Vandenberg AFP CA (SPX) Mar 05, 2024
Preparations are underway for a new, small spacecraft technology demonstration that will test cost-efficient swarm capabilities - the ability for multiple spacecraft to communicate and perform coordinated actions. The PY4 mission's four CubeSats are slated to launch Monday March 4, 2:05 p.m. PST to low Earth orbit aboard SpaceX's Transporter-10 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Califor

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Mar 05, 2024
Space Machines Company announced the successful launch of Optimus, Australia's most significant private satellite to date, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 9:05 AM AEDT, March 5th. This launch marks a critical step for Space Machines Company, introducing Optimus as its inaugural Orbital Servicing Vehicle (OSV) and laying the foundation for t

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Mar 05, 2024
April 17, 2021, was a day like any other day on the Sun, until a brilliant flash erupted and an enormous cloud of solar material billowed away from our star. Such outbursts from the Sun are not unusual, but this one was unusually widespread, hurling high-speed protons and electrons at velocities nearing the speed of light and striking several spacecraft across the inner solar system. In fa

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Mar 05, 2024
A team from the St Andrews Centre for Exoplanet Science and the Space Research Institute (IWF) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences has utilized Bayesian network analysis to quantitatively examine the portrayal of exoplanets in science fiction. This research marks a significant step forward in understanding the relationship between scientific discovery and its representation in popular culture, p

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 05, 2024
An international team of astronomers, led by Naman Bajaj from the University of Arizona, has utilized the unparalleled capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to provide new insights into the final stages of planet formation. This marks the first time scientists have imaged winds emanating from an aging, yet still planet-forming, disk around the young star TCha, offering a rare gli

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Mar 04, 2024
Axelspace Corporation, a Tokyo-based leader in the microsatellite sector, has announced the scheduled launch of its latest demonstration satellite, PYXIS. The launch is set to take place on March 4, 2024, utilizing SpaceX's reliable Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, USA. This mission, dubbed Transporter-10, aims to place PYXIS into a sun-synchronous orbit between 50

Philadelphia PA (SPX) Mar 05, 2024
On a given night, the Allegheny Observatory might be hosting an open house, a lecture given by astronomy experts, educational programs for kids or tours set aside specifically for teachers and their families. Most nights of the week, Pitt students are also at the observatory, hard at work learning how to use the tools of astronomy to explore the night sky and understand the rules that gove

Washington DC (SPX) Mar 05, 2024
Scientists with NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter have calculated the rate of oxygen being produced at the Jovian moon Europa to be substantially less than most previous studies. Published on March 4 in Nature Astronomy, the findings were derived by measuring hydrogen outgassing from the icy moon's surface using data collected by the spacecraft's Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) instr

Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 04, 2024
Earth planning date: Friday, March 1, 2024: The "Mineral King" drill hole did not quite reach the target depth that we typically desire to ensure that we have enough sample in the drill stem to deliver to our internal CheMin and SAM instruments. However, based on the information we did have (see details in the Sol 4110 blog), we proceeded with delivery to CheMin, and got the good news yest

Oak Ridge TN (SPX) Mar 04, 2024
A U.S. mission to land astronauts on the surface of Mars will be unlike any other extraterrestrial landing ever undertaken by NASA. Although the space agency has successfully landed nine robotic missions on Mars since its first surface missions in 1976 with the Viking Project, safely bringing humans to Mars will require new technologies for flight through the Martian atmosphere. But these