Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 20, 2025
Some things just come full circle. In 1962, a no-nonsense test pilot with a gleaming bald head and steely determination strapped himself into a Mercury capsule and became the first American to orbit Earth. Now, 62 years later, another bald maverick with that same unwavering grit just launched a 322-foot rocket bearing Glenn's name straight into orbit - and did it on the first try. Jeff Bez

Paris, France (SPX) Jan 20, 2025
The Malargue deep-space communication station in Argentina has undergone a significant upgrade, enhancing its data transmission capabilities by nearly 80%. Completed in late July 2024, this improvement is set to meet the growing demands of deep-space missions and increasing international requests. As deep-space exploration intensifies, the need for ground stations to handle larger and more

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 20, 2025
Stoke Space, a leading company advancing fully reusable medium-lift rocket technology, has announced a successful $260 million Series C funding round. This latest investment more than doubles the company's total funding to $480 million, fueling its ongoing development and expansion efforts. The funding round included participation from a mix of new and returning investors such as Breakthro

East Lansing MI (SPX) Jan 20, 2025
Our sun is essentially a searing hot sphere of gas. Its mix of primarily hydrogen and helium can reach temperatures between 10,000 and 3.6 million degrees Fahrenheit on its surface and its atmosphere's outermost layer. Because of that heat, the blazing orb constantly oozes a stream of plasma, made up of charged subatomic particles - mainly protons and electrons. The sun's gravity can't contain t

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jan 20, 2025
The future of timekeeping is being reshaped by optical atomic clocks, which operate with laser frequencies roughly 100,000 times faster than the microwave frequencies of caesium clocks, the current standard for defining the second in the International System of Units (SI). Some of these optical clocks are already 100 times more accurate than caesium clocks and are poised to redefine the second.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 20, 2025
Researchers have analyzed biofilm produced by bacteria from the El Medano hot springs in Chile's central Andes, discovering that a key component has potential applications as a natural additive in the pharmaceutical and food industries. The study was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports. The key component, an exopolysaccharide (EPS), is a cluster of extracellular carbohydra

London, UK (SPX) Jan 20, 2025
Astrophysicists, led by researchers from Trinity College Dublin, have successfully captured detailed images of exocomet belts around 74 nearby stars, marking a significant step in understanding these distant systems. The images highlight light emitted from millimetre-sized pebbles within the belts, which range across a variety of stellar ages-from young stars still forming to more mature systems

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Jan 20, 2025
ISRO successfully demonstrated the capability to restart its Vikas liquid engine during a test conducted on January 17, 2025, at the ISRO Propulsion Complex in Mahendragiri. The Vikas engine, a critical component powering the liquid stages of ISRO's launch vehicles, is instrumental in advancing technologies for stage recovery and future launch vehicle reusability. The recent test involved

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Jan 20, 2025
China successfully launched a Long March 2D carrier rocket on Friday afternoon, deploying three spacecraft, including a cutting-edge atmospheric research satellite, into their designated orbits. The launch occurred at 12:07 pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. The rocket carried the Tianlu 1 satellite, PRSC-EO1, and Lantan 1, delivering them

Washington DC (UPI) Jan 18, 2025
The Federal Aviation Administration has paused SpaceX's launch of its Starship rocket as the U.S. agency oversees an investigation by the private company of the breakup after a test launch Thursday. The upper stage exploded minutes after launch from South Texas, leading the company to declare the uncrewed vessel a "loss" in the seventh test flight of the heavy-lift spacecraft. Th