Copernical Team
SpaceX aborts launch attempt of U.S. government spy satellite
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SpaceX on Thursday postponed the company's second spy satellite mission for the U.S. government due to a slightly high pressure reading in an upper stage liquid oxygen tank on the Falcon 9 rocket.
The countdown stopped at 1 minute, 53 seconds before the planned 9:45 a.m. EST liftoff from Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. SpaceX said it plans another attempt Friday morning. New satellite propulsion test facility to propel UK into new space age
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A new gold standard national rocket test facility will soon open its doors, the Science Minister Amanda Solloway has announced 18 December.
The new centre will allow UK companies and academics to fire up and test state-of-the-art space propulsion engines at up to 1.5kN in high-altitude vacuum, an equivalent test altitude of 140,000ft. It will cement the international reputation of the West Loss of Vega flight VV17: Independent Enquiry Commission announces conclusions
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Press Release N° 33–2020
On Tuesday, November 17, Arianespace announced the loss of the Vega VV17 mission, which was carrying two payloads, SEOSAT-Ingenio, an Earth-science observation satellite for the European Space Agency (ESA), on behalf of Spain's Center for Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), and TARANIS for France’s National Centre for Space Studies (CNES). The first three stages functioned nominally until the ignition of the AVUM upper stage, eight minutes after liftoff. At that time, a degraded trajectory was detected, followed by a loss of control of the vehicle and the subsequent loss of the mission.
European Space Agency appoints Austrian scientist new chief
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The European Space Agency said Thursday that Josef Aschbacher, an Austrian scientist who leads its Earth observation program, has been appointed as the organization's next head.
The agency's 22 member states elected Aschbacher to be ESA's director general succeeding Jan Woerner, whose term ends on June 30.
Mountains of snow
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Image:
Heavy snowfall in the Alps has been recorded over the past weeks. The Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission captured this image of the snow-covered Alps on 14 December. Solar Orbiter prepares for festive Venus flyby
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Solar Orbiter is getting ready for the first of many gravity assist flybys of Venus on 27 December, to start bringing it closer to the Sun and tilting its orbit in order to observe our star from different perspectives.
Scientists use NASA data to predict appearance of December 14, 2020 eclipse
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On Dec. 14, 2020, the Moon's shadow raced across Chile and Argentina, casting a thin ribbon of land into brief, mid-day darkness.
Those in the path of this total solar eclipse glimpsed the solar system in motion.
Chinese capsule returns to Earth carrying moon rocks
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Moon rocks in hand, China prepares for future moon missions
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ESA Council appoints Josef Aschbacher as next ESA Director General
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Today, the ESA Council appointed Dr Josef Aschbacher as the next Director General of ESA, for a period of four years. He will succeed Prof. Jan Wörner, whose term of office ends on 30 June 2021.