Beijing, China (SPX) Mar 18, 2021
Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is emitted during plant photosynthesis. SIF results from vegetation chlorophyll giving off red and infrared light wavelengths when excited by solar radiation. Measuring SIF is important because it is closely related to the terrestrial gross primary productivity (GPP), which calculates the total amount of carbon dioxide fixed through photosynthesis in

Herndon VA (SPX) Mar 17, 2021
Peraton has been awarded a U.S. Army contract for Hypersonic Test Engineering, Mission Planning and Systems (HyTEMPS), valued at up to $44 million over two years. This award builds upon Peraton's more than 10 years of experience supporting the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (USASMDC) Technical Center and its mission to develop hypersonic vehicle technologies and provide hypers

Washington DC (UPI) Mar 19, 2021

President Joe Biden is expected to nominate former Sen. Bill Nelson, who once spent several days in space, to lead NASA, people familiar with the matter confirmed Thursday. Multiple unnamed sources told The Washington Post, Politico and The Verge that Biden will likely make the announcement by Friday. They added that the White House also was considering former NASA astronaut and re

Washington (AFP) March 19, 2021
NASA successfully carried out a key static test of its troubled Space Launch System rocket on Thursday, a win for the agency as it prepares to return to the Moon. The second "hot fire" test saw all four of the rocket's RS-25 engines fire simultaneously at 4:40 pm Eastern time (2040 GMT) for the full duration of eight minutes, producing a maximum of 1.6 million pounds of thrust (7.1 million n

Washington DC (SPX) Mar 19, 2021
NASA and SpaceX have signed a joint agreement to formalize both parties' strong interest in the sharing of information to maintain and improve space safety. This agreement enables a deeper level of coordination, cooperation, and data sharing, and defines the arrangement, responsibilities, and procedures for flight safety coordination. The focus of the agreement is on conjunction avoidance

A student interning at ESA will soon see her work launched into space. Meadhbh Griffin of University College Dublin has spent the last five months writing and testing software for an experiment set to fly later this year on the Hungarian-led RadCube CubeSat.  While its main mission is to probe space weather in Earth orbit, RadCube will also host a miniature experiment to test how commercial computer memories withstand space radiation.

ESA’s Lunar Pathfinder mission to the Moon will carry an advanced satellite navigation receiver, in order to perform the first ever satnav positioning fix in lunar orbit. This experimental payload marks a preliminary step in an ambitious ESA plan to expand reliable satnav coverage – as well as communication links – to explorers around and ultimately on the Moon during this decade.

Image: ESA's technical heart