Copernical Team
Japan's SLIM survives 3rd lunar night, surprising designers
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Japan's moon lander has survived a third lunar night, something that surprised even its designers, as it continued to take snapshots and probe the satellite's surface, officials said on Wednesday.
The Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon, or SLIM, came back to life after emerging from the darkness and sent signals to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
"Last night (the nig NASA Mars Analog Crew Approaches Mission Conclusion
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The initial crew in a yearlong NASA Mars analog mission at the CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) facility has reached the 300-day milestone. Initiated on June 25, 2023, at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the mission is slated for completion on July 6, 2024.
This team, consisting of four volunteers, has been immersed in a series of activities designed to simula Hera asteroid mission’s side-trip to Mars
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ESA’s Hera asteroid mission for planetary defence will make a swingby of Mars next March, borrowing speed to help reach its target Didymos binary asteroid system.
Pushing the limits of sub-kilowatt electric propulsion technology for space mission concepts
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NASA has developed an advanced propulsion technology to facilitate future planetary exploration missions using small spacecraft. Not only will this technology enable new types of planetary science missions, one of NASA's commercial partners is already preparing to use it for another purpose—to extend the lifetimes of spacecraft that are already in orbit.
Identifying the opportunity for industry to use this new technology not only advances NASA's goal of technology commercialization, it could potentially create a path for NASA to acquire this important technology from industry for use in future planetary missions.
Ariane 6 central core in launch position
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Ariane 6 central core in launch position Ariane 6 standing tall
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Ariane 6 standing tall SpaceX launch marks 300th successful booster landing
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SpaceX sent up the 30th launch from the Space Coast for the year on the evening of April 23, a mission that also featured the company's 300th successful booster recovery.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites blasted off at 6:17 p.m. Eastern time from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40.
The first-stage booster set a milestone of the 300th time a Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy booster made a successful recovery landing, and the 270th time SpaceX has reflown a booster.
This particular booster made its ninth trip to space, a resume that includes one human spaceflight, Crew-6. It made its latest recovery landing downrange on the droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean.
The company's first successful booster recovery came in December 2015, and it has not had a failed booster landing since February 2021.
The current record holder for flights flew 11 days ago making its 20th trip off the launch pad.
SpaceX has been responsible for all but two of the launches this year from either Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral with United Launch Alliance having launched the other two.
Dead star lights up nearby galaxy
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While ESA's Integral was observing the sky, it suddenly spotted a burst of gamma-rays coming from the nearby galaxy M82. Only a few hours later, ESA’s XMM-Newton searched for an afterglow from the explosion but found none. Astronomers realised that the burst must have been an extra-galactic flare from a magnetar, a young neutron star with an exceptionally strong magnetic field.
Japan's moon lander wasn't built to survive a weekslong lunar night. It's still going after 3
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China to send three astronauts to Tiangong space station, part of its ambitious program
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China's space agency is making final preparations to send a new crew to its space station on Thursday as part of its ambitious program that aims to put people on the moon by 2030.
The three-member crew of the Shenzhou-18 spacecraft will relieve the current team who have been manning China's Tiangong space station since last October.
China built its own space station after being excluded from the International Space Station, largely due to the United States' concerns over the People's Liberation Army's—the Chinese Communist Party's military arm's—involvement in the program.
