marked the 35th anniversary of the Challenger disaster on Thursday, vowing never to forget the seven who died during liftoff.

Thick lithosphere casts doubt on plate tectonics in Venus's geologically recent past
Mead crater, the largest impact basin on Venus, is encircled by two rocky rings, which provide valuable information about the planet's lithosphere. Credit: NASA

At some point between 300 million and 1 billion years ago, a large cosmic object smashed into the planet Venus, leaving a crater more than 170 miles in diameter. A team of Brown University researchers has used that ancient impact scar to explore the possibility that Venus once had Earth-like plate tectonics.

For a study published in Nature Astronomy, the researchers used computer models to recreate the impact that carved out Mead crater, Venus's largest impact basin. Mead is surrounded by two clifflike faults—rocky ripples frozen in time after the basin-forming impact. The models showed that for those rings to be where they are in relation to the central crater, Venus's lithosphere—its rocky outer shell—must have been quite thick, far thicker than that of Earth.

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