Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 26, 2024
Packet Digital has been awarded a $7.2 million contract extension from the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) to develop scalable power systems for space applications. This follows an initial $8 million contract where the company successfully delivered a high-efficiency SmallSat power converter with a 98% efficiency rate. The new contract will allow Packet Digital to expand this technology to support

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 26, 2024
The Center for the Study of Space Crime, Piracy, and Governance (CSCPG), a nonpartisan research group, has released a report titled 'What Will Happen in the First Space Hostage Crisis?' that explores the United States government's likely response to a space-based hostage incident. The report raises concerns about potential government paralysis due to current military and intelligence community (

Image: This image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission reveals the impact of severe flooding following heavy rain that hit Australia’s Northern Territory in March 2024.

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ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice), is on an epic eight-year journey to Jupiter. This first episode of ‘The journey of Juice’ tells the story of Juice’s first months in space, from its launch on 14 April 2023 to its lunar-Earth gravity assist (LEGA for short) in August 2024. This flyby was not only the first double gravity assist manoeuvre of its kind, it was also a perfect opportunity to test out the spacecraft’s cameras and science instruments.  

In this episode, Juice’s Mission Manager Nicolas Altobelli explains how the spacecraft will become the first ever human-made

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 27, 2024
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has successfully completed the integration and testing of its second Pioneer spacecraft for Varda Space Industries, Inc. ("Varda"). Varda is pioneering in-space pharmaceutical processing and hypersonic re-entry logistics. This follows the first successful mission of Rocket Lab's Pioneer spacecraft for Varda in June 2023. During that mission, Varda crysta

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 27, 2024
NASA recently hosted two international workshops in London and Washington, D.C. on September 6 and 13, gathering input from global stakeholders. The sessions focused on refining NASA's low Earth orbit (LEO) microgravity strategy, seeking feedback from international partners, U.S. industry, and academia. In late August, NASA introduced a draft with 42 objectives, covering six key areas: sci

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Sep 27, 2024
A new study led by Prof. Jiansen He's team at Peking University, in collaboration with researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, introduces a novel approach for predicting solar activities. The team combines spatiotemporal decomposition methods with machine learning to forecast sunspot numbers and solar magnetic synoptic maps for Solar Cycle 25. The global distribution of the solar

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Sep 27, 2024
Astronomers have unveiled a massive infrared map of the Milky Way, the most detailed ever created, featuring over 1.5 billion celestial objects. The map was produced using the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) VISTA telescope, which has been observing the central regions of the galaxy for more than 13 years. The project, which generated 500 terabytes of data, is now the largest observational

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 27, 2024
In May 2024, Earth experienced a spectacular geomagnetic storm that produced brilliant auroras visible across the planet. These light displays result from coronal mass ejections, which are explosions of plasma and magnetic fields from the Sun, interacting with Earth's magnetic field. This natural shield protects the planet from solar radiation during such storms. As NASA prepares for crewe

Berkeley CA (SPX) Sep 27, 2024
The discovery of an Earth-like planet 4,000 light years away in the Milky Way galaxy provides a preview of one possible fate for our planet billions of years in the future, when the sun has turned into a white dwarf, and a blasted and frozen Earth has migrated beyond the orbit of Mars. This distant planetary system, identified by University of California, Berkeley, astronomers after observ