Morgantown WV (SPX) Aug 24, 2021
Engineers at West Virginia University are helping to solve one of the greatest limitations of space exploration-sending and receiving information between a spacecraft and the ground station- thanks to a $750,000 award from NASA's highly competitive Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research program. Once a spacecraft leaves Earth's orbit and travels further into deep space, tran

London UK (SPX) Aug 24, 2021
OneWeb has confirmed the next successful launch of 34 satellites by Arianespace from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch follows the successful completion of OneWeb's 'Five to 50' mission and highlights the momentum of the business as it prepares to both introduce commercial service and focus on scaling to global service. This latest successful launch brings OneWeb's total in-orbit constel

Nagoya, Japan (SPX) Aug 24, 2021
Astronomers have succeeded for the first time in quantifying the proton and electron components of cosmic rays in a supernova remnant. At least 70% of the very-high-energy gamma rays emitted from cosmic rays are due to relativistic protons, according to the novel imaging analysis of radio, X-ray, and gamma-ray radiation. The acceleration site of protons, the main components of cosmic rays,

Berkeley CA (SPX) Aug 24, 2021
An interplanetary mission led by the University of California, Berkeley, to put two satellites - dubbed "Blue" and "Gold" - into orbit around Mars has been officially authorized to prepare for launch in October 2024. The announcement last week by NASA means that by 2026 the spacecraft will likely be exploring the red planet's atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind. Called

Moscow (Sputnik) Aug 24, 2021
The United States may purchase a seat on the Russian Soyuz in the spring of next year, as a precaution, in case of any issues with commercial US spacecraft, Roscosmos Deputy Director General for International Cooperation Sergey Saveliev told Sputnik. "The Americans are leaving this opportunity [acquiring a Soyuz seat in the spring of 2022] as an option, counting on help and assistance from

Washington DC (SPX) Aug 24, 2021
The Sun has a new neighbor that was hiding in plain twilight. An asteroid that orbits the Sun in just 113 days-the shortest known orbital period for an asteroid and second shortest for any object in our Solar System after Mercury-was discovered by Carnegie's Scott S. Sheppard in evening twilight images taken by Brown University's Ian Dell'Antonio and Shenming Fu. The newfound asteroid, cal

Tempe AZ (SPX) Aug 24, 2021
Over the last two decades, scientists have found ice in many locations on Mars. Most Martian ice has been observed from orbital satellites like NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. But determining the grain size and dust content of the ice from that far above the surface is challenging. And those aspects of the ice are crucial in helping scientists determine how old the ice is and how it was depo

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Aug 24, 2021
Gilmour Space Technologies, a premier Australian rocket company pioneering new and innovative hybrid propulsion technologies for launching small satellites, and Exolaunch, a Berlin-based leader in rideshare launch and deployment services for small satellites, has announced a series of agreements for small satellite launch, deployment and in-space transportation services. Under the agreemen

Boston MA (SPX) Aug 24, 2021
In 2019, astronomers spotted something incredible in our backyard: a rogue comet from another star system. Named Borisov, the icy snowball traveled 110,000 miles per hour and marked the first and only interstellar comet ever detected by humans. But what if these interstellar visitors-comets, meteors, asteroids and other debris from beyond our solar system-are more common than we think?

Orlando FL (SPX) Aug 24, 2021
An ingenious idea born out of a research lab at the University of Central Florida has led to a growing operation that is having a direct impact on space exploration. Chances are that some of the equipment landing on the moon and the methods that will be used to grow food or build shelter, will have been tested first on experimental soil developed right at UCF. UCF's Exolith Lab has p