Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 29, 2025
Technicians supporting NASA's PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission have successfully deployed and tested the spacecraft's solar arrays at the Astrotech Space Operations processing facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. This key pre-launch milestone ensures the readiness of the arrays, which are essential for powering the spacecraft's systems and scientifi

Frankfurt, Germamy (SPX) Jan 30, 2025
It took two years for NASA's OSIRIS-REx space probe to return from asteroid Bennu before dropping off a small capsule as it flew past Earth, which was then recovered in the desert of the U.S. state of Utah on September 24, 2023. Its contents: 122 grams of dust and rock from asteroid Bennu. The probe had collected this sample from the surface of the 500-metre agglomerate of unconsolidated materia

Berkeley CA (SPX) Jan 30, 2025
During the past year, there's been an unusual set of samples at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab): material gathered from the 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid Bennu when it was roughly 200 million miles from Earth. Berkeley Lab is one of more than 40 institutions investigating Bennu's chemical makeup to better understand how our solar system and p

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jan 30, 2025
Our planet is constantly bombarded by particles from outer space. While most of us are familiar with the sight of rocky meteorites - those shooting stars that light up the night sky - it's the smaller particles that hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of the universe. Cosmic rays, which include high-speed subatomic particles like electrons and protons from interstellar space and beyond, are

Perth, Australia (SPX) Jan 30, 2025
Curtin University researchers have gained an unprecedented glimpse into the early history of our solar system through some of the most well-preserved asteroid samples ever collected, potentially transforming our understanding of planetary formation and the origins of life. Experts from Curtin's School of Earth and Planetary Sciences were selected to be amongst the first in the world to ins

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 29, 2025
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and the Carnegie Institution for Science have conducted advanced laboratory experiments to explore the mechanisms that allow Saturn's moon Titan to maintain its dense, nitrogen-rich atmosphere. Titan, the second-largest moon in the solar system, is the only one known to possess a significant atmosphere. "While just 40% the diameter of the Earth, Titan ha

Washington DC (SPX) Jan 30, 2025
A new analysis of samples from the asteroid Bennu, NASA's first asteroid sample captured in space and delivered to Earth, reveals that evaporated water left a briny broth where salts and minerals allowed the elemental ingredients of life to intermingle and create more complex structures. The discovery suggests that extraterrestrial brines provided a crucial setting for the development of organic

Paris, France (SPX) Jan 30, 2025
The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded Thales Alenia Space, located in Italy, a significant contract to lead a European consortium tasked with building the Argonaut Lunar Descent Element (LDE), which will be ESA's first-ever lunar lander. Scheduled to begin operations in the early 2030s, the Argonaut lander will serve as Europe's gateway to autonomous and adaptable access to the Moon,

Toulouse, France (SPX) Jan 30, 2025
The first of the next-generation SpainSat satellites, SpainSat NG-I, has successfully launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, USA. This advanced satellite, operated by Hisdesat for the Spanish Armed Forces, will provide Europe's most secure communications capability in UHF, Ka, and X bands. It is scheduled to begin operations in geostationary orbit in the second half of 2025, foll

The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed a contract with Thales Alenia Space in Italy to lead European aerospace companies in building the Argonaut Lunar Descent Element, ESA’s first lunar lander.