Washington DC (UPI) Sep 9, 2021
The U.S. Navy has set up its first-ever task force that'll use a vast ocean area in the Middle East as the setting for learning how to incorporate unmanned systems and artificial intelligence into maritime operations. Task Force 59 will specifically be focused on the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations, the Navy said on Thursday. The fleet was selected for its strategic importance,

Dubai (AFP) Sept 9, 2021
The US Navy's Fifth Fleet said Thursday it launched a new task force in the Gulf incorporating drones and artificial intelligence following maritime attacks blamed on Iran. A statement by the US Naval Forces Central Command, or NAVCENT, said the task force would rely on regional and coalition partnerships. "The bottom line on why we're doing this is so that we can develop and integrate u

Washington DC (SPX) Sep 13, 2021
The U.S. Air Force has approved an approximately $750,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant to SpiderOak to test its new OrbitSecure secure communications protocol on military satellites and ground stations. The outcome will enable government agencies to leverage commercial space assets for federal missions in emerging hybrid space architectures that mix commercial and government satellit

Essen, Germany (SPX) Sep 13, 2021
From Sept. 7-9 the Joint Air Power Competence Centre (JAPCC) hosted their annual Conference convening the NATO Airpower community at Essen, Germany. The presentations and discussions were focused on the topic of Delivering NATO Air and Space Power at the speed of relevance. "The annual JAPCC conference provides an outstanding opportunity to address the significant challenges of bringing po

Baltimore MD (SPX) Sep 14, 2021
It's challenging to make predictions, especially in astronomy. There are however, a few forecasts astronomers can depend on, such as the timing of upcoming lunar and solar eclipses and the clockwork return of some comets. Now, looking far beyond the solar system, astronomers have added a solid prediction of an event happening deep in intergalactic space: an image of an exploding star, dubb

Boston MA (SPX) Sep 14, 2021
In 1929, Edwin Hubble published observations that galaxies' distances and velocities are correlated, with the distances determined using their Cepheid stars. Harvard astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt had discovered that a Cepheid star varies periodically with a period that is related to its intrinsic luminosity. She calibrated the effect, and when Hubble compared those calculated values with his

Melbourne, Australia (SPX) Sep 14, 2021
Galaxies host supermassive black holes, which weigh millions to billions times more than our Sun. When galaxies collide, pairs of supermassive black holes at their centres also lie on the collision course. It may take millions of years before two black holes slam into each other. When the distance between them is small enough, the black hole binary starts to produce ripples in space-time, which

Paris, France (The Conversation) Sep 14, 2021
Houston, we have a problem! Love and sex need to happen in space if we hope to travel long distances and become an interplanetary species, but space organizations are not ready. National agencies and private space companies - such as NASA and SpaceX - aim to colonize Mars and send humans into space for long-term missions, but they have yet to address the intimate and sexual needs of astron

Moscow (Sputnik) Sep 14, 2021
Two international astronauts, Japan's Akihiko Hoshide and France's Thomas Pesquet have returned safely to the International Space Station (ISS) after completing a spacewalk that spanned nearly seven hours, NASA said. "Astronauts Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) have concluded the first spacewalk conducted by

Image:

If you are spacewalking and you know it, raise your hand.

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet (left) and JAXA astronaut Aki Hoshide (right) performed a spacewalk on Sunday 12 September to prepare another section of the International Space Station for its solar panel upgrade.

The new solar arrays, called IROSA or ISS Roll-Out Solar Array, are being gradually installed over the existing arrays to boost the International Space Station’s power system.

Thomas and NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough prepared and installed two IROSA solar panels across three spacewalks in June. The arrays were taken from their storage area outside the Space Station and