Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 17, 2023
Today, I was heading for my computer when my colleagues went off to celebrate the end of the working week. Yes, that's right, planning started at 5 pm in my part of the world (the UK) today. That was one hour later than anticipated (and I would have missed all my colleagues going 'Have a good weekend!') Why that late? Most days, we start an hour earlier, at 8 am in Pasadena California, not

Ithaca NY (SPX) Feb 22, 2023
Current state-of-the-art instrumentation being sent to Mars to collect and analyze evidence of life might not be sensitive enough to make accurate assessments, according to a research team co-led by a Cornell University astronomer. In a paper published in Nature Communications, visiting planetary scientist Alberto Fairen, and an international team of researchers, claim that ancient organic

Washington DC (UPI) Feb 21, 2023
Russia's space agency Roscosmos' delayed rescue mission to send a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station and bring three astronauts back to Earth is scheduled to lift off Thursday night EDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Russia originally had planned to send an unmanned Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft to the space station Feb. 14 to substitute for the docked Soyuz MS-22

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 22, 2023
Axelspace Corporation Associate Professor Atsushi Shirane, and Professor Kenichi Okada and Assistant Professor Takashi Tomura of Tokyo Institute of Technology have successfully developed a radiation-resistant radio. The results of this research will be presented at ISSCC 2023, the world's largest international semiconductor-related conference, and Satellite 2023, scheduled to be held in the Unit

Space Coast FL (SPX) Feb 21, 2023
The crew arrived on a NASA Gulfstream business jet from their home base at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and safely landed at the Launch and Landing Facility, the runway once used for space shuttle landings at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Touchdown was at approximately 12:30 p.m. EST (1730 GMT) on Tuesday, February 21. The crew member

Jacksonville FlL (SPX) Feb 22, 2023
Redwire Corporation (NYSE:RDW) has partnered with Starfish Space to provide Redwire's ARGUS space domain awareness camera for Starfish Space's first-ever satellite docking mission, Otter Pup. Additionally, Redwire has secured a contract option with Starfish Space to demonstrate Redwire's Cerebro Resident Space Object tracking software in orbit upon the completion of the primary mission.

Seattle WA (SPX) Feb 22, 2023
The red streaks crisscrossing the surface of Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, are striking. Scientists suspect it is a frozen mixture of water and salts, but its chemical signature is mysterious because it matches no known substance on Earth. A team led by the University of Washington may have solved the puzzle with the discovery of a new type of solid crystal that forms when water and tabl

Washington DC (UPI) Feb 21, 2023
The Department of Defense awarded a $1.5 million contract to New Frontier Aerospace to continue its work on a 3D printed rocket engine. The aerospace manufacturer announced the deal in a press release on Tuesday with funding coming from the National Security Innovation Capital. The company is developing a plastic-fueled rocket engine called Mjolnir. Development began with a $750,000 co

Paris (ESA) Feb 22, 2023
This year started with a nice imaging opportunity for Solar Orbiter, and a chance to further improve the quality of its data. On 3 January 2023, inner planet Mercury crossed the spacecraft's field of view, resulting in a transit where Mercury appeared as a perfectly black circle moving across the face of the Sun. A number of the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter's instruments captured the transit. In

Space Coast FL (SPX) Feb 22, 2023
Roscosmos on Tuesday blamed an "external impact," not a manufacturing defect, for a coolant leak from an unmanned Russian supply ship docked at the International Space Station on February 11. High-resolution pictures of the Progress MS-21 spacecraft were taken by cosmonauts using the ISS' 17-meter-long Canadarm2 robotic arm, which revealed a 12-millimeter hole where the coolant fluid pour