Tag: Astrophysics
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Privately-funded mission takes off to begin space debris cleanup trials
The ELSA-d mission’s servicer and chaser satellites (bottom and top) during ground testing last year. Credit: Astroscale A commercial mission developed by the Japanese company Astroscale rocketed into space on a Russian Soyuz launcher Monday with 37 other payloads, ready to kick off an orbital “dance” with two small spacecraft demonstrating how satellite sweepers might…
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Live coverage: Soyuz launches with 38 satellites
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket on a rideshare mission with 38 international satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. [tabby title=”Roscosmos webcast”] [tabby title=”GK Launch Services webcast”] [tabbyending] Roscosmos’s live video stream begins at approximately 0515 GMT (1:15 a.m. EDT) and will be available on…
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Soyuz rocket with special paint scheme rolls out to Baikonur launch pad
A Soyuz-2.1a rocket stands on the launch pad at Site 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan ahead of liftoff Saturday. Credit: Roscosmos Sporting a new blue and white paint scheme to mark the upcoming 60th anniversary of the first human spaceflight, a Russian Soyuz rocket loaded with 38 international satellites has rolled out to its…
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Hubble resumes science observations after software error
The Hubble Space Telescope in the payload bay of space shuttle Atlantis during the last servicing mission in May 2009. Credit: NASA NASA has partially restored the Hubble Space Telescope to science mode after a software error temporarily halted observations, but engineers continue studying a problem that kept the telescope’s aperture door from closing and…
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James Webb, OneWeb highlight Arianespace’s 2021 launch schedule
File photo of an Ariane 5 launch in January 2020. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – JM Guillon The planned Halloween launch of the James Webb Space Telescope — one of eight Ariane 5 launches left before the rocket’s retirement — and a series of flights to build out OneWeb’s satellite internet…
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China launches two small satellites for gravitational wave research
A Long March 11 rocket lifts off from the Xichang space base with the GECAM mission. Credit: CAS Two small Chinese satellites designed to detect gamma-ray bursts associated with gravitational waves launched Wednesday on a Long March 11 rocket, beginning an astrophysics research mission to study black holes and neutron stars. The Gravitational Wave High-energy Electromagnetic…
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Arecibo Observatory collapses as scientists lament loss of deep space radar
The instrument platform of the Arecibo Observatory — seen here in an earlier photo — collapsed onto the telescope’s dish Dec. 1. Credit: National Science Foundation The 900-ton suspended platform of Puerto Rico’s famed Arecibo Observatory collapsed Tuesday after cable failures, crashing into the radio telescope’s iconic dish and shattering a research instrument used for…
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Arecibo Observatory faces demolition after cable failures
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION The damaged dish at Arecibo Observatory. Credit: University of Central Florida After withstanding hurricanes and earthquakes, playing central roles in movies like “GoldenEye” and “Contact,” Puerto Rico’s famed Arecibo Observatory, once the largest radio telescope in the world, will be demolished because of cable failures that left its…
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Water molecules detected on moon’s sunlit surface, adding impetus to Artemis
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION This illustration highlights the Moon’s Clavius Crater with an illustration depicting water trapped in the lunar soil there, along with an image of NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) that found sunlit lunar water. Credits: NASA/Daniel Rutter Water molecules have been directly detected across sunlit regions of…
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JWST completes tests to simulate rigors of launch
The fully-assembled James Webb Space Telescope is lifted at a Northrop Grumman facility in Redondo Beach, California, during recent environmental testing. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn The fully-assembled James Webb Space Telescope has completed testing in Southern California to verify the $10 billion mission can withstand the sound and shaking it will see during launch scheduled late…