Fingerprinting minerals to better understand how they are affected by meteorite collisions
Sunday, 20 February 2022 11:57
When a space rock survives the turbulent passage through Earth's atmosphere and strikes the surface, it generates shockwaves that can compress and transform minerals in the planet's crust. Since these changes depend on the pressure produced upon impact, experts can use features in Earth's minerals to learn about the meteorite's life story, from the moment of collision all the way back to the con NRAO and Optisys Partner Up to Produce 3D Devices for Radio Astronomy
Sunday, 20 February 2022 11:57
Recent advancements in 3D printing (also known as additive manufacturing) for metallic structures make it possible to print all-metal electromagnetic devices-like antennas and waveguides-on demand. A new partnership between the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, headquartered in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Optisys, LLC, headquartered in West Valley City, Utah, will explore the potential fo NOAA's GOES-T Satellite Road to Launch: Final Preparations
Sunday, 20 February 2022 11:57
NOAA's GOES-T, the third in the GOES-R Series of advanced weather observing and environmental monitoring satellites, arrived in Florida on November 10, 2021, to begin final preparations for launch.
GOES-T is scheduled to launch aboard an Atlas V 541 rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida on March 1, 2022, joining its sister satellite, GOES-16. Musk donates satellite gear to reconnect Tonga
Sunday, 20 February 2022 11:57
Tonga says space entrepreneur and Tesla founder Elon Musk has donated 50 satellite terminals to help the volcano-damaged Pacific island reconnect with the world.
Tonga's telecommunications system has been severely restricted since January 15 when a violent volcanic eruption and tsunami severed its underwater fibre-optic cable.
Musk's Space X corporation is providing 50 very-small-apertu Antares launches Cygnus cargo spacecraft to ISS
Saturday, 19 February 2022 17:15
A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket launched a Cygnus cargo spacecraft carrying several tons of cargo for the International Space Station Feb. 19.
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State Fight: SpaceX brings business to Brownsville, Texas
Saturday, 19 February 2022 16:20
At the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, city officials in Brownsville, Texas, anticipated sales and property tax revenue declines. To their surprise, residential property values and sales tax collections have continued to climb. Much of the credit goes to SpaceX.
State Fight: New Mexico’s growing reputation as a space state
Saturday, 19 February 2022 16:10
New Mexico was not often in the conversation about key space states until Virgin Galactic named Spaceport America its flight operations center in 2009.
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Webb team brings 18 dots of starlight into hexagonal formation
Saturday, 19 February 2022 08:32
The James Webb Space Telescope team continues to make progress in aligning the observatory's mirrors. Engineers have completed the first stage in this process, called "Segment Image Identification." The resulting image shows that the team has moved each of Webb's 18 primary mirror segments to bring 18 unfocused copies of a single star into a planned hexagonal formation.
With the image array complete, the team has now begun the second phase of alignment: "Segment Alignment." During this stage, the team will correct large positioning errors of the mirror segments and update the alignment of the secondary mirror, making each individual dot of starlight more focused.
OQ Technology’s “wake-up” patent draws yawn from IoT smallsat rival
Friday, 18 February 2022 20:50
Luxembourg startup OQ Technology said Feb. 16 it has secured its first patent for a planned satellite constellation to connect internet of things (IoT) devices.
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Russian ASAT debris creating “squalls” of close approaches with satellites
Friday, 18 February 2022 20:08
Debris from a Russian antisatellite weapon demonstration in November are creating surges of close approaches, in some cases tens of thousands in a week, with active satellites in low Earth orbit.
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NASA's Perseverance celebrates first year on Mars by learning to run
Friday, 18 February 2022 16:25
NASA's Perseverance rover has notched up a slew of firsts since touching down on Mars one year ago, on Feb. 18, 2021, and the six-wheeled scientist has other important accomplishments in store as it speeds toward its new destination and a new science campaign.
Weighing roughly 1 ton (1,025 kilograms), Perseverance is the heaviest rover ever to touch down on Mars, returning dramatic video of its landing. The rover collected the first rock core samples from another planet (it's carrying six so far), served as an indispensable base station for Ingenuity, the first helicopter on Mars, and tested MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment), the first prototype oxygen generator on the Red Planet.
Perseverance also recently broke a record for the most distance driven by a Mars rover in a single day, traveling almost 1,050 feet (320 meters) on Feb.
State Fight: Space sector is humming in Huntsville, Alabama
Friday, 18 February 2022 15:35
Rocket city doesn’t intend to give up its title.
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State Fight: Colorado wages international campaign in space sector
Friday, 18 February 2022 15:33
Competition to attract space companies is going global, and Colorado is waging an international campaign.
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Op-ed | The challenges of space traffic management
Friday, 18 February 2022 14:26
Millions of pieces of orbital debris big enough to harm satellites but too tiny to track threaten "permanent stability and safety in orbit."
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How NASA plans to destroy the International Space Station, and the dangers involved
Friday, 18 February 2022 13:20
NASA has announced plans for the International Space Station (ISS) to be officially decommissioned in 2031. After dozens of launches since 1998 got the station up and into orbit, bringing it down will be a feat of its own—the risks are serious if things go wrong.
NASA's plans for the decommissioning operation will culminate in a fiery plunge into the middle of the Pacific Ocean—a location called Point Nemo, also known as the "spacecraft graveyard," the furthest point from all civilisation.
Finding Point Nemo will be the final stop in a complex and multi-staged mission to transition the operations of the ISS to new commercial space stations, and to bring the remaining structure safely down to Earth.
Originally commissioned for a 15-year lifespan, the ISS is outliving all expectations. It has already been in operation for 21 years, and NASA has given the go-ahead for one more decade, thereby doubling its total planned time in orbit.
Purpose of the ISS