ESA’s Arctic Weather Satellite has passed its environmental test campaign with flying colours – meaning that the satellite has been declared fit for liftoff and its life in the harsh environment of space.

This new satellite, which is slated for launch in June, has been designed to show how it can improve weather forecasts in the Arctic – a region that currently lacks data for accurate short-term forecasts.

New Orleans LA (SPX) Mar 13, 2024
As NASA prepares for its first crewed Artemis missions, the agency is making preparations to build, test, and assemble the next evolution of its SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. The larger and power powerful version of SLS, known as Block 1B, can send a crew and large pieces of hardware to the Moon in a single launch and is set to debut for the Artemis IV mission. "From the beginning, NAS

Washington DC (SPX) Mar 13, 2024
I recently watched NESC Deputy Director Mike Kirsch stand before a roomful of engineers at the Langley Research Center and tell them that with every passing day, NASA breaks a record: the longest stretch without a major accident in the nation's human spaceflight program since the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry on February 1, 2003. NASA's challenge, he told them, was to make

Washington (AFP) Mar 12, 2024
Four astronauts splashed down off Florida in the Gulf of Mexico on their return to Earth early Tuesday, following a more than six-month mission on the International Space Station. The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft landed in the waters off Pensacola at 5:47 am (0947 GMT), with a NASA thermal camera showing all four of its drogue parachutes had deployed for the night-time landing after their 1

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 12, 2024
Stratolaunch, LLC, marked a significant achievement on March 9, with the successful completion of the first powered flight of its Talon-A test vehicle, TA-1. This groundbreaking event signifies a crucial advancement in the United States' efforts to develop a privately funded, reusable hypersonic test platform. The maiden flight's objectives encompassed ensuring a safe air-launch release, i

Berkeley CA (SPX) Mar 12, 2024
The particle accelerators that enable high energy physics and serve many fields of science, such as materials, medical, and fusion research, are driven by superconducting magnets that are, to put it simply, quite finicky. Superconductors are a special class of materials which, when cooled below a certain temperature, carry large electrical currents without resistance. If you arrange the ma

San Antonio TX (SPX) Mar 14, 2024
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has been awarded a three-year, $2,041,000 grant from NASA's Development and Advancement of Lunar Instrumentation (DALI) program to further develop a novel ground-penetrating radar instrument. The Synthetic Pulse Artemis Radar for Crustal Imaging (SPARCI, pronounced "sparky") instrument is designed to characterize the depth of the regolith and upper megaregolit

Paris (AFP) Mar 14, 2024
Humanity must preserve Earth before dreaming of colonising Mars because even nuclear war and unbridled climate change cannot make the red planet more liveable, Barack Obama said Wednesday. Speaking at a renewable energy conference in the French capital Paris, the former US president mentioned Silicon Valley "tycoons, many of whom are building spaceships" that could take humans to Mars. "

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 14, 2024
In a significant push to enhance lunar research and exploration, NASA has awarded Development and Advancement of Lunar Instrumentation (DALI) grants to five leading scientists and engineers. These grants are a cornerstone of NASA's initiative to advance lunar science through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services and the Artemis campaign. The announcement was made at the 55th Lunar and Plan

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 13, 2024
The Space Systems Command (SSC) of the U.S. Space Force, in partnership with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and United Launch Alliance (ULA), has announced the scheduled launch of the NROL-70 mission. This event, set for no earlier than March 28, will mark the final flight of the Delta IV Heavy rocket. The launch is planned from Space Launch Complex-37B at Cape Canaveral Space Force St