Huntsville AL (SPX) Jan 26, 2021
When the big ring of nine Merlin engines on the Falcon 9 rocket rumbled to life, propelling NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 spacecraft and its occupants to their historic rendezvous with the International Space Station, most spectators were watching for the customary bloom of smoke and fire. NASA manager Steve Gaddis and his team were also listening, anticipating the musical sound of success. At 7:27

Houston TX (SPX) Jan 27, 2021
Axiom Space on Tuesday announced its crew for humankind's first flight of a group of private individuals to a Low Earth Orbit destination - the first-ever entirely private mission proposed to fly to the International Space Station (ISS). The proposed historic Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) will consist of: former NASA astronaut and Axiom vice president Michael Lopez-Alegria as commander; American

Pasadena CA (SPX) Jan 27, 2021
Motiv Space Systems, in partnership with JPL, has announced the development of COLDArm, the first-in-kind robotic arm that will be built to survive the extreme cold of the Moon's South Pole ushering in a new era of extended space exploration on the Moon, Mars, and beyond. COLDArm (short for Cold Operable Lunar Deployable Arm) is a vital component of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (C

London, UK (SPX) Jan 27, 2021
The agreement will help nations ensure that outer space remains safe and sustainable for future generations. The increasing complexity of space missions, the emergence of large constellations of satellites and the increased risks of collision all affect the long-term sustainability of space activities. And there are currently approximately 170 million objects in orbit - mainly debris - whi

Washington DC (SPX) Jan 27, 2021
A multi-institutional group of researchers has developed new metamaterial tiles that will help improve the sensitivity of telescopes being built at the preeminent Simons Observatory in Chile. The tiles have been incorporated into receivers that will be deployed at the observatory by 2022. The Simons Observatory is the center of an ambitious effort to measure the cosmic microwave background

La Jolla CA (SPX) Jan 27, 2021
Black holes are considered amongst the most mysterious objects in the universe. Part of their intrigue arises from the fact that they are actually amongst the simplest solutions to Einstein's field equations of general relativity. In fact, black holes can be fully characterized by only three physical quantities: their mass, spin and charge. Since they have no additional "hairy" attributes

West Lafayette IN (SPX) Jan 27, 2021
The Mars Perseverance Rover will fly 300 million miles over almost seven months, but the seven minutes spent waiting to receive a radio signal confirming the rover has landed will seem like an eternity for scientists and researchers back on Earth. That wait is dubbed the "seven minutes of terror" and Briony Horgan, Purdue University associate professor of planetary science, calls it the sc

Washington DC (UPI) Jan 26, 2021
A moon rock that President Joe Biden has placed in the Oval Office came from the last Apollo mission in 1972, raising hopes that he will support a new lunar landing program already underway. The White House said the moon rock was part of Biden's goal to have the office reflect the best of American accomplishments. Astronauts chipped the rock from a large boulder at the base of th

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jan 27, 2021
On May 10, NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft will say farewell to asteroid Bennu and begin its journey back to Earth. During its Oct. 20, 2020, sample collection event, the spacecraft collected a substantial amount of material from Bennu's surface, likely exceeding the mission's requirement of 2 ounces (60

Houston TX (SPX) Jan 27, 2021
Axiom Space on Tuesday announced its crew for humankind's first flight of a group of private individuals to a Low Earth Orbit destination - the first-ever entirely private mission proposed to fly to the International Space Station (ISS). The proposed historic Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) will consist of: former NASA astronaut and Axiom vice president Michael Lopez-Alegria as commander; American