The clays of Mawrth Vallis
Wednesday, 19 July 2023 08:00
ESA's Mars Express has revisited an old favourite: the distinctive and fascinating Mawrth Vallis, one of the most promising locations on Mars in our search for signs of life.
Rocket Lab launch enables Telesat to restart LEO demonstrations
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 19:16
Telesat is preparing to resume demonstrations for its delayed low Earth orbit broadband constellation after Rocket Lab successfully launched the Canadian operator’s latest prototype satellite.
Venezuela signs up to China’s moon base initiative
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 18:03
Venezuela has formally joined the China-led International Lunar Research Station project.
The post Venezuela signs up to China’s moon base initiative appeared first on SpaceNews.
NASA's Psyche mission enters home stretch before launch
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 17:45
Engineers and technicians at Cape Canaveral are preparing the Psyche spacecraft for liftoff, which is slated for Oct. 5.
With less than 100 days to go before its Oct. 5 launch, NASA's Psyche spacecraft is undergoing final preparations at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Teams of engineers and technicians are working almost around the clock to ensure the orbiter is ready to journey 2.5 billion miles (4 billion kilometers) to a metal-rich asteroid that may tell us more about planetary cores and how planets form.
The mission team recently completed a comprehensive test campaign of the flight software and installed it on the spacecraft, clearing the hurdle that kept Psyche from making its original 2022 launch date.
First BepiColombo flyby of Mercury finds electron rain triggers X-ray auroras
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 15:09
BepiColombo, the joint European Space Agency (ESA) and Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) mission, has revealed how electrons raining down onto the surface of Mercury can trigger high-energy auroras.
The mission, which has been enroute to the solar system's innermost planet since 2018, successfully carried out its first Mercury flyby on October 1, 2021. An international team of researchers analyzed data from three of BepiColombo's instruments during the encounter. The outcomes of this study have been published in Nature Communications.
Terrestrial auroras are generated by interactions between the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emitted by the sun, and an electrically charged upper layer of Earth's atmosphere, called the ionosphere.
When ET calls, can we be sure we're not being spoofed?
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 10:44
Scientists have devised a new technique for finding and vetting possible radio signals from other civilizations in our galaxy - a major advance in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) that will significantly boost confidence in any future detection of alien life.
Most of today's SETI searches are conducted by Earth-based radio telescopes, which means that any ground or satel XRISM mission to study 'rainbow' of x-rays
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 10:44
A new satellite called XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, pronounced "crism") aims to pry apart high-energy light into the equivalent of an X-ray rainbow. The mission, led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), will do this using an instrument called Resolve.
XRISM is scheduled to launch from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center on Aug. 25, 2023 (Aug. 26 in Japan).
"Re Astronomers discover striking evidence of 'unusual' stellar evolution
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 10:44
Astronomers have found evidence that some stars boast unexpectedly strong surface magnetic fields, a discovery that challenges current models of how they evolve.
In stars like our sun, surface magnetism is linked to stellar spin, a process similar to the inner workings of a hand-cranked flashlight. Strong magnetic fields are seen in the hearts of magnetic sunspot regions, and cause a varie Experimental Phase commences for china's groundbreaking solar telescope array
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 10:44
The National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has announced the beginning of experimental observation for its cutting-edge solar telescope array located in Southwest China. The array, known as the Daocheng Solar Radio Telescope (DSRT), is an integral component of China's Meridian Project's second phase.
Positioned in Daocheng county, Sichuan province, the DSRT is an Orbit and Viasat collaborate to merge airborne terminals with expansive Ka-band Network
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 10:44
Netanya, Israel (SPX) Jul 18, 2023
Orbit Communications Systems Inc., a supplier of SATCOM terminals, tracking ground station solutions, and crucial airborne audio management systems, has announced a cooperation agreement with Viasat Inc. This new alliance will see Orbit's airborne terminals integrated into Viasat's expanded Ka-band network, a vast framework which now encompasses the Global Xpr SpaceX launches 54 Starlink satellites, ties record for first-stage returns
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 10:44
SpaceX launched its latest round of Starlink communication satellites from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida just before midnight Saturday.
The mission had been scrubbed Friday, with SpaceX saying a static fire of the rocket's main engines would need to be performed, giving a hint to a possible rocket hardware issue.
The Falcon 9 rocket's first stage, which launched t Rocket Lab delivers seven satellites to orbit with Electron Rocket
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 10:44
In a successful endeavor, Rocket Lab, the California-based space firm, deployed seven satellites into orbit from New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula on Tuesday. The mission, named "Baby Come Back," saw liftoff at 1:27 p.m. local time or 9:27 p.m. EDT Monday, following a delay from the past week due to unfavorable weather conditions.
The mission's seven-satellite payload, launched via the Electro Rensselaer researchers using drop module for advanced protein studies on ISS
Tuesday, 18 July 2023 10:44
The International Space Station (ISS) will soon become the focal point for an expanded scientific experiment, aiming to delve further into the physics of protein solutions. The study will be conducted using a unique piece of equipment known as the ring-sheared drop module, a tool that capitalizes on the microgravity environment aboard the ISS. The announcement was made by researchers from Rensse