Getting a robot to take a selfie on Mars
Monday, 28 June 2021 10:21Ever wondered how Mars rovers take a selfie? Color video from NASA's Perseverance shows how the rover captured the historic April 6, 2021, image of itself beside the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. As a bonus, the rover's entry, descent, and landing microphone captured the sound of the arm's motors whirring during the process. Selfies allow engineers to check wear and tear on the rover. But the
Virgin Galactic receives approval from FAA for Full Commercial Launch License
Monday, 28 June 2021 10:21Virgin Galactic has announced that the Federal Aviation Administration has updated the Company's existing commercial space transportation operator license to allow the spaceline to fly customers to space. The Company also announced that it has completed an extensive review of data gathered from its May 22 test flight and confirmed that the flight performed well against all flight objective
Researchers aim to move an asteroid
Monday, 28 June 2021 10:21An asteroid strike on Earth could be prevented by new technology launching into space this year, involving a Queen's University Belfast scientist. Professor Alan Fitzsimmons from the Astrophysics Research Centre at Queen's is playing a role in two space missions that will measure how hard it is to deflect an asteroid. He will be telling people about it in an online public talk on World Ast
Astronauts unfurl 60-foot-long space station solar array
Monday, 28 June 2021 10:21Two astronauts concluded a spacewalk Friday outside the International Space Station and installed a second of six new solar arrays that will boost the orbiting laboratory's electrical power supply. Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet exited the space station about 8 a.m. EDT. They successfully mounted and rolled out a 60-foot-long solar array, known as iROSA or International Space Statio
Sierra Space provides integration services for nuclear propulsion system for DARPA's Draco Program
Monday, 28 June 2021 10:21Sierra Space, the new commercial space subsidiary of global aerospace and national security leader Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), will supply the propulsion components and integration services for a Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) system under a recent contract with General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS). GA-EMS and Sierra Space will develop and demonstrate an on-orbit NTP system fo
Video, audio clips shed light on historic Mars mission
Monday, 28 June 2021 10:21China made public on Sunday several video clips captured by the country's Tianwen 1 Mars mission, including one with an audio recording that is the first to be released from this historic interplanetary expedition. The clips, released by the China National Space Administration, recorded the processes of the Mars touchdown by Tianwen 1's landing capsule, the Zhurong rover's departure from t
China's Long March rocket has world's highest success rate: expert
Monday, 28 June 2021 10:21The success rate of the launch of China's Long March carrier rockets is the highest in the world, a space scientist said here Thursday. Long Lehao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a chief designer of Long March rockets, said the rocket series have completed 375 launches and stressed that the accuracy of putting satellites into orbit and the number of launch times a
Iridium awarded $30M contract by the US Army
Monday, 28 June 2021 10:21Iridium Communications has announced it has been awarded a research and development contract worth up to $30 million by the United States Army (Army) to develop a payload to be hosted on small satellites that supports navigation systems, guidance and control for the global positioning system (GPS) and GPS-denied precision systems. The new experimental Iridium payload is intended to be host
Virgin Orbit selects new VP of Flight and Launch
Monday, 28 June 2021 10:21Virgin Orbit has selected Tyler Grinnell to serve as the team's new Vice President of Flight and Launch. As Virgin Orbit works to further evolve its commercial launch services, Tyler will play a key role in enabling the Flight and Launch teams to achieve the operating pace and efficiencies required to serve the company's growing customer manifest. Tyler brings with him a decade and a half
Revisiting a quantum past for a fusion future
Monday, 28 June 2021 10:21"I'm going back. It's almost like a cycle in your life," muses physicist Abhay Ram. Ram, a principal research scientist at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) at MIT, is returning to a field he first embraced as a graduate student at the Institute 50 years ago: quantum mechanics. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, he is exploring different pathways for using the power and speed of
NASA helps map impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on harmful air pollution
Monday, 28 June 2021 10:21Early in the pandemic, it was expected that satellite imagery around the world would show cleaner air as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns. But not all pollutants were taken out of circulation. For tiny airborne-particle pollution, known as PM 2.5, researchers using NASA data found that variability from meteorology obscured the lockdown signals when observed from space. "Intuitively you would
China building new space environment monitoring station
Monday, 28 June 2021 10:21China has started building a monitoring station as part of a network to study space weather, according to China's National Space Science Center (NSSC). The NSSC, which is affiliated to Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the station is being built in Siziwang Banner, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Spread over 400 mu (about 26.67 hectares), it is expected to be completed in 2
China’s super heavy rocket to construct space-based solar power station
Monday, 28 June 2021 06:52HELSINKI — China plans to use a new super heavy-lift rocket currently under development to construct a massive space-based solar power station in geostationary orbit.
Unique use of ESA spacecraft ‘housekeeping’ data reveals cosmic ray behaviour
Monday, 28 June 2021 06:30Using data originally gathered for spacecraft ‘housekeeping’ aboard ESA’s Rosetta and Mars Express missions, scientists have revealed how intense bursts of high-energy radiation, known as cosmic rays, behave at Mars and throughout the inner Solar System.
NASA team to study new roles for the agency in addressing orbital debris
Monday, 28 June 2021 01:15WASHINGTON — NASA has established a working group to examine what new roles the agency can take to mitigate the growth of orbital debris and promote space sustainability.
In a talk at the Secure World Foundation’s Summit for Space Sustainability June 23, Bhavya Lal, senior adviser to the NASA administrator for budget and finance, said she is leading a recently established team that will examine how the agency could take a larger role in efforts to mitigate and remediate orbital debris.