Copernical Team
ESA to live tweet asteroid impact exercise
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For almost a decade, world asteroid experts have been meeting every two years at the Planetary Defense Conference and pretending an asteroid impact is imminent. Why? To prepare for the unlikely – but plausible – scenario in which this comes true.
Official: China's moon probe will carry French, Russian gear
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NASA's Mars helicopter's third flight goes farther, faster than before
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NASA's mini helicopter Ingenuity on Sunday successfully completed its third flight on Mars, moving farther and faster than ever before, with a peak speed of 6.6 feet per second.
After two initial flights during which the craft hovered above the Red Planet's surface, the helicopter on this third flight covered 64 feet (50 meters) of distance, reaching the speed of 6.6 feet per second (two meters per second), or four miles per hour in this latest flight.
"Today's flight was what we planned for, and yet it was nothing short of amazing," said Dave Lavery, the Ingenuity project's program executive.
Stone skipping techniques can improve reentry of space vehicles
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Skipping stones on a body of water is an age-old game, but developing a better understanding of the physics involved is crucial for more serious matters, such as water landings upon reentry of spaceflight vehicles or aircrafts.
In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, scientists from several universities in China reveal several key factors that influence the number of bounces a skipping st Georgia Tech shares $15M from NASA to advance deep space exploration
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Every few years, NASA creates Space Technology Research Institutes (STRI) in areas it believes are going to be strategic for future technology and space missions. Today, that area is electric propulsion - the use of electrical energy to accelerate propellant to create thrust. The technology yields extremely efficient thrusters to power space flight for gateway launches to the moon or even shuttl SpaceX Crew-2 astronauts enter International Space Station
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The four astronauts aboard Crew-2 Dragon capsule Endeavour entered the International Space Station on Saturday morning, more than 26 hours after being launched from Florida.
The arrival boosted space station occupancy temporarily to 11, one of the highest numbers in history and the most since the space shuttle program ended in 2011. The record was set in 2009 with 13 people on board. Biggest space station crowd in decade after SpaceX arrival
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The International Space Station's population swelled to 11 on Saturday with the jubilant arrival of SpaceX's third crew capsule in less than a year.
Mission Alpha: Josef Aschbacher congratulates the crew
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Video:
00:04:17
ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher congratulates the Dragon Crew 2 shortly after they enter the Space Station. ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide arrived at the Station one day after their launch on 23 April at 10:49 BST (11:49 CEST, 05:49 local time).
Thomas is the first ESA astronaut to fly in space in a vehicle other than the Russian Soyuz or the US Space Shuttle, and the first ESA astronaut to leave Earth from Florida, USA, in over a decade. This is his
Mission Alpha launch to docking highlights
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Video:
00:02:21
Highlights of the launch and first day in space of ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet on the Alpha mission.
On 24 April at 11:08 (CEST) the Crew Dragon spacecraft with ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide docked with the International Space Station’s Node-2 Harmony module, marking the start of ESA’s six-month mission Alpha.
The crew spent around 23 hours orbiting Earth and catching up with the International Space Station after their launch on 23 April at 10:49 BST (11:49 CEST, 05:49 local time). The launch to
Old SpaceX capsule delivers new crew to space station
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A recycled SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts arrived at the International Space Station on Saturday, the third high-flying taxi ride in less than a year for Elon Musk's company.
The Dragon capsule docked autonomously with the orbiting outpost more than 260 miles (420 kilometers) above the Indian Ocean, a day after launching from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
