Greenbelt MD (SPX) Oct 08, 2024
NASA's Curiosity rover, currently exploring Gale crater on Mars, is providing new details about how the ancient Martian climate went from potentially suitable for life - with evidence for widespread liquid water on the surface - to a surface that is inhospitable to terrestrial life as we know it. Although the surface of Mars is frigid and hostile to life today, NASA's robotic explorers at

The day began with an 85% chance that bad weather would cause a launch delay: it ended with ESA’s Hera mission successfully in space and en route to the Didymos binary asteroid system.

At 16:52 CEST (14:52 UTC) on 7 October 2024, Hera took to the skies aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA. After a smooth 76-minute ascent, the spacecraft separated from its launcher, and, a few minutes later, ESA’s ESOC mission operations centre in Germany assumed control of the spacecraft.

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ESA engineers have focused microscopes, hardness testers and an X-ray computer aided tomography machine onto a special aluminium weld just a single centimetre across – the historic result of the very first autonomous welding to be performed in space, and the first ESA has been involved with.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 07, 2024
Aalyria, a company specializing in ultra-fast and secure directional mesh networks, has been selected by NASA to lead a study and demonstration of its Network Orchestration and Management System (NOMS). This project aims to show how Aalyria's Spacetime platform can dynamically manage NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) network, focusing on supporting the Near Space Network (NSN) an

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 07, 2024
Astrobotic recently tested its Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) system at Armstrong Trails in western Pennsylvania, marking an important step in refining this technology for space applications. LiDAR, which uses pulsed laser beams to measure distances, is crucial for mapping lunar surfaces in real time and supporting robotic spacecraft landings and operations. The company partnered with

Aalborg, Denmark (SPX) Oct 07, 2024
A partnership of three UK universities has chosen GomSpace to support the development of a satellite mission under a contract valued at 3.6 million SEK. The collaboration, which includes universities from the Space South Central region covering Surrey and Hampshire, is part of the Joint Universities Programme for In-orbit Training, Education, and Research (JUPITER). Their upcoming project,

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 08, 2024
Millennium Space Systems, a Boeing [NYSE: BA] subsidiary, has swiftly completed the preliminary design review (PDR) of its Fire-control On Orbit-support-to-the-war Fighter (FOO Fighter) system just four months after receiving authorization to proceed. This milestone is part of the company's contract to deliver a constellation of eight satellites, a ground system, and mission operations. "J

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Oct 04, 2024
Professional and amateur astronomers teamed up with artificial intelligence to find an unmatched stellar trio called TIC 290061484, thanks to cosmic "strobe lights" captured by NASA's TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite). The system contains a set of twin stars orbiting each other every 1.8 days, and a third star that circles the pair in just 25 days. The discovery smashes the reco

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Oct 08, 2024
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has been chosen by NASA to conduct a study on retrieving rock samples from Mars and transporting them back to Earth. This mission aims to meet key exploration goals, potentially answering critical questions about life on Mars and helping prepare for future human expeditions to the planet. The NASA Rapid Mission Design Studies for Mars Sample Return initi

Washington DC (UPI) Oct 4, 2024
NASA announced the selection of 71 student teams that will build and launch amateur rockets and scientific payloads in a competition they hope will inspire the next generation of space explorers. The 71 teams are divided into a college division and high-school/middle-school division. The final on-site events will start April 30 with the final launches on May 3 at Bragg Farms in T