Washington (AFP) Jan 12, 2024
Is it the little spaceship that could? A private US lunar lander that's been hemorrhaging fuel since an onboard explosion at the start of its journey is somehow still chugging along, snapping selfies and running science instruments as it travels through space. Though Astrobotic, the company that built the Peregrine robot, has said a controlled touchdown on the Moon is no longer possible

Tune in from Wednesday 17 January from 20:15 GMT/21:15 CET to see ESA project astronaut Marcus Wadnt take off to the International Space Station for his first mission, Muninn. Live coverage will run on ESA Web TV channel two.

Montreal, Canada (SPX) Jan 10, 2024
Led by researchers from Universite de Montreal's Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx), a team of astronomers has harnessed the power of the revolutionary James Webb Space Webb Telescope (JWST) to study the "hot Saturn" exoplanet HAT-P-18 b. Their findings, published last month in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, paint a complete picture of the

Maunakea HI (SPX) Jan 10, 2024
New data from W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawai?i Island confirms exoplanet WASP-69b, known for its escaping atmosphere, is forming a comet-like tail that is even longer than previously observed. Named WASP-69b, scientists have studied this Jupiter-sized planet in the past, focusing on its escaping atmosphere and observing only a small trail of helium gas. But during a press confer

Evanston IL (SPX) Jan 10, 2024
In summer 2022, astronomers detected the most powerful fast radio burst (FRB) ever observed. And coming from a location that dates halfway back to the Big Bang, it also was the farthest known FRB spotted to date. Now, astronomers led by Northwestern University have pinpointed the extraordinary object's birthplace - and it's rather curious, indeed. Using images from NASA's Hubble Space Tele

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 10, 2024
When our Sun was a young star, 4.56 billion years ago, what is now our solar system was just a disk of rocky dust and gas. Over tens of millions of years, tiny pebbles of dust coalesced, like a snowball rolling larger and larger, to become kilometer-sized "planetesimals"-the building blocks of Earth and the other inner planets. Researchers have long tried to understand the ancient environm

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 10, 2024
The United States Space Force (USSF), in a significant move to bolster its capabilities in space operations, has announced the selection of two prominent institutions under the Space Strategic Technology Institute 2 (SSTI 2) program. This initiative, in collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), aims to advance applied research in critical areas of In-Space Operations, notably

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 11, 2024
Spire Global, Inc. (NYSE: SPIR) in collaboration with NorthStar Earth and Space, is set to launch the first commercial SSA satellite constellation, marking a significant milestone in space safety and sustainability. The mission, dubbed 'Four of a Kind', is scheduled for no earlier than January 18, with a launch window between 19:15-20:00 NZT (06:15-07:00 UTC). The launch will take place at

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 11, 2024
NISAR, the soon-to-launch radar satellite from NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), will measure some key Earth vital signs, from the health of wetlands to ground deformation by volcanoes to the dynamics of land and sea ice. This last capability will help researchers decipher how small-scale processes can cause monumental changes in the ice sheets covering Antarctica and

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Jan 12, 2024
China's Kuaizhou 1A carrier rocket successfully launched an experimental satellite, Tianxing 1B, into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwestern Gobi Desert. The launch, which took place on Thursday morning, marks another milestone in China's rapidly advancing space program. The rocket, a solid-propellant model developed by the China Aerospace Science and Industry C