Space

In the dusty desert town of Woomera, in the South Australian desert, scientists are getting ready. On 6 December 2020, after six years in space, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft will finally return to Earth. It carries with it a cargo unbelievably rare, precious, and hard-won – at least 100 milligrams of material

Gen. John Raymond said the Space Force wants to be able to collect more data but also analyze it quickly and share it with allies and civilian space organizations.  WASHINGTON — Space tracking sensors and artificial intelligence systems that analyze data are becoming high priorities for the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command, officials

Star-gazers are in for a treat over Christmas, as Jupiter and Saturn will get closer to each other in Earth’s night sky than they have been for nearly 800 years. Set up your telescope, hope for a clear night, and get ready. The celestial synchronisation has been in the works since summer as Jupiter and

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have vowed to take the United States in a sharply different direction on issues like the coronavirus pandemic and climate change. But with regard to space and its importance to national security, analysts and industry insiders believe the Biden administration will largely stay the course. The arrival

NASA Deputy Administrator Jim Morhard had perhaps one of the more understated public reactions to the outcome of the presidential election. “It’s quite a day for everybody, to say the least,” he said at the start of a presentation Nov. 7 to the Space Generation Advisory Council’s SpaceGen Summit, just three hours after a range

In July of 2015, NASA’s New Horizons probe made history when it became the first mission ever to conduct a close flyby of Pluto. This was followed by the spacecraft making the first-ever encounter with a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) – known as Arrokoth (AKA 2014 MU69) – on 31 December 2018. In addition, its unique position in the outer Solar System has

WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Falcon 9 successfully launched Nov. 21 the latest in a series of satellites developed by the United States and Europe to track rising sea levels. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex (SLC) 4 East at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 12:17 p.m. Eastern. Its payload, the

SAN FRANCISCO – AAC Clyde Space announced a 19 million euro ($22.5 million) contract backed by the U.K. Space Agency to develop a 10-cubesat communications and Earth-observation constellation. As part of the three-year project called xSPANCION, AAC Clyde Space will develop and manufacture satellites to provide space-based services to companies eager to harness satellites to

VALLETTA, Malta — The head of Italian rocket manufacturer Avio assured customers Nov. 19 that the company was working hard to return Vega to service following the rocket’s second failure in its last three launches.   In a video statement, Avio CEO Giulio Ranzo said that in initial investigation into Vega’s Nov. 16 failure had identified

In images from the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists have spotted an entirely new phenomenon. Reaching tens of thousands of light-years into the void of space, vast shadows stretch from the centre of the galaxy IC 5063, as though something is blocking the bright light from therein. You’ve probably seen something very like it before – bright

AN FRANCISCO – Hyperspectral satellite startup Orbital Sidekick (OSK) announced a contract Nov. 19 to work with an industry-led consortium to develop tools for daily monitoring of oil and gas pipelines. “This is an important validation of our commercial application and viability,” Dan Katz, OSK CEO and co-founder, told SpaceNews. “We are not merely a

Some of the Milky Way’s oldest stars aren’t where we expect them to be. One of the ways we categorize stars is by their metallicity. That is the fraction of heavier elements a star has compared to hydrogen and helium. It’s a useful metric because the metallicity of a star is a good measure of

WASHINGTON — Small launch vehicle developer Astra will make its second orbital launch attempt in December, three months after an initial launch attempt failed shortly after liftoff. The company announced Nov. 19 that it has completed testing of the vehicle, known as Rocket 3.2, and will soon ship it from its California headquarters to Pacific

One of the world’s most iconic astronomical observatories has fallen apart beyond repair. Now it threatens to collapse entirely. Following two unexpected cable breaks, engineers have determined that the Arecibo Observatory’s 1,000-foot (305-metre) radio telescope is so structurally unsound that any workers who try to fix it would risk their lives. So the National Science Foundation,

WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab launched its Electron rocket Nov. 19, placing nearly 30 smallsats in orbit while making its first attempt to recover the rocket’s first stage. The Electron lifted off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 on Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand, at 9:20 p.m. Eastern on a mission called “Return to Sender” by the

In 2004, astronomers found something really weird. Around 6,200 light-years away, a star was found surrounded by a ring-shaped nebula glowing in invisible ultraviolet light. There’s nothing else quite like it in the Milky Way galaxy, making it difficult to figure out how and why the object, named the Blue Ring Nebula, got that way.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience successfully docked to the International Space Station at 11:01 p.m. EST Monday, transporting NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission lifted off Sunday, Nov. 15, at 7:27 p.m. on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew

The six finalists are Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado; Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico; Patrick Air Force Base, Florida; Redstone Army Airfield, Alabama; Joint Base San Antonio, Texas; and Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska WASHINGTON — The Department of the Air Force announced Nov. 19 it has selected six military bases as candidate locations

The Launch Company designs mobile launch sites that could be used by multiple small launchers. WASHINGTON — Voyager Space Holdings announced Nov. 19 that it plans to acquire The Launch Company, an Alaska-based provider of rocket and spacecraft components, and ground equipment for launch sites. Denver-based Voyager Space Holdings, founded in October 2019, owns satellite

“I do believe that human spaceflight is an imperative for our planet, and to be a part of that — to keep the progress going — I find very inspiring.” NASA astronaut Dr. Shannon Walker holds a bachelor of arts degree in physics, a master of science and a doctorate of philosophy in space physics