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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft on top is seen on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A, at NA
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft on top is seen on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA and SpaceX will try again on Saturday to send the next crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station.

Dubbed Crew-7, the mission will be commanded by American Jasmin Moghbeli and includes Andreas Mogensen of Denmark, Satoshi Furukawa of Japan and Konstantin Borisov of Russia.

Liftoff is planned for 3:27 am (0727 GMT) from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with a backup opportunity on Sunday.

The launch was pushed back to Saturday to give engineers an extra day to review a component of the Crew Dragon capsule's environmental control and life support system, NASA said in a blog post.

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JAXA, NASA XRISM Mission ready for liftoff
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab. Credit: The XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) spacecraft investigates the X-ray universe in this artist's concept.

A powerful satellite called XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) is set to provide astronomers with a revolutionary look at the X-ray sky.

XRISM, led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in collaboration with NASA and with contributions from ESA (European Space Agency), is scheduled to launch on an H-IIA rocket from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center at 8:26 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 27 (9:26 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 28, in Japan). JAXA will stream the launch live on YouTube, with a broadcast in both English and Japanese starting at 7:55 p.m. EDT.

"Some of the things we hope to study with XRISM include the aftermath of stellar explosions and near-light-speed particle jets launched by in the centers of galaxies," said Richard Kelley, NASA's XRISM principal investigator at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Proba-3 satellite: Seeing in the dark

Friday, 25 August 2023 16:14
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Proba-3 satellite: Seeing in the dark
Credit: ESA

One of the precision formation flying Proba-3 satellites as seen from the other during ground testing. The pair will fly in orbit relative to one another down to millimeter scale precision, but in order to do this must keep continuous track of each other in both sunlight and darkness.

 

To achieve this, Proba-3 combines vision-based detection, as tested here, with radio frequency links, satellite navigation and laser ranging.

The Visual-Based Sensor will be used when the satellites are closer than 250 m to each other. LEDs aboard Proba-3's Coronagraph satellite—seen in the animation below—will be detected by a set of cameras on the other Occulter satellite, appearing as pattens of light in the dark.

Proba-3: seeing in the dark
Credit: ESA

Finally, for maximum precision, the Occulter will shine a laser at a retro-reflector mounted on the Coronagraph satellite.

Proba-3 will demonstrate formation flying in the context of a large-scale science experiment. The two satellites will together form a 144-m long solar coronagraph to study the sun's faint corona closer to the solar rim than has ever before been achieved.

Liftoff for Crew-7 with Andreas Mogensen

Friday, 25 August 2023 13:17
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Video: 00:05:52

On 26 August 2023, at 09:27 CEST (08:27 BST), Crew-7 aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance embarked on a journey to the International Space Station. Watch the full coverage of their launch from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.

Andreas serves as pilot and has become the first European to take that role. He is sitting next to Crew-7's commander and NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli. Andreas is responsible for the spacecraft’s performance and systems. Accompanying them are mission specialists Satoshi Furukawa from JAXA and Konstantin Borisov from Roscomos.

Andreas’s Huginn mission officially begins when Endurance docks with

Week in images: 21-25 August 2023

Friday, 25 August 2023 12:05
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Webb captures detailed beauty of Ring Nebula (NIRCam image)

Week in images: 21-25 August 2023

Discover our week through the lens

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Launch of 4 astronauts to space station bumped to Saturday
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands ready for launch on pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023. The launch is scheduled for early Friday morning. Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux

NASA and SpaceX halted the countdown late Thursday for the launch of four astronauts to the International Space Station.

 

Mission managers rescheduled the liftoff for early Saturday morning, giving them an extra 24 hours to close out lingering issues, officials said. Nearly ideal weather was expected.

The four astronauts, representing four countries, had not yet headed to the SpaceX Falcon rocket awaiting them on the pad.

They are expected to spend six months at the space station, replacing four astronauts who have been there for half a year.

What is ESA? THIS is ESA

Friday, 25 August 2023 06:00
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What is ESA? THIS is ESA

Explore this interactive illustrated guide to what ESA is and what we do - available in all ESA Member State langauges

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