Copernical Team
Surgeon, scientist named Japan's first new astronauts in 13 years
Japan's space agency JAXA named its first new astronaut candidates in over 13 years on Tuesday, with a surgeon and a climate scientist chosen from more than 4,000 applicants.
Ayu Yoneda, a 28-year-old surgeon for Tokyo's Japanese Red Cross Medical Center, will become just the third woman ever to join the space training programme. Japan's six current astronauts are all men.
She will be joined by Makoto Suwa, 46, a senior disaster risk management specialist at the World Bank, who made the cut after an unsuccessful first application more than a decade ago.
Yoneda said she was "elated and surprised" to learn she had been chosen.
"I felt a sense of responsibility and mission," she told reporters.
Suwa, speaking by video from the United States, said he was "so excited that I haven't been able to sleep".
The pair, chosen from 4,127 applicants, will now begin a two-year training programme and, if successful, could join International Space Station missions and become the first Japanese astronauts to reach the Moon.
Seeing triple
Image:
This observation from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features the massive galaxy cluster RX J2129. Due to Gravitational lensing, this observation contains three different images of the same supernova-hosting galaxy, which you can see in closer detail here. Gravitational lensing occurs when a massive celestial body causes a sufficient curvature of spacetime to bend the path of light travelling past or through it, almost like a vast lens. In this case, the lens is the galaxy cluster RX J2129, located around 3.2 billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Aquarius. Gravitational lensing can
AFRL establishes one-stop shop for partnerships
The Air Force Research Laboratory established a new Strategic Partnering Directorate, or AFRL/SP, to achieve greater alignment, effectiveness and efficiencies in supporting partnership priorities across the Department of the Air Force's science and technology, or S and T, enterprise. The Air Force Manpower and Personnel Directorate signed an organizational change request Dec. 22, 2022, after app DARPA, Services Demonstrate Battlefield Airspace Deconfliction Software
DARPA's Air Space Total Awareness for Rapid Tactical Execution (ASTARTE) program recently demonstrated new automated flightpath-planning software that successfully deconflicted friendly missiles, artillery fire, and manned and unmanned aircraft while avoiding enemy fires in a simulated battle in contested airspace.
In a demonstration held at the U.S. Army's Mission Command Battle Lab, Ft. Space Force, Air Force partner to establish new Space Test Course
The U.S. Air and Space Forces have partnered to create the new Space Test Course, which will instruct Guardians on test and evaluation processes, in order to conduct robust and methodical system testing on space-flight equipment at the Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
Space Force Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. David D. Thompson and Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Yusaku Maezawa, Entrepreneur and First Private Japanese Citizen to Visit the ISS, Invests U.S. $23 Million in Astroscale
Astroscale Holdings Inc. ("Astroscale"), the market leader in satellite servicing and long-term sustainability across all orbits, has received an investment of U.S. $23 million from Yusaku Maezawa, the first private Japanese citizen to visit the International Space Station (ISS).
"Mr. Maezawa's investment is a testament to the importance of space sustainability, and we are deeply grateful SpaceX launches new Starlink 'V2 Mini' satellites into orbit
SpaceX launched 21 upgraded "V2 Mini" Starlink Internet satellites from Florida's Cape Canaveral on Monday, to boost capacity for the global broadband network.
SpaceX announced "Liftoff!" in a tweet at 6:16 p.m. EST, showing the Falcon 9 rocket lift off from pad 40 against the sunset. The launch was delayed earlier Monday to allow radiation levels to drop following a solar storm. Nicola Fox named associate administrator for NASA Science Mission Directorate
NASA has found its new associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate in Heliophysics Director Nicola Fox.
Fox will replace acting administrator Sandra Connelly atop the Science Mission Directorate effective immediately, according to a press release from NASA.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson made the announcement on Monday, lauding Fox for the work she has done as dire Public work begins on UK's largest commercial satellite control centre
Work has started on Inmarsat's new eight-floor headquarters, which will host the company's Satellite, Network and Cyber Operations Centre and feature advanced workspaces for employees - alongside games areas, a gym, a relaxation area, and a rooftop bar.
The company has been developing plans for the new space since 2019, with the lease at its current headquarters on Old Street Roundabout fi Astronomers discover metal-rich galaxies in early universe
While analyzing data from the first images of a well-known early galaxy taken by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Cornell University astronomers discovered a companion galaxy previously hidden behind the light of the foreground galaxy - one that surprisingly seems to have already hosted multiple generations of stars despite its young age, estimated at 1.4 billion years old.
"We fo