Copernical Team
After 60 years, nuclear power for spaceflight is still tried and true
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Six decades after the launch of the first nuclear-powered space mission, Transit IV-A, NASA is embarking on a bold future of human exploration and scientific discovery. This future builds on a proud history of safely launching and operating nuclear-powered missions in space.
"Nuclear power has opened the solar system to exploration, allowing us to observe and understand dark, distant plane NASA software benefits Earth, available for business, public use
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Many of NASA's computational innovations were developed to help explore space, but the public can download them for applications that benefit us right here on Earth. The agency's latest software catalog has hundreds of popular programs, as well as more than 180 new ones, all available for free download.
"From operations here on Earth to missions to the Moon and Mars, software is integral t SpaceX postpones launch of 88 satellites in rideshare mission
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SpaceX postponed a launch Tuesday to send 88 small satellites into orbit from Florida in what is known as a rideshare launch due to interference from a possible plane in the region, a SpaceX announcer said.
"It looks like the [launch] range was a no go. There might have been an airplane in the area. We do have a backup opportunity tomorrow, but for today, that's going to do it for us," NG-15 Cygnus Spacecraft departs IS for secondary mission
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Northrop Grumman reports that its Cygnus spacecraft left the International Space Station to begin the next phase of the NG-15 mission. Cygnus was released by the station's robotic arm at 12:32 p.m. ET, carrying more than 8,000 pounds of disposable cargo. Cygnus will remain in orbit for approximately three days to carry out the secondary phase of the mission.
The S.S. Katherine Johnson will Russia launches cargo ship to space station
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Russia on Wednesday successfully launched an unmanned space freighter carrying supplies to the International Space Station from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The Soyuz rocket carrying the Progress spacecraft launched at 02:27 am Moscow time (2327 GMT) from the Kazakh steppes and reached its target orbit, the Roscosmos space agency said in a statement.
Docking with the ISS is sch Gilmour Space rockets ahead with $61M AUD Series C funding
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Australia's leading launch services company, Gilmour Space Technologies, has secured $61 million (approximately $47 million USD) from global investors in what is the largest private equity investment raised by a space company in Australia.
The Series C round, which includes US-based Fine Structure Ventures, Australian venture capital firms Blackbird and Main Sequence, and Australian supera Reprogrammable satellite shipped to launch site
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An advanced telecommunications satellite that can be completely repurposed in orbit has arrived at its launch site of Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
Musk set to invest up to $30 billion in Starlink
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Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk said Tuesday he plans to invest up to 30 billion dollars to develop his ambitious Starlink satellite internet service.
Starlink plans to deploy thousands of low-orbit satellites to provide high-speed internet to isolated and poorly connected areas.
It has so far deployed over 1,500 satellites and by August it will be able to provide coverage everywhere in the world except the North and South Poles, Musk told the Mobile World Congress, a telecoms industry conference underway in Barcelona, by video.
The Tesla chief said he expects to invest "at least five billion dollars, and maybe as much as ten billion" in Starlink before the service has a positive cash flow.
"Then over time it is going to be a multiple of that, and that would be 20 or 30 billion dollars. It is a lot basically," he added.
Starlink is currently operating in about a dozen countries, with more being added, and it currently has just over 69,000 active users, Musk said.
"We are on our way I think to having a few hundred thousand users, possibly over 500,000 users, within 12 months," he added.
Exploring deep space: How can we get there safely and sustainably?
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Once the sole dominion of sci-fi movies and novels, the subject of deep space exploration and interplanetary colonization has moved several steps closer to becoming a reality thanks to major advances in aerospace engineering, medicine, and physics.
Sending astronauts to the International Space Station for extended missions has provided a wealth of information about keeping humans alive in the challenging environment of space. Back on earth, scientists and engineers attempt to replicate off-world conditions to test limits for more ambitious missions.
Why "nuclear batteries" offer a new approach to carbon-free energy
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We may be on the brink of a new paradigm for nuclear power, a group of nuclear specialists suggested recently in The Bridge, the journal of the National Academy of Engineering. Much as large, expensive, and centralized computers gave way to the widely distributed PCs of today, a new generation of relatively tiny and inexpensive factory-built reactors, designed for autonomous plug-and-play operat