Tag: Astrophysics
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SpaceX rocket readied for space station resupply run
File photo of a Dragon spacecraft on top of a Falcon 9 rocket before a previous mission. Credit: SpaceX Ground teams at the Kennedy Space Center were packing last-minute cargo into a commercial Dragon supply ship Sunday, a day before the automated freighter is set for liftoff on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket…
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4K and HD video replays of SpaceX rocket undergoing static fire test at pad 39A
In one of its final preflight tests, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ignited at pad 39A in Florida for several seconds Thursday, ramping up to full throttle in an end-to-end checkout of the booster before liftoff next week on a space station resupply flight. The cargo mission is set for launch Monday at 12:31 p.m.…
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SpaceX performs static fire, preps for Monday launch from Florida
A plume of exhaust and steam erupts from pad 39A as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket fires its nine Merlin main engines during Thursday’s static fire test. Credit: Spaceflight Now Set to resume a brisk pace of launch activity after a nearly six-week respite, SpaceX test-fired its next Falcon 9 rocket Thursday at NASA’s Kennedy Space…
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Station-bound instrument to open new chapter in the story of cosmic rays
This mosaic image of Crab Nebula, a six-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star’s supernova explosion, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Recent research shows that galactic cosmic rays flowing into our solar system originate in clusters like these. Credit: NASA/ESA/Arizona State University Physicists are gearing up to send a re-engineered science instrument originally designed…
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NASA might privatize one of its great observatories
Artist’s concept of the Spitzer Space Telescope seen against the infrared sky. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC) Management of NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope could be turned over to an academic institution or private operator in 2019 once the space agency’s funding for the observatory runs out, a senior NASA manager said this week. Launched in August…
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Study teams comb through NASA’s wish list for new telescope
This artist’s rendition shows a possible design of a potential successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. This conceptual mission, called the Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope (ATLAST), is similar in approach to one of several observatories currently under study by astronomers. Credit: NASA Scientists outlining four concepts for a powerful new space telescope that could…
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Pioneering probe for gravitational wave observatory ends mission
Artist’s illustration of the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft. Credit: ESA The European Space Agency’s LISA Pathfinder spacecraft, now sailing around the sun on a trajectory away from Earth, was deactivated Tuesday after a nearly 18-month mission testing previously-untried lasers, vacuum enclosures, exotic gold-platinum cubes and micro-thrusters needed for a trio of gravitational wave observatories set for…
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JAXA, NASA approve replacement for failed Hitomi astronomy satellite
Artist’s concept of the failed Hitomi satellite. Credit: JAXA The Japanese space agency is moving ahead with a smaller-scale X-ray astronomy satellite to replace the failed Hitomi observatory, which spun out of control about a month-and-a-half after its launch last year. The X-ray Astronomy Recovery Mission, or XARM, could launch as soon as March 2021,…
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Experiment devoted to neutron star research installed on space station
Artist’s concept of a pulsar (blue-white disk in center) pulling in matter from a nearby star (red disk at upper right). The stellar material forms a disk around the pulsar (multicolored ring) before falling on to the surface at the magnetic poles. The pulsar’s intense magnetic field is represented by faint blue outlines surrounding the…
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Chinese astronomy satellite placed into orbit by Long March rocket
China’s Long March 4B rocket lifts off Thursday with the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope. Credit: Xinhua China’s first X-ray astronomy satellite launched Thursday on a mission to survey the Milky Way galaxy for black holes and pulsars, the remnants left behind after a star burns up its nuclear fuel. The Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope will…