Virgin Orbit reaches orbit on second LauncherOne mission
Saturday, 16 January 2021 22:21Updated 7:20 p.m. Eastern with post-launch comments from Virgin Orbit.
COVINGTON, La. — Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket reached orbit on its second flight Jan. 17, demonstrating the performance of the air-launch system after years of development.
NASA test of mega Moon rocket engines cut short
Saturday, 16 January 2021 18:40NASA conducted a test firing of the engines for its giant Space Launch System (SLS) lunar rocket on Saturday but they shut down earlier than planned, the space agency said.
The "hot-fire" test at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi was supposed to last a little over eight minutes—the time the engines would burn in flight—but they shut down just over a minute into the burn.
"Teams are assessing the data to determine what caused the early shutdown, and will determine a path forward," NASA said in a statement.
The SLS rocket is intended to launch the Artemis missions that will take US astronauts back to the Moon.
Despite being cut short, NASA said the test of the RS-25 engines had provided valuable information for the planned missions.
NASA's moon rocket roars to life during shortened test-firing
Saturday, 16 January 2021 05:41NASA's plan to test its new moon rocket fell short of a scheduled eight-minute test-firing Saturday in Mississippi as the engines were shut down at just over a minute into the test. The 212-foot-high core stage of the rocket roared to life at 5:27 p.m. at the John C. Stennis Space Center. The test created huge clouds of steam as 300 gallons of water per minute cooled the test stand to prev
Virgin Orbit targets Sunday for LauncherOne mission from California
Saturday, 16 January 2021 05:41Virgin Orbit plans to try again Sunday to send 10 small science satellites for NASA and several universities into orbit using a rocket launched over the Pacific Ocean. The mission is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. PST when Virgin's Cosmic Girl aircraft, a modified Boeing 747, takes off from Mojave Air and Space Port 90 miles north of Los Angeles. The plane carries the LauncherOne rocket
Earth Observation data could represent a billion-dollar opportunity for Africa
Saturday, 16 January 2021 05:41Earth Observation [EO] data provides a billion-dollar opportunity for economies on the African continent, one that could create jobs and build new resilience after COVID-19. The newly released report Unlocking the Potential of Earth Observation to address Africa's critical challenges lays out the multiple economic benefits from EO data. The report was written in collaboration with Digital
Could we harness energy from black holes
Saturday, 16 January 2021 05:41A remarkable prediction of Einstein's theory of general relativity - the theory that connects space, time, and gravity - is that rotating black holes have enormous amounts of energy available to be tapped. For the last 50 years, scientists have tried to come up with methods to unleash this power. Nobel physicist Roger Penrose theorized that a particle disintegration could draw energy from
Teams crack code, qualify for final stage of NASA Space Robotics
Saturday, 16 January 2021 05:41NASA, in partnership with Space Center Houston - the official visitor center of NASA's Johnson Space Center- has selected 22 qualifying teams to compete in the competition round of Phase 2 of the Space Robotics Challenge. Eligible teams will advance to the final virtual competition round, which will begin in late January. Phase 2 of the Space Robotics Challenge, a NASA Centennial Challenge
OneWeb secures investment from Softbank and Hughes Network Systems
Saturday, 16 January 2021 05:41OneWeb, the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications company jointly owned by the UK Government and Bharti Global, has secured additional funding from SoftBank Group Corp. ("SoftBank") and Hughes Network Systems LLC ("Hughes"), bringing OneWeb's total funding to $1.4 billion. The capital raised to date positions the Company to be fully funded for its first-generation satellite fleet, total
Leaf Space reaches 10 million euro funding
Saturday, 16 January 2021 05:41Leaf Space, the Italian ground segment as-a-service company focused on microsatellites, announced it has completed its Series A financing round of 5 million euro, bringing its total funding to 10 million euro. A contribution of 2 million euro came from Primo Space, the investment fund of Primomiglio SGR focused on investments in highly innovative companies in the space industry. The other 3 mill
Major space station components cleared for operations
Saturday, 16 January 2021 05:41Three major components of China's space station program have passed technical and quality assessments and are ready for upcoming missions, according to the China Manned Space Agency. Experts from the agency, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp reviewed the design, construction and test reports on the space station's Tianhe core module, the Tianzh
New research highlights image improvements using charge-injection devices
Saturday, 16 January 2021 05:41The night sky is speckled with the light from hundreds of billions of stars within our galaxy. The brightest few thousand of these celestial bodies captivate the human eye and imagination. For astronomers seeking to detect undiscovered stars and, potentially, the planets around them, however, this brightness can be problematic as it may overwhelm the light coming from fainter, nearby objects.
SecAF selects Huntsville, Alabama, as preferred location to host USSPACECOM
Saturday, 16 January 2021 05:41The Secretary of the Air Force, on behalf of the Office of Secretary of Defense, selected Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama, as the preferred location for the U.S. Space Command Headquarters. The Department of the Air Force conducted both virtual and on-site visits to assess which of six candidate locations would be best suited to host the U.S. Space Command Headquarters based on facto
North Korea shows off new submarine-launched missile
Saturday, 16 January 2021 05:41Nuclear-armed North Korea unveiled a new submarine-launched ballistic missile at a military parade in Pyongyang, state media reported Friday, in a show of strength days before Joe Biden's inauguration as US president. The display came after the five-yearly congress of the ruling Workers' Party, where leader Kim Jong Un decried the US as his country's "foremost principal enemy". A grinnin
The climate events of 2020 show how excess heat is expressed on Earth
Saturday, 16 January 2021 05:41By most accounts, 2020 has been a rough year for the planet. It was the warmest year on record, just barely exceeding the record set in 2016 by less than a tenth of a degree according to NASA's analysis. Massive wildfires scorched Australia, Siberia, and the United States' west coast - and many of the fires were still burning during the busiest Atlantic hurricane season on record. "This ye
Researchers develop new one-step process for creating self-assembled metamaterials
Saturday, 16 January 2021 05:41A team led by University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers has discovered a groundbreaking one-step process for creating materials with unique properties, called metamaterials. Their results show the realistic possibility of designing similar self-assembled structures with the potential of creating "built-to-order" nanostructures for wide application in electronics and optical devices.