Volcanoes on Mars could be active, raise possibility of recent habitable conditions
Friday, 07 May 2021 03:35Evidence of recent volcanic activity on Mars shows that eruptions could have taken place within the past 50,000 years, a paper by Planetary Science Institute Research Scientist David Horvath says. Most volcanism on the red planet occurred between 3 and 4 billion years ago, with smaller eruptions in isolated locales continuing perhaps as recently as 3 million years ago. But, until now, ther
Juice arrives at ESA's technical heart
Friday, 07 May 2021 03:35The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, Juice, has come 'home' to ESA's technical centre in the Netherlands to undergo an extreme environment test in Europe's largest thermal vacuum chamber to prepare for its journey to the outer Solar System. The spacecraft arrived at ESTEC, ESA's European Space Research and Technology Centre, from Airbus Friedrichshafen in Germany last week. It is now being unpa
Illuminating the Cosmic Dark Ages with a Lunar radio telescope
Friday, 07 May 2021 03:35The early-stage NASA concept could see robots hang wire mesh in a crater on the Moon's far side, creating a radio telescope to help probe the dawn of the universe. After years of development, the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT) project has been awarded $500,000 to support additional work as it enters Phase II of NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. While not yet a NASA mission
A new window to see hidden side of magnetized universe
Friday, 07 May 2021 03:35New observations and simulations show that jets of high-energy particles emitted from the central massive black hole in the brightest galaxy in galaxy clusters can be used to map the structure of invisible inter-cluster magnetic fields. These findings provide astronomers with a new tool for investigating previously unexplored aspects of clusters of galaxies. As clusters of galaxies grow
Johns Hopkins Scientists Model Saturn's Interior
Friday, 07 May 2021 03:35New Johns Hopkins University simulations offer an intriguing look into Saturn's interior, suggesting that a thick layer of helium rain influences the planet's magnetic field. The models, published this week in AGU Advances, also indicate that Saturn's interior may feature higher temperatures at the equatorial region, with lower temperatures at the high latitudes at the top of the helium ra
Mysterious hydrogen-free supernova sheds light on stars' violent death throes
Friday, 07 May 2021 03:35A curiously yellow pre-supernova star has caused astrophysicists to re-evaluate what's possible at the deaths of our Universe's most massive stars. The team describe the peculiar star and its resulting supernova in a new study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. At the end of their lives, cool, yellow stars are typically shrouded in hydrogen, which conceals the
Physicists describe new type of aurora
Friday, 07 May 2021 03:35For millennia, humans in the high latitudes have been enthralled by auroras - the northern and southern lights. Yet even after all that time, it appears the ethereal, dancing ribbons of light above Earth still hold some secrets. In a new study, physicists led by the University of Iowa report a new feature to Earth's atmospheric light show. Examining video taken nearly two decades ago, the
NASA's On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing 1 Mission Ready for Spacecraft Build
Friday, 07 May 2021 03:35NASA is one step closer to robotically refueling a satellite and demonstrating in-space assembly and manufacturing thanks to the completion of an important milestone. In April 2021, NASA and Maxar Technologies successfully completed the On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing 1 (OSAM-1) mission spacecraft accommodation Critical Design Review (CDR). This milestone demonstrates that
US not planning to shoot down errant Chinese rocket: defense chief
Friday, 07 May 2021 03:35The US military has no plans to shoot down an out -of-control Chinese rocket now hurtling towards Earth, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday. "We have the capability to do a lot of things, but we don't have a plan to shoot it down as we speak," Austin told journalists. Pentagon experts expect the body of the Long March 5B rocket, which fell out of orbit after separating from Bei
Basic structure for new generation of weather satellites
Friday, 07 May 2021 03:35Six metres high, weighting 1000 kilograms and assembled from over 24,000 parts: These are the dimensions of the second generation of European weather satellites, which in future will collect weather data some 800 kilometres above us. The basic structure of the second flight model was assembled in RUAG Space's clean rooms in Zurich and is now being delivered to customers by special 31-metre
Starliner test flight scheduled for July 30
Thursday, 06 May 2021 21:51WASHINGTON — NASA and Boeing have scheduled a second uncrewed test flight of the CST-100 Starliner commercial crew spacecraft for July 30.
In separate statements, the agency and the company said they were planning to launch the Starliner on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 at 2:53 p.m.
Northrop Grumman to supply navigation payloads for DARPA’s Blackjack satellites
Thursday, 06 May 2021 21:12WASHINGTON — The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded Northrop Grumman a $13.3 million contract to provide positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) payloads for the Blackjack program.
Blackjack is a DARPA project to demonstrate the military utility of small satellites in low Earth orbit to provide communications, missile warning and PNT.
Intelsat and SES on course for mammoth C-band payments
Thursday, 06 May 2021 20:43
- Intelsat’s Q1 earnings down 50% year over year despite higher revenue due to Gogo acquisition
- COVID-19 drags down SES Q1 revenue; operator says video decline is slowing
- Intelsat and SES C-band legal battle rages on
NASA Invites Public, Media to Watch Asteroid Mission Begin Return to Earth
Thursday, 06 May 2021 19:41Boeing's troubled Starliner capsule now aiming for July launch
Thursday, 06 May 2021 18:14NASA and Boeing are now targeting July 30 for an uncrewed test flight of the aerospace company's troubled Starliner capsule to the International Space Station, they announced Thursday.
The launch has been postponed multiple times, with the last announced date of April scuppered due to a cold snap that caused extensive power outages in Texas in March.
The NASA Commercial Crew program is run partly from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, though it launches from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Lift-off is now scheduled for 2:53 pm Eastern Time (1853 GMT) on July 30.
"NASA and Boeing have done an incredible amount of work to get to this point," said Steve Stich, Commercial Crew program manager.