Image: From pebbles to planets

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Mar 17, 2025
Happy 2,000,000,000,000th, ICESat-2! NASA's Earth-observing laser in orbit passed a milestone on March 9 at 12:51 p.m. EDT - 16:51:00.268 UTC, to be precise - as its laser instrument fired for the 2 trillionth time and measured clouds off the coast of East Antarctica. ICESat-2's instrument, the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS), uses rapid pulses of green laser light and

Stanford CA (SPX) Mar 17, 2025
Life may not have begun with a dramatic lightning strike into the ocean but from many smaller "microlightning" exchanges among water droplets from crashing waterfalls or breaking waves. New research from Stanford University shows that water sprayed into a mixture of gases thought to be present in Earth's early atmosphere can lead to the formation of organic molecules with carbon-nitrogen b

Wallops Island VA (SPX) Mar 17, 2025
NASA's Scientific Balloon Program has returned to Wanaka, New Zealand, for two scheduled flights to test and qualify the agency's super pressure balloon technology. These stadium-sized, heavy-lift balloons will travel the Southern Hemisphere's mid-latitudes for planned missions of 100 days or more. Launch operations are scheduled to begin in late March from Wanaka Airport, NASA's dedicated

Boston MA (SPX) Mar 14, 2025
In 2022, Randall Pietersen, a civil engineer in the U.S. Air Force, set out on a training mission to assess damage at an airfield runway, practicing "base recovery" protocol after a simulated attack. For hours, his team walked over the area in chemical protection gear, radioing in geocoordinates as they documented damage and looked for threats like unexploded munitions. The work is standar

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 17, 2025
AeroVironment (AV), a prominent player in the defense technology sector, has earned a key contract from the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) aimed at fast-tracking the deployment of autonomous precision-strike drones. As part of its push into a critical segment of the defense industry, AV secured an Other Transaction Authority (OT) award from DIU under Project Artemis. This initiative is desi

Washington (AFP) Mar 18, 2025
Bone and muscle deterioration, radiation exposure, vision impairment - these are just a few of the challenges space travelers face on long-duration missions, even before considering the psychological toll of isolation. As US astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams prepare to return home after nine months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), some of the health risks they've faced

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Mar 18, 2025
THOR 8, the next-generation satellite from Space Norway, has secured Intelsat as its principal customer for broadcasting services. Scheduled for a 2027 launch, THOR 8 will deliver dual broadcasting payloads designed specifically for the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region and Nordic markets. Additionally, the satellite will support a wide range of government and commercial data communication

Paris, France (SPX) Mar 18, 2025
Asia's top satellite operator, SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation, has awarded Thales Alenia Space a contract to construct its latest geostationary satellite, JSAT-32. Set to operate on Ku and Ka bands, JSAT-32 will deliver enhanced communication services across Japan and nearby maritime regions. Notably, the satellite will introduce new spot beams specifically designed for mobility-related appl

Brest, France (AFP) Mar 17, 2025
Could lumpy metallic rocks in the deepest, darkest reaches of the ocean be making oxygen in the absence of sunlight? Some scientists think so, but others have challenged the claim that so-called "dark oxygen" is being produced in the lightless abyss of the seabed. The discovery - detailed last July in the journal Nature Geoscience - called into question long-held assumptions about the