Bethesda MD (SPX) Feb 26, 2021
A new arms race is unfolding among spacefaring nations. Space experts have been telling us about contested space for the last several years. The number of active satellites is exploding from about 1,000 a few years ago to an expected 50,000+ within 10 years. The sky is indeed getting very congested. These satellites provide worldwide communications, GPS navigation, weather forecasting and planet

Toronto, Canada (SPX) Feb 24, 2021
MDA reports it has been awarded an initial contract with an expected production value of more than CAD$60 million on the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) project. Lockheed Martin Canada has contracted MDA to provide the Laser Warning and Countermeasure (LWCM) System that will protect the ships against laser and optical guided threats. MDA's Canadian-built solutions have the potential

Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 26, 2021
Four advanced space concepts from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have been selected to receive grants for further research and development. Early-stage research into futuristic space ideas - a lunar levitation track system, light bending lunar power system, method for making soil from asteroid material, and more - could help revolutionize NASA's technology toolbox and pioneer new kinds o

Washington DC (UPI) Feb 28, 2021
SpaceX failed to launch a cluster of Starlink commuications satellites Sunday night when the countdown halted 1 minute, 24 seconds before the planned liftoff from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. No immediate explanation was given for the scrubbed launch. Elon Musk's rocket company said its next opportunity to get the Falcon 9 rocket off the ground and send 60 satellites into orb

Melbourne FL (SPX) Feb 26, 2021
L3Harris Technologies (has been awarded $89 million for option-year two of a U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command contract to continue maintaining and modernizing infrastructure to track objects in space. The Maintenance Of Space Situational Awareness Integrated Capabilities (MOSSAIC) program has an estimated contract value of $1.2 billion over 10 years. "MOSSAIC improves the syst

La Laguna, Spain (SPX) Feb 26, 2021
A study, led by researchers at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) and carried out with OSIRIS, an instrument on the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), has found the most densely populated galaxy cluster in formation in the primitive universe. The researchers predict that this structure, which is at a distance of 12.5 billion light years from us, will have evolved becoming a cluste

Washington DC (SPX) Feb 26, 2021
The investigation of Electron-Positron-Ion (EPI) plasma - a fully ionised gas of electrons and positrons that includes astrophysical plasmas like solar winds - has attracted a great deal of attention over the last twenty years. A new study published in EPJ D by Garston Tiofack, Faculty of Sciences, University of Marousa, Cameroon, and colleagues, assesses the dynamics of positron acoustic

Ottawa Canada (XNA) Feb 26, 2021
Canada announced on Thursday that it will send an astronaut to orbit the moon in 2023 as part of NASA's Artemis II mission. "It's official!" Canadian Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Francois-Philippe Champagne tweeted. "Canada will join the US on the first crewed mission to the moon in over 50 years." The Gateway Treaty was signed between the Canadian Space Agency (CSA)

East Lansing MI (SPX) Feb 26, 2021
A team of international researchers went back to the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago to gain new insights into the cosmic origin of the heaviest elements on the periodic table. Led by scientists who collaborate as part of the International Research Network for Nuclear Astrophysics (IReNA) (irenaweb.org) and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics - Center for the E