Washington (AFP) Sept 15, 2024
The SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission, which made history when its crew conducted the first spacewalk by non-government astronauts, splashed down off the coast of Florida early Sunday. The Dragon spacecraft landed in the ocean at 3:37 am (0737 GMT), a webcast of the splashdown showed, with a recovery team deploying in the pre-dawn darkness to retrieve the capsule and crew. The four-member team

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 12, 2024
NASA is set to gain significant new insights through a range of experiments aboard a commercial spaceflight, reinforcing the agency's scientific efforts as it aims for deeper space exploration to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. These experiments are part of the Polaris Dawn mission, which launched earlier today aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket. The Polaris Dawn crew

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 15, 2024
Satellogic Inc. (NASDAQ: SATL), a provider of sub-meter resolution Earth observation data, has been selected as one of eight companies awarded a contract in NASA's Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition (CSDA) Program. The On-Ramp1 Multiple Award contract, which holds a cumulative maximum value of $476 million, was announced on September 6, 2024. This selection reflects Satellogic's dedication to

Paris, France (SPX) Sep 15, 2024
For the first time, astronomers have captured highly detailed images of a star, other than our Sun, that reveal the movement of bubbling gas on its surface. These observations were made using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in July and August 2023. The star, R Doradus, is located around 180 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Dorado. The images show enormous,

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 15, 2024
The U.S. National Science Foundation's (NSF) Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, operated by the NSF's National Solar Observatory (NSO), has successfully mapped the magnetic fields in the solar corona for the first time. The solar corona, visible during a total solar eclipse, is the outermost layer of the Sun's atmosphere. This achievement is expected to significantly improve our ability to unders

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Sep 15, 2024
NASA's Juno mission has detected a new volcanic feature on Jupiter's moon Io, known for being the most geologically active body in the Solar System. Close-up images captured by JunoCam, marking the first such views of Io in over 25 years, show a fresh volcano with extensive lava flows and volcanic deposits across a 180-kilometre by 180-kilometre region. These findings were presented at the Europ

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 15, 2024
NASA scientists have successfully recreated the mysterious spider-shaped formations found on Mars, providing new insights into how these unique geologic features form. The laboratory experiments were conducted under simulated Martian conditions, helping to confirm a theory that these "spiders" are carved by processes involving carbon dioxide ice. First discovered in 2003 through orbiter im

Paris, France (SPX) Sep 15, 2024
It's been ten years since the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta mission reached Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. In the past decade, the mission's scientific achievements have significantly contributed to unraveling the mysteries of comets and deepened our understanding of the Solar System's origins. However, the mission has also impacted people beyond the realm of science. To mark thi

College Station TX (SPX) Sep 15, 2024
Boeing's crew transport space capsule, the Starliner, returned to Earth without its two-person crew right after midnight Eastern time on Sept. 7, 2024. Its remotely piloted return marked the end of a fraught test flight to the International Space Station which left two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams, on the station for months longer than intended after thruster failures led

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Sep 15, 2024
South Australia is set to enhance its position as a global aerospace hub following a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Southern Launch, a prominent spaceport provider, and Hypersonix Launch Systems, a Queensland-based developer of hypersonic vehicles and scramjet technology. The MoU outlines a collaboration to develop a hypersonic test bed service that will utilize Southern Launch's spac