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The James Webb Space Telescope, configured for flight, was moved from the cleanroom to the payload preparation facility for fuelling at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 11–12 November 2021.

Webb will be loaded with propellants before being mounted on top of the rocket and then encapsulated by the Ariane 5 fairing.

Webb will be the largest, most powerful telescope ever launched into space. As part of an international collaboration agreement, ESA is providing the telescope’s launch service using the Ariane 5 launch vehicle. Working with partners, ESA was responsible for the development and qualification

Image: Webb fuelled for launch

Efforts to enable seamless connectivity and reduce the digital divide by using telecommunications satellites to enhance terrestrial 5G services have leapt forward.

Baikonur, Kazakhstan (AFP) Dec 6, 2021
Russia on Wednesday will send Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa to the International Space Station in a move marking Moscow's return to the now booming space tourism business after a decade-long break. One of Japan's richest men, Maezawa, 46, will blast off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan accompanied by his assistant Yozo Hirano. On Sunday morning, their Soyuz spacecraft wi

Tokyo (AFP) Dec 6, 2021
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, who blasts off for the International Space Station this week, is an irreverent space enthusiast who has made headlines for splashing the cash on modern art. The 46-year-old tycoon is the founder of Japan's largest online fashion mall and is the country's 30th-richest person, according to business magazine Forbes. But he is far from the traditional ima

Europe’s largest satellite constellation has grown even bigger, following the launch of two more Galileo navigation satellites by Soyuz launcher from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 5 December. Galileo satellites 27-28 add to an existing 26-satellite constellation in orbit, providing the world’s most precise satnav positioning to more than 2.3 billion users around the globe.

Boston MA (SPX) Dec 03, 2021
Ultra-short-period planets are small, compact worlds that whip around their stars at close range, completing an orbit - and a single, scorching year - in less than 24 hours. How these planets came to be in such extreme configurations is one of the continuing mysteries of exoplanetary science. Now, astronomers have discovered an ultra-short-period planet (USP) that is also super light. The

University Park PA (SPX) Dec 03, 2021
The dusty surface of the moon - immortalized in images of Apollo astronauts' lunar footprints - formed as the result of asteroid impacts and the harsh environment of space breaking down rock over millions of years. An ancient layer of this material, covered by periodic lava flows and now buried under the lunar surface, could provide new insight into the Moon's deep past, according to a team of s

Bethesda MD (SPX) Dec 03, 2021
Proposed lunar surface mobility systems for human colonization appear to be severely limited in speed and payload capabilities. Roving vehicles are massive and move slowly over the rough lunar terrain, at a high cost of energy and life support supplies. Flying units, powered by chemical rockets are fast, but the price of speed is payload and range. On the other hand, a hopping transporter

Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 03, 2021
With Flight 17, Ingenuity continues its journey back to Wright Brothers Field at the Octavia E. Butler landing site. Flight 17 is the third flight of this journey and is scheduled to take place no earlier than Sunday, Dec. 5 with the data arriving back on Earth no earlier than later that same day. Flight 17 is approximately half of Flight 9 in reverse, which was one of the most challenging