San Antonio TX (SPX) Oct 05, 2021
When Pluto passed in front of a star on the night of August 15, 2018, a Southwest Research Institute-led team of astronomers had deployed telescopes at numerous sites in the U.S. and Mexico to observe Pluto's atmosphere as it was briefly backlit by the well-placed star. Scientists used this occultation event to measure the overall abundance of Pluto's tenuous atmosphere and found compelling evid

Washington DC (SPX) Oct 05, 2021
Set to launch next year, NASA's Psyche mission marks the first time the agency has set out to explore an asteroid richer in metal than rock or ice. More than 150 years have passed since novelist Jules Verne wrote "Journey to the Center of the Earth," but reality has yet to catch up with that science fiction adventure. While humans can't bore a path to our planet's metallic core, NASA has its sig

Herndon VA (SPX) Oct 05, 2021
HawkEye 360 reports it has secured new contracts totaling over $50 million in potential value since the start of the year as its next generation satellites have become operational. "HawkEye 360 is experiencing an exceptional year, with record growth in customer engagements and bookings," said HawkEye 360 CEO John Serafini. "We're building depth of customers across the United States,

Austin TX (SPX) Oct 05, 2021
CesiumAstro, Inc. announces the successful launch and deployment of its first two satellites featuring their leading-edge communications payloads aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V-401 rocket. Dubbed Cesium Mission 1(CM1), the duo of satellites will provide an on-orbit testbed for next generation wireless communications and sensing technologies. "We will see major advancements over th

Los Angeles AFB CA (SPX) Oct 05, 2021
Space Systems Command's (SSC) Production Corps achieved a major milestone with the completion of the final Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) satellite, SBIRS Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO)-6 on Sept. 2 at Lockheed Martin's Sunnyvale, California production facility. SBIRS GEO-6 will begin final preparations for a scheduled launch in the first half of 2022 on a United Launch Alliance Atl

Los Angeles AFB CA (SPX) Oct 05, 2021
The U.S. Space Force's Space Systems Command's (SSC) Cross-Mission Ground and Communications Enterprise (ECX) has awarded a cost-plus fixed fee contract totaling $46.5 million to Sev1Tech LLC of Woodbridge, Virginia. The contract was awarded through the Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC) Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreement for meshONE-T. This prototype effort will deploy and demons

Dubai (AFP) Oct 5, 2021
The United Arab Emirates will launch a spacecraft to explore a major asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, officials said Tuesday, after a UAE probe reached the red planet early this year. The five-year journey from 2028 will traverse 3.6 billion kilometres (2.2 billion miles), with the unmanned craft drawing on gravity assists from Earth and Venus to reach the main asteroid belt beyond Ma

Tucson AZ (SPX) Oct 05, 2021
The newest known example of a rare type of object in the Solar System - a comet hidden among the main-belt asteroids - has been found and studied, according to a new paper by Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Henry Hsieh. Discovered to be active on July 7, 2021, by the Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey, asteroid (248370) 2005 QN137 is just the eighth main-be

Las Vegas NV (SPX) Oct 05, 2021
In a distant star system - a mere 1,300 light years away from Earth - UNLV researchers and colleagues may have identified the first known planet to orbit three stars. Unlike our solar system, which consists of a solitary star, it is believed that half of all star systems, like GW Ori where astronomers observed the novel phenomenon, consist of two or more stars that are gravitationally boun

Courtland, AL (SPX) Oct 05, 2021
Lockheed Martin is breaking barriers in hypersonic technology, adding to its world-class portfolio another milestone with the grand opening of an advanced production facility in Courtland, Alabama, focused on hypersonic strike production. Capitalizing on critical digital factory capabilities to deliver this technology, the corporation is working closely with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)