Greenbelt MD (SPX) Feb 07, 2023
Engineers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, have finished testing the high-gain antenna for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. When it launches by May 2027, this NASA observatory will help unravel the secrets of dark energy and dark matter, search for and image exoplanets, and explore many topics in infrared astrophysics. Pictured above in a test chamber, th

Boulder CO (SPX) Feb 07, 2023
An international team of researchers has uncovered what might be a critical step in the chemical evolution of molecules in cosmic "stellar nurseries." In these vast clouds of cold gas and dust in space, trillions of molecules swirl together over millions of years. The collapse of these interstellar clouds eventually gives rise to young stars and planets. Like human bodies, stellar nurserie

Washington (AFP) Feb 6, 2023
European astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have detected a previously unknown asteroid about the size of Rome's Colosseum in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid measuring between 300 and 650 feet (100 to 200 meters) in length is the smallest object observed to date using the telescope, the US space agency NASA said Monday. The European astronomers

Beijing (XNA) Feb 07, 2023
Yutu 2, China's operating lunar rover, ignites people's fantasies of the moon on a special day, the Lantern Festival of the Year of the Rabbit. The festival this year falls on Sunday, the 15th day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar when a full moon appears. As the closest celestial body to the Earth, the moon was the first stop for mankind to start the "interstellar era

Huntsville AL (SPX) Feb 07, 2023
NASA and its partners across the country are continuing to make progress on the crewed Artemis missions with hardware for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rockets for Artemis II, III, and IV already in various phases of production, assembly, and testing. SLS proved to be the world's most powerful rocket, when its two solid rocket boosters and four RS-25 engines produced more than 8.8 milli

Natick MA (SPX) Feb 07, 2023
The in-space propulsion firm Busek Co. Inc. (Busek) announced the successful on-orbit commissioning of its BHT-350 Hall effect thrusters on a duo of launches. The thrusters were sent aloft on OneWeb's 15th and 16th missions, which utilized separate SpaceX Falcon-9s to deliver 80 spacecraft into low Earth orbit (LEO). The Busek thrusters are utilized for orbit-raising, station-keeping, collision

Washington DC (UPI) Feb 6, 2021
SpaceX is planning another launch attempt of the Hispasat Amazonas Nexus mission Monday evening after it was scrubbed on Sunday because of inclement weather. The launch is set for 8:32 p.m. EST on Monday at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The satellite features Ka-band capacity to optimize communications between the gateways and the sate

Tucson AZ (SPX) Feb 07, 2023
Scientists and government agencies have been worried about the space junk surrounding Earth for decades. But humanity's starry ambitions are farther reaching than the space just around Earth. Ever since the 1960s with the launch of the Apollo program and the emergence of the space race between the U.S. and Soviet Union, people have been leaving trash around the Moon, too. Today, experts es

Beijing (XNA) Feb 07, 2023
China will push forward its phase-4 lunar exploration program this year, including a planned mission to bring 2 kilograms of samples from the far side of the moon back to Earth, Wu Weiren, chief designer of the country's lunar exploration program, revealed on Monday. Wu said China will continue its lunar research with the Chang'e-6, Chang'e-7 and Chang'e-8 missions. The Chang'e-6 mission i

London, UK (SPX) Feb 07, 2023
A galaxy has been discovered that mirrors the very early version of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The galaxy, dubbed 'The Sparkler', is embedded in a system of globular clusters and satellite galaxies, and appears to be swallowing them as it grows. The research was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The discovery of The Sparkler was made using some of the fir