Starliner resets for next launch attempt after ISS problems
Sunday, 01 August 2021 23:23NASA and Boeing say they’re ready to make a second attempt to launch the company’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft on an uncrewed test flight after an incident at the International Space Station called off the first attempt last week.
A hundred days of science for Thomas
Sunday, 01 August 2021 08:47“I am finding it magical every day, but there is also a lot of routine,” says ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet reflecting on his first 100 days aboard the International Space Station during his second mission. In total, Thomas has logged 296 days in space.
Senate confirms NASA CFO
Saturday, 31 July 2021 20:43The Senate confirmed the White House’s nominee to be chief financial officer of NASA July 30, rounding out the senior leadership positions at the agency.
Geologists take Earth's inner temperature using erupted sea glass
Saturday, 31 July 2021 13:54If the Earth's oceans were drained completely, they would reveal a massive chain of undersea volcanoes snaking around the planet. This sprawling ocean ridge system is a product of overturning material in the Earth's interior, where boiling temperatures can melt and loft rocks up through the crust, splitting the sea floor and reshaping the planet's surface over hundreds of millions of years.
Ball Aerospace completes preliminary design review of NOAA's Space Weather Satellite
Saturday, 31 July 2021 13:54Ball Aerospace successfully completed the preliminary design review (PDR) for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) spacecraft. With PDR complete, the spacecraft now moves into the critical design phase. Ball was awarded the contract to design and build the SWFO-L1 spacecraft on June 25, 2020 by NASA's Goddard Space Flig
ECOSTRESS data incorporated into new wildfire response tool
Saturday, 31 July 2021 13:54NASA's ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) is aiding in the fight against fires in the Western U.S. As of July 28, 2021, the size of the Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon was more than 410,000 acres, making it the largest wildfire currently burning in the U.S. So far, some 400 buildings and more than 340 vehicles have been destroyed. Wildfire respo
Shoring up the Corn Belt's Soil Health With NASA Data
Saturday, 31 July 2021 13:54After the corn harvest last fall, Illinois farmer Paul Jeschke planted a fraction of his fields with cereal rye: 60 acres of the 4,500 he farms with his wife, nephew and brother-in-law, tucked behind a pasture, out of neighbors' sight. That way they could experiment with cover crops, Jeschke explained, and no one could view potential failures. In the coming months, the rye would sprout int
Let's face the liquid-liquid interface
Saturday, 31 July 2021 13:54The demand for energy consumption, limited availability of fossil fuels, and pollution caused by the energy production industry challenge scientists to find new, more cost-effective, and greener solutions to produce power. Most of the current energy sources are far from being environmentally friendly. In this context, electrochemically assisted generation of chemicals, at first glance, would not
Tracking the movement of a single nanoparticle
Saturday, 31 July 2021 13:54Based on the principle of interaction between matter and light, a new method has been developed to track and observe the Brownian motion of fast-moving nanometer-sized molecules, and measure the different fluorescence signals of each biological nanoparticle. The nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) system is the most commonly used nanoparticle quantification method in the world. It is a me
Kitchen robot in Riga cooks up new future for fast food
Saturday, 31 July 2021 13:54A pasta order comes in and the robotic arm springs into action at the Roboeatz eatery in Riga. After five minutes of gyrations, a piping hot plate is ready. The Riga cafe, located under a crumbling concrete bridge, is designed in such a way that customers can observe the robotic arm at work. It also has a seating area, although most customers prefer take away since vaccination certificat
Reprogrammable satellite launched
Saturday, 31 July 2021 05:30A sophisticated telecommunications satellite that can be completely repurposed while in space has launched.
World's first commercial re-programmable satellite blasts into space
Friday, 30 July 2021 23:53The world's first commercial fully re-programmable satellite lifted off from French Guiana on Friday on board an Ariane 5 rocket, ushering in a new era of more flexible communications. Unlike conventional models that are designed and "hard-wired" on Earth and cannot be repurposed once in orbit, the Eutelsat Quantum allows users to tailor the communications to their needs - almost in real-ti
Government watchdog denies protests of SpaceX's lunar lander contract
Friday, 30 July 2021 23:53A U.S. government watchdog denied protests Friday of NASA's nearly $3 billion contract award to Elon Musk's SpaceX to build a lunar lander for astronaut missions. In denying the arguments made by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Alabama-based Dynetics, the Government Accountability Office noted that NASA's options for the contract were restricted by a lack of congressional funding. NA
US watchdog upholds SpaceX's Moon lander contract
Friday, 30 July 2021 23:53NASA did not violate regulations when it decided to give SpaceX the sole contract to build a Moon lander, a watchdog said Friday, in a ruling that denied challenges by competitors Blue Origin and Dynetics. The human landing system (HLS) contract, worth $2.9 billion, was given to Elon Musk's company in April, but was protested by the other bidders, who argued NASA was required to make multipl
High-stakes Boeing capsule launch postponed due to mishap at ISS
Friday, 30 July 2021 23:53Boeing and NASA postponed the launch the company's Starliner space capsule to the International Space Station on Friday after a mishap at the orbital laboratory on Thursday. A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket had been scheduled to launch the capsule on an uncrewed test flight from Florida. But a new Russian module, Nauka, created a brief crisis at the space station when the module'