WASHINGTON — Two satellites from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that were part of an upcoming SpaceX rideshare mission have been damaged at the payload processing facility, the agency confirmed Jan. 6.

WASHINGTON — NASA plans to complete the Green Run test campaign for the Space Launch System core stage with a hotfire test scheduled for mid-January.

NASA announced Jan. 5 that it has scheduled the static-fire test, where the core stage’s four RS-25 engines are fired for a full-duration burn of 493 seconds, for no earlier than Jan.

Paris, France (SPX) Jan 06, 2021
In its latest research product "The Space Economy Report 2020", Euroconsult estimates that the consolidated space economy, including both government space investments, as well as commercial space, totaled $385 billion in 2020, a record amount. Commercial revenues of $315 billion in 2020 were down 2% from 2019's $319 billion evaluation, due partially to the Covid-19 pandemic affecting certa

Beijing (XNA) Jan 06, 2021
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the country's leading space contractor, says it plans to launch more than 40 missions this year, including some for the nation's space station program. In a report read at the State-owned conglomerate's annual space programs meeting on Monday in Beijing, the company said the most important missions in 2021 will be sending the space station's maj

Beijing (XNA) Jan 05, 2021
China's Mars probe Tianwen-1 has traveled more than 400 million km by Sunday morning and is expected to enter Mars orbit next month, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA). As of 6 a.m. on Sunday (Beijing Time), the Mars probe had flown in space for 163 days. It was about 130 million km from Earth and about 8.3 million km from Mars. According to the CNSA, the pro

Stennis Space Center MS (SPX) Jan 06, 2021
NASA is targeting the final test in the Green Run series, the hot fire, for as early as Jan.17. The hot fire is the culmination of the Green Run test series, an eight-part test campaign that gradually brings the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) - the deep space rocket that will power the agency's next-generation human Moon missions - to life for the first time. NASA conducted th

Ithica NY (SPX) Jan 05, 2021
From a mountain high in Chile's Atacama Desert, astronomers with the National Science Foundation's Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) have taken a fresh look at the oldest light in the universe. Their new observations plus a bit of cosmic geometry suggest that the universe is 13.77 billion years old, give or take 40 million years. The new estimate matches the one provided by the standard mo

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jan 06, 2021
A secret behind the workings of sunquakes - seismic activity on the Sun during solar flares - might be hidden beneath the solar surface. These earthquake-like events release acoustic energy in the form of waves that ripple along the Sun's surface, like waves on a lake, in the minutes following a solar flare - an outburst of light, energy, and material seen in the Sun's outer atmosphere.

Washington DC (SPX) Jan 06, 2021
Astronomers refer to observations as "deep" when they are taken with very long exposure times. Just as with photography, this gathers more light, revealing distant, fainter objects. Deeper exposures let astronomers look deeper into the Universe - hence the name. This particular deep image was taken with a 70-minute exposure with the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Obse

Providence RI (SPX) Jan 05, 2021
Sea ice is a critical indicator of changes in the Earth's climate. A new discovery by Brown University researchers could provide scientists a new way to reconstruct sea ice abundance and distribution information from the ancient past, which could aid in understanding human-induced climate change happening now. In a study published in Nature Communications, the researchers show that an orga