Tiger Team solves mystery of Euclid’s galaxy speed camera
Wednesday, 29 September 2021 06:59
When tested in space-like conditions, the instrument on ESA’s Euclid space telescope set to measure the velocities of fast-receding galaxies abruptly stopped operating. Blindsided, the mission team feared it might take weeks or even months of extra time to uncover the reason why. Then a newly-convened ESA Tiger Team came to their assistance, pinpointing the cause and keeping Euclid on its set launch schedule.
Starfish Space raises $7M to develop Space Tug
Wednesday, 29 September 2021 06:21
Kent WA (SPX) Sep 29, 2021
Starfish Space, a satellite servicing company founded by former Blue Origin engineers, has raised a $7M funding round co-led by NFX and MaC Venture Capital, with participation from PSL Ventures, Boost VC, Liquid2 Ventures, and Hypothesis.
Up until now, missions to service existing satellites on-orbit, like the Hubble Space Telescope, have been too large and expensive to be commercially via

Lucy mission prepares for launch to Trojan asteroids
Wednesday, 29 September 2021 06:21
Washington DC (SPX) Sep 29, 2021
NASA has tested the functions of Lucy, the agency's first spacecraft to study Jupiter's Trojan asteroids, filled it with fuel, and is preparing to pack it into a capsule for launch Saturday, Oct. 16.
Named after characters in Greek mythology, these asteroids circle the Sun in two swarms, with one group leading ahead of Jupiter in its path, the other trailing behind it. Lucy will be the fir

Ariane 6 launch complex inaugurated at Europe's Spaceport
Wednesday, 29 September 2021 06:21
Kourou, French Guiana (ESA) Sep 29, 2021
The new launch complex built for Europe's upcoming Ariane 6 rocket is inaugurated at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.
With this, ESA celebrates another important milestone in the Ariane 6 roadmap as it forges ahead with combined tests between launch vehicle and launch base and preparations towards the first launch campaign.
Clearly visible from space, the facilities feature remar

Global missile defense from space got more affordable
Wednesday, 29 September 2021 06:21
Washington DC (SPX) Sep 28, 2021
The Defense Department hopes, within the decade, to have a meshed network of low Earth orbit satellites - linked together and to warfighters - providing real-time global awareness of missile threats and the ability to respond.
However, that goal was once considered cost prohibitive, said the director of the Space Development Agency.
Derek M. Tournear participated in a Defense One vir

SpaceX CRS-23 Dragon returns experiments on brain, muscles, liver to Earth
Wednesday, 29 September 2021 06:21
Houston TX (SPX) Sep 29, 2021
The 23rd SpaceX commercial resupply services mission returns samples from scientific experiments on the International Space Station. Back on Earth, scientists anticipate quick access to their experiments for additional observations and analyses.
Dragon undocks from the space station Sept. 30 and is scheduled for splashdown near NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida hours later.
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China opens Shenzhou-12 return capsule at ceremony
Wednesday, 29 September 2021 06:21
Beijing (XNA) Sep 29, 2021
China held a ceremony Monday to open the capsule of the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft which carried three astronauts back to Earth on Sept. 17.
Space officials, including Hao Chun, director of the China Manned Space Agency, and China's first astronaut Yang Liwei handed over the items taken out of the capsule to various representatives.
Hao said that the Shenzhou-12 crewed mission included m

MDA releases first details of its next generation commercial earth observation mission
Wednesday, 29 September 2021 06:21
Toronto, Canada (SPX) Sep 28, 2021
MDA Ltd has released new details about its next industry leading Earth observation (EO) mission. Leveraging legendary RADARSAT heritage, the new system will include a large C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite operating in a mid-inclination orbit. Capable of covering a 700 km swath in a single pass, the new system will provide the broadest area coverage on the market, changing how, wh

Bare Super-Earths offer clues to evolution of hot atmospheres
Wednesday, 29 September 2021 06:21
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Sep 29, 2021
A group of astronomers from the Astrobiology Center, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, the University of Tokyo, and other institutes, discovered two rocky super-Earth exoplanets lacking thick primordial atmospheres in very close orbits around two different red dwarf stars. These planets provide a chance to investigate the evolution of the atmospheres of hot rocky planets.
In

Spin test a success, but Ingenuity Flight 14 delayed until after conjunction
Wednesday, 29 September 2021 06:21
Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 29, 2021
It's been an eventful several Martian days, or sols, since our last blog post, so we wanted to provide everyone with an update on where things stand on Mars. In our last post, we explained that we were getting ready to begin flying with a higher rotor speed to compensate for decreasing atmospheric density caused by seasonal changes on Mars.
Increasing the rotor speed is a significant chang

Soyuz docks to new Nauka module port at ISS
Wednesday, 29 September 2021 06:21
Houston TX (SPX) Sep 29, 2021
The Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft that first launched and arrived to the International Space Station April 9 has now successfully relocated with its crew aboard from the station's Earth-facing Rassvet module to the "Nauka" Multipurpose Laboratory Module. The spacecraft carrying Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy, commander of the Soyuz, and Pyotr Dubrov along with NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, docked a

Asteroid sample brought back to Earth gets a close-up look at Brown
Wednesday, 29 September 2021 06:21
Providence RI (SPX) Sep 29, 2021
In December 2020, Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft swung by Earth to drop off a cache of rock samples taken from a near-Earth asteroid called Ryugu. Asteroids like Ryugu are thought to represent the ancient building blocks of the solar system, and scientists have been eager to get a closer look at the returned samples.
Last week, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency shipped one of the sam

Airbus backs Dereum Labs to collaborate on lunar resources extraction
Wednesday, 29 September 2021 06:21
Mexico City, Mexico (SPX) Sep 29, 2021
Airbus has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Mexican Space Agency (AEM) and the Mexican start-up Dereum Labs to collaborate on the technologies needed for lunar resources extraction. This will lead to the creation of a new Mexican In-Situ Resources Utilisation (ISRU) Programme for lunar extraction and help develop the necessary industrial ecosystem for this technology in-country.

Isotropic Systems secures funding to develop multi-link antenna through to product launch in 2022
Wednesday, 29 September 2021 06:21
London, UK (SPX) Sep 28, 2021
Isotropic Systems, a leading developer of transformational broadband terminal technologies, announces that it has raised over $37 million in an equity financing round, which fully funds the development of its game-changing multi-link antennas through to product launch in 2022.
The round is led by Seraphim Space Investment Trust PLC - the world's first listed space tech fund - in the first

NASA drought research shows value of both climate mitigation and adaptation
Wednesday, 29 September 2021 06:21
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Sep 29, 2021
Seasonal summer rains have done little to offset drought conditions gripping the western United States, with California and Nevada seeing record July heat and moderate-to-exceptional drought according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Now, new NASA research is showing how drought in the region is expected to change in the future, providing stakeholders with crucial i
