Brian May helps show Hera’s target asteroid may be ‘dust bunny’
An international research group, including Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May, has shown how the same forces responsible for building dust bunnies under our beds may be responsible for holding the asteroid Didymos together.
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When clouds collide Virgin Galactic unveils new suborbital spaceplane
WASHINGTON — Virgin Galactic revealed its latest suborbital spaceplane March 30, a vehicle that looks similar to its existing SpaceShipTwo but incorporates significant structural improvements.
The company unveiled the first of what it calls the “Spaceship III” line of vehicles, called VSS Imagine.
NASA exchanged data with China on Mars orbiters
WASHINGTON — NASA sought congressional approval to talk with Chinese counterparts and obtain information on the orbit of China’s new Mars spacecraft, a move intended to lower the risk of a collision with other Mars orbiters.
Selection of the first James Webb Space Telescope General Observer Scientific Programmes
The General Observer scientific observations for the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s first year of operation have been selected. Proposals from ESA member states comprise 33% of the total number of selected proposals and correspond to 30% of the available telescope time on Webb.
International training
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ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti has started training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA. Set to launch for her second mission in spring 2022, Samantha is already getting reacquainted with International Space Station systems in a series of refresher courses.
Samantha was last on the International Space Station in 2014 for her Futura mission. She spent 200 days in space, conducting European and international scientific experiments and Space Station operations.
In the coming months, her schedule will intensify as she trains for the specific experiments and tasks she will perform in space during her second mission.
As a collaborative, international effort
ESAIL captures two million messages from ships at sea
The ESAIL microsatellite for making the seas safer has picked up more than two million messages from 70 000 ships in a single day.
SpaceX Starship rocket explodes again after test flight
A fourth Starship rocket prototype for Elon Musk's SpaceX launch company exploded after a test flight on Tuesday morning in South Texas.
As with previous test flights, SpaceX flew Starship - model SN11 - to over 6 miles high above the launch facility about 180 miles south of Corpus Christi. The rocket then glided on wing flaps back to the launch pad.
Heavy fog and problems with the video Hanwha Systems to launch 2,000 LEO communications satellites by 2030
SEOUL, South Korea — Hanwha Systems, the South Korean conglomerate that added a bankrupt phased-array antenna maker to its growing portfolio last year, is planning to build and deploy a constellation of 2,000 satellites in low Earth orbit by 2030 to provide connectivity to urban cargo-delivery drones and passenger airplanes.
Op-ed | NASA Earth Science to “Meet the Moment”
Small businesses and large multinational corporations face incredible challenges and uncertainty in today’s world. Whether an uncertain economy, continuing impact of a pandemic, or the rapidly changing natural environment of water scarcity, ecosystem collapse, record high temperatures, wildfires, and sea level rise, today’s CEOs have a full docket of issues, all of which one way or another intersect with our changing planet.
