Artemis 1 launch boosts ESA’s exploration ambitions
Sunday, 20 November 2022 15:57
The successful launch of the Artemis 1 mission comes just in time for the European Space Agency as it seeks support from its member states for new exploration initiatives.
Earth-sun distance dramatically alters seasons of equatorial Pacific over 22,000-year cycle
Sunday, 20 November 2022 11:44
Berkeley CA (SPX) Nov 14, 2022
Weather and climate modelers understand pretty well how seasonal winds and ocean currents affect El Nino patterns in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, impacting weather across the United States and sometimes worldwide.
But new computer simulations show that one driver of annual weather cycles in that region - in particular, a cold tongue of surface waters stretching westward along the

iSpace reaches agreement with Mitsui Sumitomo to become first user of commercial lunar insurance
Sunday, 20 November 2022 11:44
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Nov 18, 2022
Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co., Ltd. ("MSI"), a subsidiary of MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings, Inc. based in Tokyo, Japan, has reached an agreement with ispace, inc. (ispace), a global lunar exploration company, to provide the world's first "Lunar Insurance" policy that comprehensively covers risks arising from ispace's Mission 1, from the launch of the rocket to the lunar landing.
The agree

ispace Announces Mission 1 Launch Date
Sunday, 20 November 2022 11:44
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Nov 18, 2022
ispace, inc., a global lunar exploration company, plans to launch its Mission 1 (M1) lunar lander, part of the HAKUTO-R lunar exploration program, on Nov. 28, 2022, at the earliest, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada announced at a press conference in Tokyo.
In addition to the launch date announcement, ispace unveiled 10 mi

Drug discovery and development - in space
Sunday, 20 November 2022 11:44
Washington DC (SPX) Nov 18, 2022
Carrying out scientific experiments in space allows scientists to study and make drugs without gravity, which can lead to surprising results that improve research back on Earth. According to a cover story in Chemical and Engineering News, an independent news outlet of the American Chemical Society, more commercial entities are expanding offerings in low-Earth orbit, which could someday enable mo

Jet engine installed on NASA's X-59
Sunday, 20 November 2022 11:44
Edwards AFB CA (SPX) Nov 15, 2022
NASA's quiet supersonic X-59 now has the engine that will power it in flight. The installation of the F414-GE-100 engine took place at Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, earlier this month, marking a major milestone as the X-59 approaches the completion of its assembly.
The 13-foot-long engine from General Electric Aviation packs 22,000 pounds of propulsion ene

New observation method helps unlock secrets of UK meteorite
Sunday, 20 November 2022 11:44
Ontario, Canada (SPX) Nov 17, 2022
The Winchcombe meteorite, a rare carbonaceous meteorite which crashed onto a driveway in Gloucestershire in 2021, has been found to contain extra-terrestrial water and organic compounds that reveal insights into the origin of Earth's oceans. A new study, published by Science Advances, led by experts from the Natural History Museum and the University of Glasgow reports the orbital history and fir

Rockets to uncover electric circuit that powers the Northern Lights
Sunday, 20 November 2022 11:44
Andenes, Norway (SPX) Nov 17, 2022
A NASA-funded rocket mission is headed to space to measure the global electric circuit underlying the northern lights. For its second trip to space, the Aurora Current and Electrodynamics Structures II, or ACES II, instrument will launch from Andoya Space in Andenes, Norway. The launch window opens Nov. 16, 2022, at 6 p.m. local time.
High above us, electrons from space stream into our sky

Solar snake spotted slithering across Sun's surface
Sunday, 20 November 2022 11:44
Paris (ESA) Nov 15, 2022
Solar Orbiter has spotted a 'tube' of cooler atmospheric gases snaking its way through the Sun's magnetic field. The observation provides an intriguing new addition to the zoo of features revealed by the ESA-led Solar Orbiter mission, especially since the snake was a precursor to a much larger eruption. The snake was seen on 5 September 2022, as Solar Orbiter was approaching the Sun for a close

Space Force opens door to Blue Origin with new cooperative agreement
Sunday, 20 November 2022 10:10
The U.S. Space Systems Command signed an agreement with Blue Origin that “paves the way” for the company’s New Glenn rocket to compete for national security launch contracts
The post Space Force opens door to Blue Origin with new cooperative agreement appeared first on SpaceNews.
Arianespace Vega C mission set to complete Pleiades Neo constellation
Sunday, 20 November 2022 08:08
Kourou, French Guiana (ESA) Nov 18, 2022
On Thursday, November 24, 2022 at 10:47 pm local time (01:47 am (UTC) on Friday, November 25), Arianespace's first Vega C mission will lift off from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, with the 30cm resolution satellites Pleiades Neo 5 and 6. This first commercial flight follows the success, July 13, of Vega C inaugural launch operated by the European Space Agency (ESA).
After liftoff fro

LOFTID inflatable heat shield test a success, early results show
Sunday, 20 November 2022 08:08
Washington DC (SPX) Nov 18, 2022
NASA's Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator, or LOFTID, launched on Nov. 10, 2022, to demonstrate inflatable heat shield technology that could be key to landing humans on Mars.
About an hour after launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, LOFTD inflated and deployed in space. After being released by the Centaur upper stage, the heat shield, or aeroshell, began

The first life in our solar system may have been on Mars
Sunday, 20 November 2022 08:08
Copenhagen, Denmark (SPX) Nov 18, 2022
When Mars was a young planet, it was bombarded by ice asteroids delivering water and organic molecules necessary for life to emerge. According to the professor behind a new study, this means that the first life in our solar system may have been on Mars.
Mars is called the red planet. But once, it was actually blue and covered in water, bringing us closer to finding out if Mars had ever harboure

NASA, Japan announce Gateway contributions, Space Station extension
Sunday, 20 November 2022 08:08
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Nov 18, 2022
NASA and the Government of Japan on Thursday announced further contributions by Japan to Gateway, a key component of the agency's Artemis missions for long-term lunar exploration. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson participated virtually from the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in an event held in Tokyo that included Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Keiko Nagao

Black holes in eccentric orbit
Sunday, 20 November 2022 08:08
Jena, Germany (SPX) Nov 18, 2022
A research team from Jena (Germany) and Turin (Italy) has reconstructed the origin of an unusual gravitational wave signal. As the researchers write in the current issue of the scientific journal "Nature Astronomy", the signal GW190521 may result from the merger of two massive black holes that captured each other in their gravitational field and then collided while spinning around each other in
