Moscow (AFP) April 7, 2021
Sixty years after he became the first person in space, there are few figures more universally admired in Russia today than Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. His smiling face adorns murals across the country. He stands, arms at his sides as if zooming into space, on a pedestal 42.5 metres (140 feet) above the traffic flowing on Moscow's Leninsky Avenue. He is even a favourite subject of tattoos.

Nagoya, Japan (SPX) Apr 07, 2021
Nagoya University scientists in Japan have demonstrated how DNA-like molecules could have come together as a precursor to the origins of life. The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, not only suggest how life might have begun, but also have implications for the development of artificial life and biotechnology applications. "The RNA world is widely thought to be a stag

Director General Josef Aschbacher will present ESA Agenda 2025 at 1400 CEST (1200 GMT) on Wednesday 7 April 2021. ESA Agenda 2025 is a vision for ESA’s future prepared in consultation with the ESA Member States. It sets out strategic priorities and goals for the Agency, such as strengthening the ESA–EU relationship, boosting green and digital commercialisation, developing space for safety and security, addressing critical programme challenges and implementing the ESA transformation.

Watch the presentation and questions from the media on ESA WebTV from 1400 CEST.

San Antonio TX (SPX) Apr 07, 2021
NASA's Lucy spacecraft has successfully completed thermal vacuum testing of both solar panels, the final step in checking out these critical spacecraft components in preparation for launch this fall. Once the Lucy spacecraft's solar panels are attached and fully extended, they could cover a five-story building. Lucy, the 13th mission in NASA's Discovery Program, requires these large solar

Paris (ESA) Apr 07, 2021
Today is 406 Day - the annual campaigning day to spread awareness of the importance of emergency beacons, and the satellites that pick up their signals, including Europe's Galileo constellation. As well as letting people across the world find their way, Galileo also serves to detect SOS messages and relay them to authorities, contributing to saving many lives. Such detections can happen an

Stanford CA (SPX) Apr 07, 2021
The universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate, and while no one is sure why, researchers with the Dark Energy Survey (DES) at least had a strategy for figuring it out: They would combine measurements of the distribution of matter, galaxies and galaxy clusters to better understand what's going on. Reaching that goal turned out to be pretty tricky, but now a team led by researchers at

Colorado Springs CO (SPX) Apr 07, 2021
To obtain real-time awareness of the more than 300,000 objects orbiting the earth, the German Space Agency at DLR has selected Lockheed Martin's iSpace command and control system. The iSpace system tracks thousands of objects orbiting the earth by collecting data from a worldwide network of government, commercial and scientific community surveillance sensors. The German Space Agency at DLR

San Antonio TX (SPX) Apr 07, 2021
NASA has selected Southwest Research Institute's 100 kg-class small satellite (SmallSat) platform to be listed in the Rapid Spacecraft Development Office (RSDO) IV catalog used by the U.S. government to rapidly contract for flight-proven spacecraft. The Southwest Space Platform-100 (SwSP-100) is now available through the $6 billion, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) Rapid Spacecraft

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Apr 07, 2021
The world's first ground-based observations of the bare nucleus of a comet nearing the end of its active life revealed that the nucleus has a diameter of 800 meters and is covered with large grains of phyllosilicate; on Earth large grains of phyllosilicate are commonly available as talcum powder. This discovery provides clues to piece together the history of how this comet evolved into its curre

Huntsville AL (SPX) Apr 07, 2021
The rocket engine with one of the most storied histories in spaceflight, the RS-25, is returning to space for a second act - this time to send humans on the Artemis missions to explore the Moon. As the space shuttle main engine, the RS-25 has a proven record of launching 135 missions spanning over three decades. At the end of the shuttle program in 2011, 16 RS-25 engines that helped build