Tag: DLR
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Phobos sample return mission enters development for 2024 launch
Artist’s concept of the Japanese MMX spacecraft near Mars and Phobos. Credit: JAXA Japan’s space agency has approved a robotic mission to retrieve a sample from the Martian moon Phobos for return to Earth to begin full development for a planned launch in 2024, officials said Thursday. The Martian Moon eXploration, or MMX, spacecraft will…
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Ground teams studying setback with InSight’s subsurface heat probe
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT) with comments from Bruce Banerdt, Insight’s principal investigator, about Level 1 requirements. Mars continues to surprise us. While digging this weekend the mole backed about halfway out of the ground. Preliminary assessment points to unexpected soil properties as the main reason. Team looking at next steps. #SaveTheMole…
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German X-ray telescope achieves ‘first light’
This image shows our neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, observed in a series of exposures with all seven eROSITA telescope modules taken Oct. 18 to Oct. 19, 2019. The diffuse emission originates from the hot gas between the stars with temperatures typically a few million degrees. The more compact nebulous structures in the image…
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Russia launches international X-ray astronomy mission
A Proton rocket and Block DM upper stage climbed into space Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with Spektr-RG, an astronomical observatory with dual X-ray telescopes developed by Russian and German scientists on the hunt for the signature of dark energy. The new observatory will detect X-ray emissions from across the sky, including those…
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Live coverage: Proton rocket lifts off with X-ray astronomy observatory
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Proton rocket with the Spektr-RG X-ray astronomy mission. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter. The live video webcast from Roscosmos will begin at approximately 1130 GMT (7:30 a.m. EDT) on launch day, and will be available…
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Proton launch delayed to Saturday
The Proton rocket stands on its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, awaiting liftoff with the Spektr-RG X-ray astronomy mission. Credit: Roscosmos Russian officials have delayed until Saturday the launch of a Proton rocket from Kazakhstan with the Spektr-RG X-ray astronomy observatory, an ambitious mission jointly developed with Germany to probe dark energy.…
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Proton rocket and astronomy satellite back on the launch pad after battery replacement
Poised to loft a Russian-German X-ray astronomy observatory into space Friday, a Proton rocket returned to its launch pad Tuesday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan after a three-week delay to replace a drained battery on the vehicle. The Proton rocket departed its assembly building at Baikonur early Tuesday and rode a specialized rail car…
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Mars lander’s ground team begins inspection of stuck instrument
The InSight lander’s robotic arm camera captured this view of the stuck mole from the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument June 30, soon after the arm lifted and moved the instrument’s support structure. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech In a bit of interplanetary troubleshooting, the robot arm on NASA’s InSight Mars lander has lifted a…
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Russia postpones launch of X-ray astronomy mission
The Proton rocket with the Spektr-RG X-ray astronomy mission will return to an assembly building at the Baikonur Cosmodrome for troubleshooting ahead of another launch attempt as soon as July 12. Credit: Roscosmos Russian officials postponed the planned launch of a Proton rocket with an X-ray astronomy satellite Friday until no earlier than July 12…
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Russia to launch science mission probing dark energy
EDITOR’S NOTE: The launch of the Spektr-RG mission has been rescheduled for no earlier than Saturday, June 22, at 1217 GMT (8:17 a.m. EDT). Artist’s illustration of the Spektr-RG observatory in space. Credit: Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics A Russian-built satellite hosting an array of X-ray telescopes is awaiting launch Friday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome…