U.S. Space Force taps commercial satellites to fill demand for global insights
Tuesday, 07 May 2024 14:30
The stakes of Space Race 2.0 could not be higher
Tuesday, 07 May 2024 13:30
Ariane 6 first flight: timelapse of transfer and assembly on the launch pad
Tuesday, 07 May 2024 11:00
Write a comment
Video:
00:02:35
In April 2024, Ariane 6’s central core – the main body of the rocket – was stood tall at the launch zone and connected to its two solid-fuel boosters. This exciting moment means only one thing: it’s the start of the first launch campaign.
The main stage and upper stage make up the core stage, and they were autonomously driven at 3 km/h from the rocket assembly building to the launch pad, 800 m away. Then lifted by a crane, the Ariane 6 core was stood upright on the launch table.
The two boosters were transported to the launch
Research Fellows in space science 2024
Tuesday, 07 May 2024 11:00 Write a comment
Image:
Research Fellows in space science 2024 SabreSat: Redwire’s vehicle to dart through very low Earth orbit
Tuesday, 07 May 2024 11:00
Key Boeing Starliner test mission postponed shortly before launch
Tuesday, 07 May 2024 10:44 Write a comment
The first crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner spaceship was dramatically postponed around two hours before launch after a new safety issue was identified, officials said Monday, in a fresh blow to the US aerospace giant.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were already strapped in their seats preparing for liftoff when the call for a "scrub" came, in order to give engineers time to i 
Rocket Lab announces supplier agreements for military satellite project
Tuesday, 07 May 2024 01:09
Rocket issue scrubs launch of Starliner crewed test flight
Tuesday, 07 May 2024 00:19
NGA to tap commercial satellites to patrol maritime hotspots
Monday, 06 May 2024 20:15
Search engine focused on Earth data gets new investors
Monday, 06 May 2024 20:00
Shining a light on untapped lunar resources
Monday, 06 May 2024 18:59 Write a comment
Near the moon's south pole lies a 13-mile wide, 2.5-mile-deep crater known as Shackleton, named for Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton. Shackleton—and craters like it—may contain untapped resources that can be accessed with lunar mining.
Solar energy is the optimal energy source to power lunar mining since it does not need to be transported from Earth, but rather is beamed straight from the sun. The problem with using solar energy within craters is that even during the lunar day, some craters may be in complete shadow.
Led by Dr. Darren Hartl, an associate professor of aerospace engineering at Texas A&M University, researchers at Texas A&M have partnered with NASA Langley Research Center to engineer a solution using solar reflectors to get solar power to the bottom of lunar craters.
"If you perch a reflector on the rim of a crater, and you have a collector at the center of the crater that receives light from the sun, you are able to harness the solar energy," said Hartl.
Airbus to continue enhancing Pleiades Neo Next constellation
Monday, 06 May 2024 18:23
Boeing's first Starliner mission with humans set for historic Space Coast launch tonight
Monday, 06 May 2024 18:10 Write a comment
The stage is set for some space history to be made tonight as two veteran NASA astronauts aim to launch in a spacecraft that has never flown with humans before.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will climb aboard Boeing's CST-100 Starliner capsule and lift off atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 41 at 10:34 p.m. on the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission to the International Space Station.
NASA's live coverage of the leadup to launch will begin on NASA TV and its social media channels beginning at 6:30 p.m.
The pair, along with 750 pounds of supplies, would arrive to the station early Wednesday—at 12:46 a.m—to begin an eight-day stay before a return flight home as early as May 15 that would have a primary landing site of White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.
"This is a test flight. That brings to bear all the things that the title implies," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. "Because it is a test flight, we give extra attention. They're checking out a lot of the systems—the life support, the manual control, all of those things that you want to be checked out.