Bethesda MD (SPX) Feb 17, 2021
It is well known that the Straits of Gibraltar provide access to the Mediterranean Sea. In terms of strategic importance, this geographic phenomenon provides a control point for all seagoing traffic between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Is there an analogous strategic structure for access to space? For low-Earth orbit (LEO) traffic there is such a geographic phenomenon. Tha

Moscow (Sputnik) Feb 16, 2021
Russia is going to carry out more than 10 launches of Soyuz-2 carrier rockets from the Baikonur cosmodrome this year, Ruslan Mukhamedzhanov, the head of the Centre for the Operation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructure Facilities, said on Monday. "Twelve launches will be carried out from this site [in 2021]. These are federal launches, and commercial launches [in the interests of UK commun

Lampoldshausen, Germany (SPX) Feb 16, 2021
On 14 February 2021, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) will receive the first upper stage of the European Ariane 6 launcher. The fully functional test module will be subjected to extensive testing at DLR's Lampoldshausen site over the coming months. The aim is to verify that the rocket's upper stage is fit for flight - a major milestone on the way to it

Moscow (AFP) Feb 15, 2021
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was interested in tech billionaire Elon Musk's proposal that the two men chat on the audio chat app Clubhouse. Musk, one of the world's richest people, on Sunday tagged the Kremlin's account on Twitter along with the invitation. In a separate tweet in Russian, he added: "It would be a great honour to speak with

Moscow, Russia (SPX) Feb 18, 2021
Scientists from the Skoltech Center for Computational and Data-Intensive Science and Engineering (CDISE) and the Skoltech Digital Agriculture Laboratory and their collaborators from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that enables processing images from autonomous greenhouses, monitoring plant growth and automating the cultivation process. Thei

Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 18, 2021
NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover will be the agency's ninth mission to land on the Red Planet. Along with characterizing the planet's geology and climate, and paving the way for human exploration beyond the Moon, the rover is focused on astrobiology, or the study of life throughout the universe. Perseverance is tasked with searching for telltale signs that microbial life may have lived on Mar

Washington (AFP) Feb 18, 2021
Seven months after blast-off, NASA's Mars 2020 mission will have to negotiate its shortest and most intense phase on Thursday: the "seven minutes of terror" it takes to slam the brakes and land the Perseverance rover on a narrow target on the planet's surface. Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) begins when the spacecraft carrying Perseverance strikes the Martian atmosphere at nearly 12,500 mi

Washington DC (UPI) Feb 18, 2021
After NASA attempts Thursday to land the biggest, heaviest vehicle sent to Mars yet - no small feat - scientists have planned an ambitious mission for exploration of the Red Planet's surface and collection of samples to be sent home. The Perseverance rover will start by landing in an area filled with danger, chosen specifically for the potential of what can be discovered there. "The

Washington (AFP) Feb 18, 2021
Seven months in space, a mission that was decades in the making and cost billions of dollars, all to answer the question: was there ever life on Mars? NASA's Perseverance rover prepares for touchdown on the Red Planet Thursday to search for telltale signs of microbes that might have existed there billions of years ago, when conditions were warmer and wetter than they are today. Over the

Moscow (AFP) Feb 17, 2021
Moscow on Wednesday said it had refused a visa for a new representative in Russia for the US space agency NASA, accusing Washington of blocking Russian visa applications to the United States. "It was a retaliatory measure," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency. Citing sources in the space sector, RIA Novosti reported that Russia in Ja