Beijing (XNA) Jan 01, 2023
For China's space sector, 2022 was a year of substantial progress and remarkable new records. China completed more than 60 space launches this year, a record high. Among these missions, 53 were conducted by the Long March carrier rockets, the country's backbone launch vehicles. The proportion of launches using new-generation rockets has increased, reaching a three-year high of 27 per

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 01, 2023
A scientist from Tokyo Metropolitan University has shown that large gamma-ray emitting bubbles around the center of our Galaxy were produced by fast blowing outward winds and the associated "reverse shock." Numerical simulations successfully reproduced the temperature profile observed by an X-ray telescope. Such outflows have been observed in other galaxies; this finding suggests similar winds m

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 01, 2023
Curiosity has executed two out of the ten sols we planned on Wednesday to cover the rover's activities through the holidays, so the three sols we planned today (sols 3699-3671) won't actually execute on Mars for several days. The activities we included in the remaining eight sols of Wednesday's ten-sol plan don't involve any driving or arm activities, so we picked up today's planning knowi

Beijing, China (SPX) Jan 01, 2023
The Chang'e-5 mission touched down in the Mons Rumker region of the northern Oceanus Procellarum of the Moon and returned 1.731 kg of lunar regolith. Recognizing exotic clasts (i.e., non-Chang'e-5 locally derived materials) in the Chang'e-5 regolith could provide critical information about the lithological diversity and regolith gardening process in the young mare region of the Moon.

Houston TX (SPX) Jan 01, 2023
Research and maintenance activities aboard the International Space Station continue into the new year while engineers and managers discuss Soyuz capabilities and potential next steps in response to the Soyuz MS-22's external cooling loop leak. The Expedition 68 crew remains in good condition, performing a variety of maintenance and research activities and looks forward to some time off on

Beijing (XNA) Jan 01, 2023
China launched a Long March 3B carrier rocket on Thursday afternoon to transport an experimental satellite into space, completing the busiest year in terms of launch numbers for the country's space industry. The rocket blasted off at 12:43 pm at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Southwest China's Sichuan province and then deployed the Shiyan 10-02 experimental satellite into a preset

Houston TX (SPX) Jan 01, 2023
After its 1.4-million-mile mission beyond the Moon and back, the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission arrived back at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Dec. 30. The capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 11 and was transported by truck across the country from Naval Base San Diego in California to Kennedy's Multi Payload Processing Facility in Florida. Now that Orion is back at

Fairbanks AK (SPX) Jan 01, 2023
A powerful transmitter in remote Alaska sent long wavelength radio signals into space Tuesday with the purpose of bouncing them off an asteroid to learn about its interior. The asteroid, 2010 XC15, is estimated to be about 500 feet across and is passing by Earth at two lunar distances, which is twice the distance between the Earth and the moon. Results of Tuesday's experiment at the

San Francisco CA (SPX) Jan 01, 2023
Planet Labs PBC (NYSE: PL), a leading provider of daily data and insights about Earth, has announced plans to launch 36 of its SuperDove satellites, Flock 4y, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than Tuesday, January 3, 2023 at 9:56 a.m. ET (14:56 UTC). Flock 4y is planned to launch on SpaceX's Transporter-6 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. These 36 Super

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jan 01, 2023
Two CubeSats, or small satellites, are on a quest to provide insight on space weather disturbances and the subsequent impact on communication signals. The dynamic duo, the Plasma Enhancements in the Ionosphere-Thermosphere Satellite (petitSat) and Scintillation Prediction Observations Research Task (SPORT), arrived at the International Space Station on Nov. 27, 2022, as part of SpaceX's 26th com