Beijing (XNA) Mar 30, 2022
Three astronauts stationed in China's Tiangong space station are preparing for their return trip in the middle of April, packing up personal items, experimental products and other materials, putting equipment into place and exercising to prepare their bodies for Earth's gravity. The astronauts, Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu, have to tidy up a large number of materials, including

Almaty, Kazakhstan (AFP) March 30, 2022
A record-breaking US astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts were headed for Earth Wednesday in the first space landing since Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent tensions between Moscow and the West to Cold War levels. NASA's Mark Vande Hei is set to touch down in Kazakhstan's steppe at 1128 GMT, after setting a new record for the single longest spaceflight by a NASA astronaut by clocking 355 day

Madrid, Spain (SPX) Mar 29, 2022
The European Space Agency (ESA) awarded SENER Aeroespacial the AERIAL project to design an unmanned aerial vehicle or drone capable of flying in the low density, pressure and temperature of the Martian atmosphere. AERIAL is the European proposal to conquer the Martian skies by increasing and improving the capabilities of classic ground exploration vehicles (rover) and avoiding dealing with the c

Forres, UK (SPX) Mar 29, 2022
Orbex and FORCE Technology have been awarded a new contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) to further develop an X-Ray Inspection System for rocket engines. The system will enable the two firms to carry out non-destructive, high-energy X-ray inspections of Orbex's large-scale 3D-printed rocket engines prior to flight, using advanced technology to eliminate any internal flaws. It will

Beijing (XNA) Mar 30, 2022
Using China's gigantic optical telescope, astronomers have discovered a record number of small compact galaxies outside the Milky Way where star formation is taking place at a rapid pace. With the help of the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), a team of researchers under the aegis of the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Washington DC (SPX) Mar 30, 2022
The existence of harassment and discrimination in academia has been well documented across a variety of fields of study. A report from the American Institute of Physics goes beyond the numbers to examine types of harassment experienced by members of the astronomy community over the span of a decade, highlighting the pervasiveness of the issue. The AIP Longitudinal Survey of Astronomy Gradu

Potsdam, Germany (SPX) Mar 30, 2022
Using data from the VISTA survey of the Magellanic Clouds system (VMC), researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), in collaboration with scientists from the VMC team, confirmed the existence of elongated orbits which are at the backbone of the bar formation process. The method used repeated imaging observations to construct a velocity map of stars in the central region

Paris (ESA) Mar 30, 2022
ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, Juice, is set to embark on an eight-year cruise to Jupiter starting April 2023. The mission will investigate the emergence of habitable worlds around gas giants and the Jupiter system as an archetype for the numerous giant planets now known to orbit other stars. This animation depicts Juice's journey to Jupiter and highlights from its foreseen tour of the

Jacksonville FL (SPX) Mar 30, 2022
Redwire Corporation (NYSE: RDW), a leader in space infrastructure for the next generation space economy, is supplying solar array technology that will power the newest of PlanetiQ's weather and climate monitoring satellites, GNOMES-3, which is aboard the Transporter 4 launch scheduled to lift off on April 1, 2022 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. GNOMES-3, the third satel

Laurel MD (SPX) Mar 30, 2022
Scientists on NASA's New Horizons mission team have determined multiple episodes of cryovolcanism may have created some kinds of surface structures on Pluto, the likes of which are not seen anywhere else in the solar system. Material expelled from below the surface of this distant, icy planet could have created a region of large domes and rises flanked by hills, mounds and depressions. New Horiz