Copernical Team
ICEYE and Aon broaden partnership with global flood and US wildfire data agreement
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ICEYE, a leader in satellite-powered disaster management, has announced an expanded data licensing agreement with Aon, a global professional services firm. This partnership now includes ICEYE's Flood Insights data globally and Wildfire Insights data for the United States.
Through this agreement, Aon will integrate ICEYE's near real-time flood and wildfire data into its event response capab Floodbase's Enhanced Flood Mapping Technique surpasses NOAA's accuracy
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A newly published study in 'Geophysical Research Letters' reveals that Floodbase's flood mapping technology achieves an 11% improvement in accuracy over leading methods, offering more precise flood monitoring and potentially lowering costs for parametric flood insurance.
Floodbase, a key provider of flood intelligence and data for disaster management and re/insurance sectors, has developed UK-US integration key to future of space security
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U.S. Space Force Lt. Gen. David N. Miller, Jr., commander of Space Operations Command, and Chief Master Sgt. Caleb Lloyd, SpOC senior enlisted leader, met with Airmen, Guardians and UK counterparts during a visit Aug. 27-30.
The SpOC command team visited RAF Waddington, Feltwell and High Wycombe to engage with members of the Space Force on morale, readiness, and interoperability with host Cluster reentry explained: world's first targeted reentry
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Video:
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The first of four satellites that make up ESA’s Cluster mission is coming safely back down to Earth, marking a brilliant end to this remarkable mission.
The satellite’s orbit was tweaked back in January to target a region as far as possible from populated regions. This ensures that any spacecraft parts that survive the reentry will fall over open ocean.
During 24 years in space, Cluster has sent back precious data on how the Sun interacts with Earth’s magnetic field, helping us better understand and forecast potentially dangerous space weather.
With this first ever targeted reentry, Cluster goes down in history
Q&A: Scientist discusses the MESSENGER mission to Mercury
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Twenty years ago, the MESSENGER mission revolutionized our understanding of Mercury. We sat down with project head and former Carnegie Science director Sean Solomon to talk about how the mission came together and the groundbreaking work it enabled.
Q: As the principal investigator of the MESSENGER mission, what were your personal highlights or proudest moments throughout the mission's duration?
Sean Solomon: There were many personal highlights for me during the MESSENGER mission, beginning with our initial selection by NASA in 1999 and culminating in the publication by the MESSENGER science team of all of the findings from our mission in a book published nearly two decades later.
The most challenging events in any planetary orbiter mission are launch and orbit insertion. The successful completion of those two milestones for MESSENGER—in 2004 and 2011, respectively—were sources of great pride for me in the technical expertise of all of the engineers, mission design experts, and project managers who contributed to the mission.
The long flight portion of the mission provided multiple scientific highlights. MESSENGER's first flyby of Mercury in January 2008 yielded the first new spacecraft observations of Mercury in 33 years, and our team published 11 papers in a single issue of Science from those measurements six months later.
NASA explains strange noise heard by astronaut in Boeing's Starliner
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There's nothing to see here, or hear here, actually. That's the message NASA gave after reports of a strange noise heard by astronaut Butch Wilmore emanating from Boeing's Starliner docked to the International Space Station this weekend.
"A pulsing sound from a speaker in Boeing's Starliner spacecraft heard by NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore aboard the International Space Station has stopped," NASA posted to its social media accounts Monday.
It explained the mystery noise as feedback from the speaker that was the result of an audio configuration between the spacecraft and the ISS. Wilmore reported the sound as he was working inside Starliner on Saturday.
"The space station audio system is complex, allowing multiple spacecraft and modules to be interconnected, and it is common to experience noise and feedback," NASA stated. "The crew is asked to contact mission control when they hear sounds originating in the comm system."
NASA also took the opportunity to state the feedback has "no technical impact to the crew, Starliner, or station operations, including Starliner's uncrewed undocking from the station no earlier than Friday, Sept.
SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission set to launch early Friday
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The SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission, a multiday orbital expedition set to feature the first-ever spacewalk by private citizens, is now scheduled to launch on Friday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
An operations plan released by the agency indicates a four-hour launch window opening at 3:33 am (0733 GMT) on Friday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, with backup opportunities on Saturday and Sunday.
NASA's mini BurstCube mission detects its first gamma-ray burst
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The shoebox-sized BurstCube satellite has observed its first gamma-ray burst, the most powerful kind of explosion in the universe, according to a recent analysis of observations collected over the last several months.
"We're excited to collect science data," said Sean Semper, BurstCube's lead engineer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "It's an important milestone for the team and for the many early career engineers and scientists that have been part of the mission."
The event, called GRB 240629A, occurred on June 29 in the southern constellation Microscopium. The team announced the discovery in a GCN (General Coordinates Network) circular on August 29.
BurstCube deployed into orbit April 18 from the International Space Station, following a March 21 launch.
Audit warns costs for NASA's new Artemis launcher could balloon to $2.7 billion
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NASA's second mobile launcher needed for future missions in the Artemis program is already years late and millions over budget, and NASA's Office of the Inspector General warns it could get even worse.
In an audit released last week, the OIG said the mobile launcher 2 (ML-2), which was originally awarded a $383 million contract in 2019 for delivery by 2023 but only began construction at Kennedy Space Center last August, could continue to see ballooning costs and delays, so that once delivered it will cost taxpayers more than $2.7 billion and not be ready until 2029.
"Despite progress since our last report, NASA has struggled to develop a reliable cost and schedule estimate for the ML-2 project and incentivize significant improvement in contractor performance," reads the OIG report. "Given the importance of ML-2 for future Artemis missions, it is critical that NASA effectively manage the project to control cost increases and avoid further schedule delays."
The first Artemis launch took place in 2022 on the existing mobile launcher (ML-1), but ML-2 is needed to support a larger version of the Space Launch System rocket that will be used beginning with the Artemis IV mission.
Boeing will fly its empty capsule back to Earth soon. Two NASA astronauts will stay behind
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Boeing will attempt to return its problem-plagued capsule from the International Space Station later this week—with empty seats.
NASA said Wednesday that everything is on track for the Starliner capsule to undock from the space station Friday evening. The fully automated capsule will aim for a touchdown in New Mexico's White Sands Missile Range six hours later.
NASA's two stuck astronauts who flew up on Starliner will remain behind at the orbiting lab. They'll ride home with SpaceX in February, eight months after launching on what should have been a weeklong test flight. Thruster trouble and helium leaks kept delaying their return until NASA decided that it was too risky for them to accompany Starliner back as originally planned.
"It's been a journey to get here and we're excited to have Starliner return," said NASA's commercial crew program manager Steve Stich.
NASA's Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will close the hatches between Starliner and the space station on Thursday. They are now considered full-time station crew members along with the seven others on board, helping with experiments and maintenance, and ramping up their exercise to keep their bones and muscles strong during their prolonged exposure to weightlessness.
To make room for them on SpaceX's next taxi flight, the Dragon capsule will launch with two astronauts instead of the usual four.
