Pasadena CA (JPL) May 31, 2021
Cloudy days are rare in the thin, dry atmosphere of Mars. Clouds are typically found at the planet's equator in the coldest time of year, when Mars is the farthest from the Sun in its oval-shaped orbit. But one full Martian year ago - two Earth years - scientists noticed clouds forming over NASA's Curiosity rover earlier than expected. This year, they were ready to start documenting these

Washington DC (SPX) May 31, 2021
NASA has selected Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts, to provide development and operations support for the avionics software suite that will guide the agency's next generation of human rated spacecraft on missions beyond low-Earth orbit. The $49 million Advanced Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C) and Avionics Technology Development and Analysis III contr

Pasadena CA (JPL) May 31, 2021
A manufacturing innovation that has applications for NASA spacecraft is being transferred to the private sector to support a variety of industries here on Earth. A burst water main is always expensive and messy, but a pipe that fails in space can be mission-ending. That's why NASA technologists work hard to make hardware as reliable as possible. Sometimes that means scrapping the old way o

Washington DC (SPX) May 31, 2021
NASA has awarded Dynetics Inc. of Huntsville, Alabama, a contract to produce a Laser Air Monitoring System (LAMS) for the agency's Orion spacecraft beginning with the Artemis III mission. The LAMS contract is valued at $17.8 million for production of the Artemis III unit, as well as a qualification unit, design modifications, and long-lead procurement items in support of the Artemis IV and

Tempe AZ (SPX) May 31, 2021
While scientists know the discovery of alien life would be a game-changing, interstellar event for humanity, the search to date has been unsuccessful. But now, they have a new tool capable of identifying molecular biosignatures that will allow them to look for life in the universe - no matter what form it takes. In a new paper recently published in Nature Communications, a team of scientis

Moscow (Sputnik) May 31, 2021
Space debris hit the Canadian remote robotic system onboard the International Space Station (ISS), leaving a small hole in it, but the incident did not affect the operation of the device, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) said on Friday. "While the utmost precautions are taken to reduce the potential for collisions with the ISS, impacts with tiny objects do occur. One such hit was noticed re

Washington DC (UPI) May 28, 2021
NASA needs about a 40% boost - $10 billion - in its budget to foster competition that could aid future astronaut missions to the moon, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said. The Biden administration is seeking $24.8 billion for NASA in fiscal 2022, which would be a 6.6% increase from 2021, Nelson said during a press conference on Friday. But there's an amendment to the 2021 budget pendi

Beijing (AFP) May 29, 2021
A Chinese cargo spacecraft carrying equipment and supplies successfully docked with the core module of the country's future space station on Sunday, state media said. A Long March 7 rocket carrying the Tianzhou-2 cargo craft - loaded with essentials such as food, equipment and fuel - blasted off late Saturday from the Wenchang launch site on the tropical southern island of Hainan, the Xinh

Imagine driving down a road which has more broken cars, bikes and vans lining the street than functioning vehicles. This is the scene our satellites face in Earth orbit. In fact, since the start of the space age there has been more debris, “space junk”, in orbit than operational satellites.

So how do we clean up this mess?