...the who's who,
and the what's what 
of the space industry

Space Careers

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Copernical Team

Copernical Team

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London, UK (SPX) Jul 12, 2021
The 3.9 million pound grant from the UK Space Agency will support the development of Reaction Engines' ground-breaking SABRE technology, enabling low-carbon air-breathing space access propulsion technology to be applied more widely in the space sector and beyond. Science Minister Amanda Solloway and Transport Minister Rachel Maclean visited Reaction Engines at its site in Culham, Oxfordshi
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Washington DC (UPI) Jul 9, 2021
British billionaire Richard Branson on Sunday plans to become the first owner of a private space company to fly into space. The flight of Branson's Virgin Galactic VSS Unity spaceship is scheduled to lift off sometime after 9 a.m. EDT from New Mexico's private Spaceport America, about 170 miles south of Albuquerque. The company's gleaming white plane, VMS Eve, will carry the spac
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Spaceport America, United States (AFP) July 11, 2021
He's always dreamed of it, and in 2004 founded his own company to make it happen. On Sunday, billionaire Richard Branson will take off from a base in New Mexico aboard a Virgin Galactic vessel bound for the edge of space. The Briton is hoping to finally get the nascent space tourism industry off the ground - but also go one up on Jeff Bezos by winning the race to be the first person to
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EXPLAINER: How Richard Branson will ride own rocket to space
This Sept. 8, 2016 photo made available by Virgin Galactic shows the company's Spaceship Unity and Mothership Eve. After reaching nearly 50,000 feet (15,000 meters), Unity will be released and drop for a moment or two before its rocket motor ignites to send the craft on a steep climb toward space. Credit: Virgin Galactic via AP

Virgin Galactic will become the first rocket company to launch the boss when Richard Branson straps into one of his sleek, shiny space planes this weekend.

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The 40-year-old mystery of what causes Jupiter’s X-ray auroras has been solved. For the first time, astronomers have seen the entire mechanism at work – and it could be a process occurring in many other parts of the Universe too.

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Researchers have taught a drone to recognize and hunt down meteorites autonomously
Example image of two meteorites deployed during a field test near Walker Lake, Nevada. The meteorites are marked with orange flags. Note the dark shadow of the quadrictoper drone. Credit: Robert Citron et al.

Planetary scientists estimate that each year, about 500 meteorites survive the fiery trip through Earth's atmosphere and fall to our planet's surface. Most are quite small, and less than 2% of them are ever recovered. While the majority of rocks from space may not be recoverable due to ending up in oceans or remote, inaccessible areas, other meteorite falls are just not witnessed or known about.

But new technology has upped the number known falls in recent years. Doppler radar has detected meteorite falls, as well as all-sky camera networks specifically on the lookout for meteors.

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Rare meteorite could hold secrets to life on Earth
An image of one of the fragments of the Winchcombe meteorite. Credit: Trustee of the Natural History Museum

Scientists are set to uncover the secrets of a rare meteorite and possibly the origins of oceans and life on Earth, thanks to Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) funding.

Research carried out on the , which fell in the UK earlier this year, suggests that the space rock dates back to the beginning of the Solar System, 4.5 billion years ago.

The meteorite has now been officially classified, thanks in part to the STFC-funded studies on the sample.

The Winchcombe meteorite, aptly named after the Gloucestershire town where it landed, is an extremely rare type called a carbonaceous chondrite. It is a stony meteorite, rich in water and organic matter, which has retained its chemistry from the formation of the solar system. Initial analyses showing Winchcombe to be a member of the CM ("Mighei-like") group of carbonaceous chondrites have now been formally approved by the Meteoritical Society.

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Lunar hardware delivered to NASA Goddard
Credit: RAL / OU / NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

A new instrument that will fly to the moon has been delivered to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

The Peregrine Ion-Trap Mass Spectrometer (PITMS), led by Principal Investigator Dr. Barbara Cohen at NASA Goddard, was built and tested in collaboration with the European Space Agency, The Open University and RAL Space in the United Kingdom, and delivered to NASA Goddard in late June.

The instrument will explore how water molecules, possibly created on the surface by the solar wind, are released and move around the moon as the lunar surface heats up during the sunny part of the lunar day.

PITMS will be delivered to the moon by Astrobotic, one of the companies under contract for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Commercial companies will deliver dozens of new instruments and technology experiments to the moon throughout NASA's Artemis program. Artemis missions include both robotic and human exploration on and around the moon that will prepare humanity for our next giant leap—sending astronauts to Mars.

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Greater white-fronted geese

Using measurements from ESA’s Earth Explorer Swarm mission, scientists have developed a new tool that links the strength and direction of the magnetic field to the flight paths of migrating birds. This is a huge step forward to understanding how animals use Earth’s magnetic field to navigate vast distances.

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FAA: New tool limits disruptions caused by space operations
In this Wednesday, June 30, 2021 file photo, a SpaceX Falcon 9 reusable booster comes in for a rare on-land touchdown at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., seen from nearby Port Canaveral. Federal regulators said Thursday, July 8, 2021 they now can better track rocket launches and space vehicles returning to Earth, which could cut the amount of time that airplanes must be routed around space operations.
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