Copernical Team
Progress 77 and Pirs undocked from Station
The unpiloted Russian Progress 77 cargo spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station while attached to the Pirs docking compartment at 6:55 a.m. EDT. The spacecraft will reenter Earth's atmosphere and harmlessly burn up over the south Pacific. The mission launched and docked to the space station in February delivering more than a ton of cargo to the Expedition 65 crew. De
MDA awarded next contract for flagship Canadarm3 Program
MDA Ltd. has been awarded a $35.3 million contract from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) for the design of the Gateway External Robotics Interfaces (GERI), a key component of Canadarm3 which will be installed on the international Lunar Gateway. MDA has completed Phase A, the system definition phase of this GERI project. This new contract award covers the preliminary and detailed design of t
D-Orbit completes deployment phase of WILD RIDE space mission
D-Orbit, the space logistics and transportation company, announced that it has successfully completed the deployment phase of its WILD RIDE mission. As part of this phase, D-Orbit's ION Satellite Carrier (ION), the company's proprietary space transportation vehicle, successfully deployed all six satellites hosted onboard and will now proceed with the in-orbit demonstration of 12 hosted payloads.
How Chinese astronauts stay healthy in space
Three Chinese astronauts have been living and working in China's space station core module Tianhe for more than a month. They are scheduled to stay in space for three months. The astronauts have been exercising, maintaining healthy diets and undergoing regular check-ups to reduce the effects of living in a microgravity environment. Scientists have found that microgravity weakens both
Zhurong marks 1st anniversary since launch with dune exploration
China's Zhurong Mars rover finished exploring a sand dune on the red planet on the first anniversary of the launch of the country's first interplanetary expedition, the China National Space Administration said on Friday. The robot headed toward the dune earlier this week and began to take photographs, then activated onboard scientific equipment to survey the dune and its surroundings, the
Space food costs are out of this world
Space exploitation/exploration is expensive. For example, the transportation cost for each lemon sent to the International Space Station (ISS) may cost over $2,000. Such lemons and other food supplies are sent to the station periodically by cargo modules from U.S. and Russian suppliers. Since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011, NASA has been using other sources for resupplying the
What you need to know about Starliner's Test-2
NASA and Boeing are taking another major step on the path to regular human spaceflight launches to the International Space Station on American rockets and spacecraft from American soil with the second uncrewed flight test of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program. NASA's Boeing Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) is targeting launch of the Starliner spacecraft
NASA's role in agriculture
Everybody needs to eat. Food is a basic necessity, and it is at the heart of every human culture and our sense of home. It also represents one of our most important connections to Earth. Crops and animal products, whether gathered from the ocean or the land, raised on farms big and small, across vast fields or in our backyards and urban communities, draw on sunlight, water and soil to grow and t
Galileo Project to search for ET artifacts in galactic space
The multi-institutional, international Galileo Project founders, research team and advisory boards, in conjunction with the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian, today announce the Galileo Project . It is a transparent scientific project to advance a systematic experimental search for cross-validated evidence of potential astroarcheological artifacts or active technical equipm
Bezos offers NASA a $2 billion discount for Blue Origin Moon lander
Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos wrote an open letter to NASA on Monday offering a $2 billion discount to allow his company to build a Moon lander.
The human landing system (HLS) contract, worth $2.9 billion, was awarded to rival SpaceX in April, but Blue Origin and a third company Dynetics filed protests that are currently awaiting adjudication by the US Government Accountability Office.
The United States is seeking to return to the Moon by 2024 under the Artemis program, using the lessons learned to prepare for a crewed Mars mission in the 2030s.
In his letter to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, Bezos said the offer would "bridge the funding shortfall" that led to the space agency picking just one contractor, instead of two which would then compete with each other.
He added "this offer is not a deferral, but is an outright permanent waiver."
Since losing the award, Blue Origin has been frantically lobbying to have the decision reversed, leading the Senate to pass a bill agreeing to add $10 billion to the human lander system.
But the legislation is still being debated in the House, and has been branded a "Bezos Bailout" by critics.