Copernical Team
N. Korean test of likely hypersonic missile fails: Seoul military official
North Korea test-fired what appeared to be a hypersonic missile on Wednesday, but the launch ended in a mid-air explosion, an official from Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The early morning launch came just hours after Pyongyang sent another flurry of trash-bearing balloons southward, this time forcing a three-hour halt to flights in and out of South Korea's Incheon airport. The miss
NASA launches GOES-U weather satellite on SpaceX's Falcon Heavy
The final GOES-U satellite successfully launched Tuesday from Cape Canaveral in Florida to aid efforts to track and forecast weather amid changing climate conditions across the globe. Launch time was at 5:26 p.m. EDT with 2.8 million pounds of propellent fueling all 27 Merlin engines at 5.1 million pounds of thrust. The mission launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch
Time to build zero-debris satellites
ESA is committed to deliver on the promise of Zero Debris by 2030. To ensure compliant satellites can be designed and built in time, ESA is supporting industry during this technologically challenging transition.
On 25 June 2024, three major European space industry players each signed a contract with ESA to develop large low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite platforms that conform to Zero Debris standards.
The space bricks have landed!
ESA scientists have been exploring how a future Moon base might be built from materials on the lunar surface. Inspired by LEGO building, they have used dust from a meteorite to 3D-print 'space bricks' to test the idea. ESA's space bricks are on display in selected LEGO Stores from 20 June to 20 September, helping to inspire the next generation of space engineers.
Astrobotic reveals lunar surface proving ground for payload testing
Astrobotic has unveiled its Lunar Surface Proving Ground (LSPG) at its Mojave, CA facility. The 100mx100m high-fidelity 3D test field replicates the Moon's surface topography and optical properties. The LSPG's terrain is based on a map of the Moon's South Pole, scanned by Astrobotic's LunaRay system. This site will support various test campaigns, including precise lunar landing technologie
China's Chang'e-6 mission successfully returns to Earth with historic moon samples
China's Chang'e-6 mission successfully returned to Earth early Tuesday, bringing with it the first-ever samples retrieved from the far side of the moon. The Chang'e-6 return capsule successfully landed in the Siziwang Banner area of China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at 2:07 p.m. local time, the China National Space Administration said in a statement. "This marks the comple
NASA successfully launches GOES-U weather satellite on SpaceX's Falcon Heavy
The final GOES-U satellite successfully launched Tuesday from Cape Canaveral in Florida to aid efforts to track and forecast weather amid changing climate conditions across the globe. Launch time was at 5:26 p.m. EDT with 2.8 million pounds of propellent fueling all 27 Merlin engines at 5.1 million pounds of thrust. The mission launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch
Predicting changes inside astronauts' bodies during space travel through blood sample analysis
Researchers develop MoonIndex, open-source software that allows study of lunar surface
With MoonIndex, researchers from Constructor University and the National Institute of Astrophysics in Italy have developed an open-source software that for the first time gives scientists access to a free tool that creates science-ready products from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) to study the composition of the lunar surface. It also enables a wide range of applications.
An article now published in the specialist journal Earth and Space Science describes the research success.
"Spectral indices are a key product to understanding and mapping planetary surfaces," said Javier Eduardo Suárez Valencia, Ph.D. student at Constructor University and first author of the article.
Each surface has a very special, individual reflectance pattern, a kind of spectral fingerprint. It provides information about the presence of certain minerals in rocks or about the physical properties of the surface.
NASA calls off spacewalk after spacesuit water leak
NASA on Monday canceled a spacewalk at the International Space Station after water leaked from an astronaut's spacesuit.
Astronauts Tracy Dyson and Mike Barratt opened the hatch to the space station's airlock when Dyson reported water leaking from her spacesuit's cooling system. The leak occurred when Dyson switched her spacesuit to battery power. The astronauts hadn't floated outside yet.
"There's literally water everywhere here now," Barratt said.
The duo were not in danger, according to NASA.
The astronauts were supposed to remove a faulty communications box and collect microbe samples from outside the orbiting laboratory.