SpaceX Starship rocket explodes again after test flight
Monday, 29 March 2021 15:22
A fourth Starship rocket prototype for Elon Musk's SpaceX launch company exploded after a test flight on Tuesday morning in South Texas.
As with previous test flights, SpaceX flew Starship - model SN11 - to over 6 miles high above the launch facility about 180 miles south of Corpus Christi. The rocket then glided on wing flaps back to the launch pad.
Heavy fog and problems with the video Selection of the first James Webb Space Telescope General Observer Scientific Programmes
Monday, 29 March 2021 15:15
The General Observer scientific observations for the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s first year of operation have been selected. Proposals from ESA member states comprise 33% of the total number of selected proposals and correspond to 30% of the available telescope time on Webb.
UK to lead the development of the second Scout mission, HydroGNSS
Monday, 29 March 2021 15:03
First interstellar comet may be the most pristine ever found
Monday, 29 March 2021 15:00
Researchers discover new type of ancient crater lake on Mars
Monday, 29 March 2021 14:56
Researchers from Brown University have discovered a previously unknown type of ancient crater lake on Mars that could reveal clues about the planet's early climate.
In a study published in the Planetary Science Journal, a research team led by Brown Ph.D. student Ben Boatwright describes an as-yet unnamed crater with some puzzling characteristics. The crater's floor has unmistakable geologic evidence of ancient stream beds and ponds, yet there's no evidence of inlet channels where water could have entered the crater from outside, and no evidence of groundwater activity where it could have bubbled up from below.
So where did the water come from?
International training
Monday, 29 March 2021 14:46
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ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti has started training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA. Set to launch for her second mission in spring 2022, Samantha is already getting reacquainted with International Space Station systems in a series of refresher courses.
Samantha was last on the International Space Station in 2014 for her Futura mission. She spent 200 days in space, conducting European and international scientific experiments and Space Station operations.
In the coming months, her schedule will intensify as she trains for the specific experiments and tasks she will perform in space during her second mission.
As a collaborative, international effort
SpaceX Starship rocket test ends in another failure: Musk
Monday, 29 March 2021 14:35
SpaceX chief Elon Musk confirmed on Twitter Tuesday that the latest prototype of the company's Starship rocket series had crashed, after the video feed of its test flight cut out.
"At least the crater is in the right place!" he joked, in acknowledging the fourth failed test of the prototype.
"Something significant happened shortly after landing burn start. Should know what it was once we can examine the bits later today," he added.
The rocket, SN11, launched from the company's south Texas facility around 1300 GMT and began its ascent to 10 kilometers (six miles), experiencing some video glitches.
It was descending to the surface when the feed was lost once again.
"We lost the clock at T plus five minutes, 49 seconds," said announcer John Insprucker, meaning the amount of time that had passed after lift-off.
"Looks like we've had another exciting test of Starship Number 11," he added, dryly.
SN11 is the 11th prototype of Starship, which SpaceX hopes will one day be able to fly crewed missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond.
It was the fourth to conduct a test flight attempting to return to the ground for a soft vertical landing.
Two space fans get seats on billionaire's private flight
Monday, 29 March 2021 14:28
A billionaire's private SpaceX flight filled its two remaining seats Tuesday with a scientist-teacher and a data engineer whose college friend actually won a spot but gave him the prize.
The new passengers: Sian Proctor, a community college educator in Tempe, Arizona, and Chris Sembroski, a former Air Force missileman from Everett, Washington. They will join flight sponsor Jared Isaacman and another passenger for three days in orbit this fall.
Virgin Galactic rolls out latest generation of spaceship
Monday, 29 March 2021 14:25
Virgin Galactic rolled out its newest spaceship Tuesday as the company looks to resume test flights in the coming months at its headquarters in the New Mexico desert.
Company officials said it will likely be summer before the ship—designed and manufactured in California—undergoes glide flight testing at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico. That will coincide with the final round of testing for the current generation of spacecraft, which will be the one that takes British billionaire and Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson to the fringes of space later this year.
CEO Michael Colglazier said the addition of the new ship marks the beginning of Virgin Galactic having a fleet that will one day be capable of ferrying paying customers and scientific payloads from spaceports around the globe. The company is still aiming for commercial operations to begin next year following testing and a few months of downtime for maintenance and other upgrades.
Virgin Galactic has reached space twice before—the first time from California in December 2018. The company marked its second successful glide flight over Spaceport America last June.
Hanwha Systems to launch 2,000 LEO communications satellites by 2030
Monday, 29 March 2021 14:21
SEOUL, South Korea — Hanwha Systems, the South Korean conglomerate that added a bankrupt phased-array antenna maker to its growing portfolio last year, is planning to build and deploy a constellation of 2,000 satellites in low Earth orbit by 2030 to provide connectivity to urban cargo-delivery drones and passenger airplanes.
Op-ed | NASA Earth Science to “Meet the Moment”
Monday, 29 March 2021 14:07
Small businesses and large multinational corporations face incredible challenges and uncertainty in today’s world. Whether an uncertain economy, continuing impact of a pandemic, or the rapidly changing natural environment of water scarcity, ecosystem collapse, record high temperatures, wildfires, and sea level rise, today’s CEOs have a full docket of issues, all of which one way or another intersect with our changing planet.
SpaceX crashes another Starship prototype
Monday, 29 March 2021 13:52
WASHINGTON — SpaceX launched its fourth Starship prototype in less than four months March 30, only to have the vehicle apparently crash once again.
The Starship SN11 vehicle lifted off at approximately 9 a.m. Eastern from the company’s Boca Chica, Texas, test site, despite heavy fog that made it all but impossible to see the vehicle ascend.
ESAIL captures two million messages from ships at sea
Monday, 29 March 2021 12:58
The ESAIL microsatellite for making the seas safer has picked up more than two million messages from 70 000 ships in a single day.
Virgin Galactic unveils new suborbital spaceplane
Monday, 29 March 2021 11:30
WASHINGTON — Virgin Galactic revealed its latest suborbital spaceplane March 30, a vehicle that looks similar to its existing SpaceShipTwo but incorporates significant structural improvements.
The company unveiled the first of what it calls the “Spaceship III” line of vehicles, called VSS Imagine.
Photosynthesis could be as old as life itself
Monday, 29 March 2021 11:23
Researchers find that the earliest bacteria had the tools to perform a crucial step in photosynthesis, changing how we think life evolved on Earth.
The finding also challenges expectations for how life might have evolved on other planets. The evolution of photosynthesis that produces oxygen is thought to be the key factor in the eventual emergence of complex life. This was thought to take