Week in images: 6 - 10 September 2021

Discover our week through the lens

Image:

Artist's animation of the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb), folded in the Ariane 5 rocket during launch from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.

Webb is the next great space science observatory, designed to answer outstanding questions about the Universe and to make breakthrough discoveries in all fields of astronomy. Webb will see farther into our origins – from the formation of stars and planets, to the birth of the first galaxies in the early Universe.

Working with partners, ESA was responsible for the development and qualification of Ariane 5 adaptations for the Webb mission and for the procurement

Beijing (XNA) Sep 10, 2021
China has released the first batch of gamma photon data obtained by the Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE), according to Science and Technology Daily on Wednesday. The National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) and the Purple Mountain Observatory (PMO) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Tuesday released the scientific data collected by the DAMPE, also known as Wukong or Monkey King.

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Sep 10, 2021
Dr. Shannon Curry, planetary scientist and the deputy assistant director of planetary science at the Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) at the University of California, Berkeley, has assumed leadership of NASA's first mission devoted to studying the Martian atmosphere. On Aug. 31, Curry started her new job as Principal Investigator of NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, or MAVEN, mission

Bonn, Germany (SPX) Sep 10, 2021
At the end of October 2021, the German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, together with the NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas H. Marshburn and Kayla Barron, are expected to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on board a Dragon space capsule from the US company SpaceX. Maurer will spend approximately six months in microgravity and return to Earth in April 2022. This will be the fir

Washington DC (UPI) Sep 9, 2021
Russian cosmonauts woke up to an emergency alarm Thursday in one of their service modules at the International Space Station. Audio from NASA's television feed caught a French astronaut identifying a smell of burning plastic, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Russian space agency Roscosmos told state news agency TASS that the cosmonauts turned on an air purification s

Cologne, Germany (SPX) Sep 10, 2021
At the end of October 2021, it will be time for German astronaut Matthias Maurer to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon. His first ISS mission has been named 'Cosmic Kiss'. Thirty-six experiments developed in Germany have been planned for his mission. One of them is Wireless Compose 2 (WICO2), which has been designed and prepared by the German Aerospace

Paris, France (SPX) Sep 10, 2021
Eutelsat Communications confirms the closing of its $550m equity investment in OneWeb announced on April 27, 2021. Subject to completion of the subsequently announced investments in OneWeb by Bharti and Hanwha, Eutelsat will hold a 17.6% stake. Rodolphe Belmer, Chief Executive Officer of Eutelsat, said: "We are delighted to close this investment in OneWeb, giving us a foothold in the Low E

Canberra, Australia (SPX) Sep 08, 2021
UPDATE: Friday's launch attempt was delayed due to strong upper winds. - The Australian Government has given regulatory approval for a commercial rocket launch to take place from a newly licensed launch facility in South Australia. Taiwanese company tiSPACE will conduct a test flight of its Hapith I - a 10m, two-stage, sub-orbital rocket - from the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex, which is operated by Southern Launch. The launch is now scheduled to take plac

Laurel MA (SPX) Sep 10, 2021
Scientists using data from NASA's Parker Solar Probe have assembled a comprehensive picture of the structure and behavior of the large cloud of space dust that swirls through the innermost solar system - and the new insight offers clues to similar clouds around stars across the universe. Research teams led by Jamey Szalay of Princeton University and Anna Pusack of University of Colorado, L