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Quiet please, future International Space Station commander in training. ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti prepares for her upcoming mission to the International Space Station at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Texas, USA.

Samantha is a member of Crew-4 and will launch with NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Bob Hines to the Station from Florida, USA, on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft in 2022.

This will be Samantha’s second mission in space after Futura in 2015 and she is expected to serve as Space Station commander for Expedition 68a, a first for her. Her experience will stand her in good stead as Europe’s

Image: It’s a wrap

Jerusalem (AFP) June 1, 2021
Israeli military exports reached $8.3 billion in 2020, buoyed by a 15 percent spike in the number of agreements signed compared with the previous year, the government announced Tuesday. Despite fears the coronavirus pandemic would impact 2020 sales, Israel cited new markets in allowing sales jumping $1 billion from 2019. It's the second highest sales figure ever, behind 2017, when the to

London, Canada (SPX) Jun 02, 2021
Hidden beneath a kilometre of ice in northwestern Greenland, an impact crater that could swallow a city the size of London, Ont. is the subject of much debate about its origins and age. Now, Western planetary scientist Elizabeth Silber has published new research suggesting the crater could be young - as craters go - having formed during the Pleistocene geological epoch, between 11,700 and

Huntsville AL (SPX) Jun 02, 2021
Instead of chasing storms, NASA researchers are using new weather prediction methods to see storms ahead of time. By studying lightning, the team of scientists is working to develop new ways to help forecast the intensity of incoming hurricanes. Typically, an increase in lightning within the storm signals that the storm is likely to strengthen. But sometimes even weakening hurricanes have large

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jun 02, 2021
The European Space Agency (ESA) Living Planet Symposium takes place every three years with approximately 4000 to 5000 participants. The previous symposium was held in Milan during May 2019 - with extensive support from the city and university. From 23 to 27 May 2022, the world's largest specialist conference in the field of Earth observation will be coming to Germany for the first time - to Bonn

Stockholm, Sweden (SPX) Jun 02, 2021
The global technology and consulting company Indra in Spain and the Spanish Air Navigational Service Provider (ANSP) Enaire has selected GomSpace A/S to deliver a large-scale development and demonstration project including the launch of three dedicated in orbit demonstration (IOD) nanosatellites. The contract GomSpace disclosed on May 10 with Indra, which is estimated to be at a value of E

Charlottesville VA (SPX) Jun 02, 2021
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) has selected a contractor to develop a production-ready design and produce a prototype antenna for the Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA). NRAO officials signed an agreement with mtex antenna technology GmbH of Germany on May 27. The ngVLA, a powerful radio telescope with a total of 263 dish antennas distributed across North America, is

Hefei, China (XNA) Jun 02, 2021
On Friday, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, ran its experimental controllable nuclear fusion device and kept the plasma stable at a temperature of 120 million degrees C for 101 seconds and at 160 million C for 20 seconds. The previous record was 20 seconds at 100 C set by the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR), the Republic

Washington DC (UPI) Jun 1, 2021
The USS Paul Ignatius fired two Standard Missile-3 interceptors at the end of May in order to engage ballistic missile targets launched from the Hebrides Guided Weapon Range off the west coast of Scotland, the Navy announced on Tuesday. The test was carried out as part of a cooperative engagement with the Royal Netherlands Navy, which used its advanced combat system suite to warn the ma