Paris (AFP) Dec 17, 2021
For Hollywood A-listers Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, their new end-of-the-world comedy was a chance to send a little respect back to scientists. In "Don't Look Up", released on December 24 on Netflix, they play two astronomers who discover a comet will wipe out life on Earth within six months, but then try in vain to get politicians and the media to take the threat seriously.

Jiuquan (XNA) Dec 17, 2021
The launch of a pair of GeeSAT commercial satellites, carried by a Kuaizhou-1A carrier rocket, was unsuccessful, the launch center said in a statement Wednesday. Abnormal performance was detected during the flight of the rocket, which lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 10 a.m. (Beijing Time). The cause of the failure is under investigation, acco

Bay St. Louis MS (SPX) Dec 17, 2021
NASA conducted a successful full-duration test Dec. 15 to begin a new series of testing for state-of-the-art RS-25 engines to help power the agency's Space Launch System (SLS), America's new deep-space rocket, on future missions to the Moon and Mars. The first hot fire of the new series was conducted for a full-duration 500 seconds on the Fred Haise Test Stand (formerly A-1 Test Stand) at

Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 17, 2021
Scientists with NASA's Perseverance Mars rover mission have discovered that the bedrock their six-wheeled explorer has been driving on since landing in February likely formed from red-hot magma. The discovery has implications for understanding and accurately dating critical events in the history of Jezero Crater - as well as the rest of the planet. The team has also concluded that rocks in

Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 17, 2021
Six months ago, we began the dedicated investigation of the Jezero crater floor, and now in December 2021 we are more than halfway through this first science campaign. Since our first sampling experience at Roubion and our first sample pair from the Rochette rock, we have collected a second sample pair, this time from a region of the crater floor called Seitah at the Brac rock. As we now gear up

Paris (ESA) Dec 17, 2021
The ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has spotted significant amounts of water at the heart of Mars' dramatic canyon system, Valles Marineris. The water, which is hidden beneath Mars' surface, was found by the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO)'s FREND instrument, which is mapping the hydrogen - a measure of water content - in the uppermost metre of Mars' soil. While water is known to exi

Huntsville AL (SPX) Dec 17, 2021
NASA's newest X-ray observatory - the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, or IXPE - extended its boom successfully Dec. 15, giving IXPE the ability to see high-energy X-rays. The mission, which launched on Dec. 9, is one step closer to studying some of the most energetic and mysterious places in the universe in a new way. The IXPE observatory features thre

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) won a contract from British Earth observation startup Satellite Vu to build the first satellite in a constellation designed to provide thermal infrared imaging for climate change applications.

Intelsat is poised to exit Chapter 11 in early 2022, after its bankruptcy court approved a restructuring plan that cuts the satellite operator’s debt from about $16 billion to $7 billion.

SpaceNews

Earth observation company Satellogic expects to begin trading on the Nasdaq next week after completing a merger with special purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC).

SpaceNews