Washington, D.C and Sonoma, Calif.

Galileo relies on ground-based uplink stations (ULS) to maintain accurate positioning for users worldwide. These stations transmit essential data to the satellites, including the information required to compute the satellites' orbits and clock corrections. Traditionally, such messages are sent using dish antennas. However, a new type of ground uplink antenna – a phased array antenna – was recently tested at the European Space Agency’s (ESA) site in Redu, Belgium. Developed under ESA's Horizon 2020 programme for R&D, which aims to keep Galileo up to date with the latest innovations, this innovative antenna could benefit

Paris, France (SPX) Sep 25, 2025
Framatome and ENEA, Italy's Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Development, have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly explore advanced technologies for lunar surface nuclear fission reactors. The agreement is intended to support future human settlements on the Moon with reliable, long-duration power systems. Nuclear fission is seen as a key enabler for lunar ope

Baltimore MD (SPX) Sep 25, 2025
NASA's Parker Solar Probe completed its 25th close approach to the Sun on Sept. 15, matching its record distance of 3.8 million miles (6.2 million kilometers) from the solar surface. Parker Solar Probe checked in with flight controllers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland - where the spacecraft was also designed and built - on Sept. 18, transmitting a

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Sep 25, 2025
The milestone highlights the accelerating rate of discoveries, just over three decades since the first exoplanets were found. The official number of exoplanets - planets outside our solar system - tracked by NASA has reached 6,000. Confirmed planets are added to the count on a rolling basis by scientists from around the world, so no single planet is considered the 6,000th entry. The number

New Brunswick NJ (SPX) Sep 25, 2025
A Rutgers-led team of scientists has uncovered evidence of how galaxies expand by tracing the invisible scaffolding of the universe created by a mysterious substance known as dark matter. In a newly published study in Astrophysical Journal Letters, researchers used what they said are the largest-ever samples of special galaxies called Lyman-alpha emitters to study how galaxies clumped toge

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Sep 25, 2025
A new NASA mission will capture images of Earth's invisible "halo," the faint light given off by our planet's outermost atmospheric layer, the exosphere, as it morphs and changes in response to the Sun. Understanding the physics of the exosphere is a key step toward forecasting dangerous conditions in near-Earth space, a requirement for protecting Artemis astronauts traveling through the region

Washington DC (UPI) Sep 24, 2025
Two rocket launches with satellites by Space X and United Launch Alliance are scheduled for Thursday morning from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Central Florida. SpaceX is scheduled to lift off at 4:36 EDT with a Falcon 9 rocket taking 28 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit from Launch Complex 40. There is a four-hour launch window. This is the 22nd flight scheduled for the

Paris (AFP) Sept 19, 2025
With help from amateur astronomers, scientists tracked how an asteroid travelled from space, broke up in Earth's atmosphere and sent fiery fragments shooting to the ground, gathering new information about how these space rocks disintegrate. Asteroid 2023 CX1 briefly lit up the sky as it disintegrated over northwestern France at around 4:00 pm (1400 GMT) on February 13, 2023. Seven hours