Bay St. Louis MS (SPX) Mar 04, 2021
Engineers have successfully repaired a liquid oxygen valve on the Space Launch System rocket's core stage with subsequent checks confirming the valve to be operating properly. The team plans to power up the core stage for remaining functional checks later this week before moving forward with final preparations for a hot fire test in mid-March at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Lou

Beijing (XNA) Mar 04, 2021
Smart Dragon-3 (SD-3), the third member of China's Dragon series commercial carrier rockets family, will make its maiden flight in 2022, its developer said Wednesday. A four-stage solid-propellant rocket, the SD-3 will be the largest and have the highest carrying capacity among the Dragon series, according to the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. With a maximum diameter of

Beijing (XNA) Mar 04, 2021
The China National Space Administration made public on Thursday morning the first high-definition pictures of Mars taken by the nation's spacecraft. The pictures - two black-and-white and one color - were shot recently by China's Tianwen 1 robotic probe when the spacecraft was travelling in Mars orbit, according to the administration. The two black-and-white 7-meter-resolution images

Moscow (Sputnik) Mar 04, 2021
A commission of Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos believes that cracks in Russia's Zvezda module at the International Space Station (ISS) were most likely formed due to metal fatigue or micrometeorite impact, a source in the rocket and space sphere said on Wednesday. The commission unites experts from Roscosmos, the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, the Central Research Institu

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Mar 02, 2021
February marked significant progress for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, which completed its final functional performance tests at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California. Testing teams successfully completed two important milestones that confirmed the observatory's internal electronics are all functioning as intended, and that the spacecraft and its four scientific instruments can send

WASHINGTON — SpaceX launched a prototype of its Starship next-generation vehicle March 3, landing it safely only to have the vehicle explode minutes later.

The Starship SN10 vehicle lifted off from the company’s Boca Chica, Texas, test site at about 6:15 p.m.

WASHINGTON — A NASA rover mission to look for ice at the south pole of the moon has passed a key review, but now costs significantly more than previously advertised.

NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission passed its confirmation review Feb.

TAMPA, Fla. — Indonesia’s government has secured financing to continue manufacturing the SATRIA broadband satellite, although its intended orbital slot remains up in the air.

Thales Alenia Space started developing the Ka-band spacecraft in September after receiving partial financing, which spokesperson Sandrine Bielecki told SpaceNews covered work up until this point.

Back in the 1990s, space advocates had visions of reusable launch vehicles that would lower the cost of getting to orbit, opening the door to everything from space hotels to space solar power satellites. The problem, they argued at conferences as they showed viewgraphs of their designs, was not technical but financial: few were willing to invest in these ventures.

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Why does ESA send missions beyond our Earth? To explore unknown worlds, and better understand our place in the Universe. But that answer only gives part of the picture. The first thing people do when they first reach space is to turn back to see our homeworld. Looking down on our planet from above allows ESA with its global partners to monitor climate, disasters and environmental changes – to work together to protect our home.

And danger comes from above as well as below: a close eye on our stormy Sun is vital to gather early warning of