Ovzon’s debut broadband satellite ready for commercial service
Friday, 05 July 2024 20:19
NASA's Parker Solar Probe completes 20th close approach to the sun
Friday, 05 July 2024 13:37
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NASA's Parker Solar Probe completed its 20th close approach to the sun on June 30, 2024, matching its own distance record by coming about 4.51 million miles (7.26 million kilometers) from the solar surface.
The close approach (known as perihelion) occurred at 3:47 UTC (11:47 p.m. EDT on June 29), with Parker Solar Probe moving 394,736 miles per hour (635,266 kilometers per hour) around the sun, again matching its own record.
On July 2, the spacecraft checked in with mission operators at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland (where the spacecraft was also designed and built), with a beacon tone indicating it was in good health and all systems were operating normally.
The milestone also marked the midpoint in the mission's 20th solar encounter, which began June 25 and continues through July 5.
Parker will fly around the sun at the same distance and speed one more time this year—on Sept.
Eight CubeSats lift off for NASA on Firefly Aerospace rocket
Friday, 05 July 2024 13:35 Write a comment
As part of NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative, Firefly Aerospace launched eight small satellites on July 3 aboard the company's Alpha rocket. Named "Noise of Summer," the rocket successfully lifted off from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 9:04 p.m. PDT.
The CubeSat missions were designed by universities and NASA centers and cover science that includes climate studies, satellite technology development, and educational outreach to students.
Firefly Aerospace completed its Venture-Class Launch Services Demonstration 2 contract with this launch. The agency's venture-class contracts offer launch opportunities for new providers, helping grow the commercial launch industry and leading to cost-effective competition for future NASA missions.
With its latest moon mission success, China's space program has the US in its sights
Friday, 05 July 2024 13:19 Write a comment
June 25 2024 marked a new "first" in the history of spaceflight. China's robotic Chang'e 6 spacecraft delivered samples of rock back to Earth from a huge feature on the moon called the south pole–Aitken basin. After touching down on the moon's "far side," on the southern rim of the Apollo crater, Chang'e 6 came back with around 1.9kg of rock and soil, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The moon's south pole is designated as the location for the future China-led International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). This truly international endeavor has partners including Russia, Venezuela, South Africa and Egypt, and is being coordinated by an ad hoc kind of international space agency.
China has a strategic plan to build a space economy and become the world leader in this field.
Week in images: 01-05 July 2024
Friday, 05 July 2024 12:07 Write a comment
Week in images: 01-05 July 2024
Discover our week through the lens
The Space Relayers: NASA’s latest bet on the private sector is starting to take shape
Friday, 05 July 2024 12:00
What the biggest solar storm in decades revealed about space system resilience
Friday, 05 July 2024 12:00
Foust Forward: Who’s afraid of the big bad Starship?
Friday, 05 July 2024 12:00
Blue Origin logs SpaceX Starship concerns as it preps for 1st New Glenn launch
Friday, 05 July 2024 10:10 Write a comment
As Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin prepares for the first launch of its New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral this year, the company has taken time to voice concerns over future launches of competitor SpaceX's massive Starship and Super Heavy, also planning to launch from the Space Coast.
Elon Musk's company continues development of the most powerful rocket ever to reach orbit from its test site in Texas, but has plans for launch pads at both Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and neighboring Kennedy Space Center.
The Department of the Air Force is the midst of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the new rocket to launch from Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 37 aiming to take over the space that was used by United Launch Alliance until its final launch of the Delta IV Heavy earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration is performing a similar environmental impact assessment on a Starship launch pad from KSC's Launch Complex 39-A where SpaceX currently flies its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.
The period for public comment on the FAA's assessment continued through June 24 before the EIS moved into its next phases.
Kazakhstan joins China’s ILRS moon base program
Friday, 05 July 2024 10:05
ESA Council decisions set the stage for more diverse European launch services
Friday, 05 July 2024 09:57
Ariane 6: Europe’s next big rocket in a nutshell
Friday, 05 July 2024 09:00 Write a comment
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Ariane 6 is the newest rocket in a series that has, for five decades, been launching Europe towards the stars. Building on all the knowledge, expertise and technology developed over the years, Ariane 6 will be versatile, modular, and European.
Guaranteeing Europe’s access to space for the next years, Ariane 6 in two versions, with either two or four boosters attached depending on the ‘oomph’ the mission requires. Versatile, its upper stage can reignite multiple times during a single flight, placing any spacecraft into any orbit – including constellations – saving a final boost to return and burn