Copernical Team
At 59, Kennedy Diversifies, Flourishes as Multi-User Spaceport
In 1962 when America was going to the Moon, NASA established Kennedy Space Center in Florida as its Launch Operations Center. This month, the modernized multi-user spaceport marks its 59th anniversary while working to send Americans back to the Moon, helping grow the commercial space industry, and performing research that benefits humanity.
The launch of NASA's Artemis I mission - slated t Reaction Engines secures new UK Government funding for Space Access Program
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 British billionaire Richard Branson plans to soar into space Sunday
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 17 years after founding Virgin Galactic, Branson bound for space
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 Explainer: How Richard Branson will ride own rocket to space
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.
The mystery of what causes Jupiter’s X-ray auroras is solved
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.
Researchers have taught a drone to recognize and hunt down meteorites autonomously
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.
Rare meteorite could hold secrets to life on Earth
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 meteorite, 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.
Image: Lunar hardware delivered to NASA Goddard
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.
Swarm yields new insight into animal migration
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.
