Greenbelt MD (SPX) May 13, 2021
Launching this summer, NASA's Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) will showcase the dynamic powers of laser communications technologies. With NASA's ever-increasing human and robotic presence in space, missions can benefit from a new way of "talking" with Earth. Since the beginning of spaceflight in the 1950s, NASA missions have leveraged radio frequency communications to send

Redmond WA (SPX) May 13, 2021
Xplore Inc., a commercial space company providing Space as a Service has announced they are opening a satellite manufacturing facility in Redmond, Washington. Their new, state-of-the-art campus is a key step in the company's mission to expand mass manufacturing of the XCraft the company's highly-capable, ESPA-class satellite, and the LightCraft, Xplore's highly-maneuverable spacecraft for deep s

Moscow, Russia (SPX) May 13, 2021
Scientists at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) and their colleagues from the University of Graz and the Kanzelhohe Observatory (Austria) and the ESA European Space Operations Centre developed a method and software called RESONANCE to predict the solar radio flux activity for 1-24 months ahead. RESONANCE will serve to improve the specification of satellite orbits, re-

Cleveland OH (SPX) May 13, 2021
Science and technology advancements start with big ideas and creativity. Researchers at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland have imagined a new, early-stage concept for a lander to Saturn's moon Titan. The team is exploring technologies capable of collecting surface samples and returning them to Earth for laboratory analysis. The team's futuristic idea was selected for a $125,000 NAS

Lisbon, Portugal (SPX) May 13, 2021
The largest ever quest for atmospheric wave patterns on the night side of Venus, and a new window onto vertical winds, are the two recent major insights into the super rotating cloud level of the planet, made by researchers of the Instituto de Astrofisica e Ciencias do Espaco (IA). 13th May 2021 - On a slow rotating planet such as Venus, but with constant winds beyond the most devastating

Pasadena CA (JPL) May 13, 2021
When NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter took to the Martian skies on its third flight on April 25, the agency's Perseverance rover was there to capture the historic moment. Now NASA engineers have rendered the flight in 3D, lending dramatic depth to the flight as the helicopter ascends, hovers, then zooms laterally off-screen before returning for a pinpoint landing. Seeing the sequence is a bit li

Kourou, French Guiana (ESA) May 13, 2021
Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana is carrying out combined tests to prepare for the arrival of Ariane 6, Europe's next generation heavy-lift launch vehicle. The first Ariane 6 fairing has already arrived at the Spaceport from Europe. It is 20 m high and 5.4 m in diameter and is being integrated with a mockup payload to test equipment and procedures inside the assembly building. Rua

Moscow (AFP) May 13, 2021
Japanese billionaire entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano will be the next tourists to travel to the International Space Station (ISS), Russia's space agency Roscosmos said Thursday. Maezawa and Hirano will travel aboard a Russian "Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft that is scheduled for launch on December 8, 2021 from the Baikonur cosmodrome" in Kazakhstan, the agency said in a sta

West Palm Beach FL (SPX) May 13, 2021
Aerojet Rocketdyne recently completed a successful RL10C-X altitude hot fire test series that put the next generation engine through the rigors of a typical spaceflight mission. Using a test chamber that simulates the vacuum of outer space, the RL10C-X, which produces roughly 24,000 pounds of thrust, was tested in a flight-like configuration to demonstrate the engine's capability to complete a t

Moscow (AFP) May 13, 2021
Russia said Thursday it would send an actress and a director into space to make the first feature film in the cosmos and also deliver an eccentric Japanese billionaire to the International Space Station. Moscow is seeking to boost its embattled space programme, which has stagnated since the collapse of the Soviet Union and been overtaken by US tech billionaire Elon Musk's company SpaceX.