Tag: Germany
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Smallsat launch providers readying for first missions of 2021
Virgin Orbit technicians complete work with the LauncherOne vehicle’s payload fairing for the Launch Demo 2 mission, which is set to loft 10 NASA-sponsored CubeSats into orbit. Credit: Virgin Orbit/Greg Robinson Virgin Orbit and Rocket Lab teams are gearing up for their first missions of the year in the coming days, with Virgin’s air-launched rocket…
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Three astronauts assigned to Crew Dragon mission in late 2021
The members of the SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station. Pictured from left are NASA astronaut Raja Chari, European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer, and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn. Credit: NASA/ESA Rookie NASA astronaut Raja Chari — a former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot — veteran physician-astronaut Tom Marshburn, and European Space Agency…
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Soyuz launches with 22 satellites
A Russian Soyuz rocket launched Monday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome with 22 satellites for operators in Russia, Europe, Canada, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates. The Soyuz-2.1b launcher took off from Plesetsk at 1120 GMT (7:20 a.m. EDT; 2:20 p.m. Moscow time) Monday, according to a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry.…
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Scientists optimistic planetary probes won’t face coronavirus launch delays
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated to correct spelling of Hal Levison’s name. Artist’s concept of the Lucy spacecraft flying by Trojan asteroids. Credit: NASA/SWRI Launches of interplanetary missions can only depart Earth when the positions of the planets are just right, and officials managing the development of probes set for launch in 2021 and 2022 to explore asteroids…
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NASA’s InSight mission shows Mars is a seismically active world
In this artist’s concept of NASA’s InSight lander on Mars, layers of the planet’s subsurface can be seen below and dust devils can be seen in the background. Credit: IPGP/Nicolas Sarter While one of its two science instruments remains sidelined, NASA’s InSight probe has proven Mars is seismically active through the detection of hundreds of…
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China’s Kuaizhou launcher flies for second time in four days
A Kuaizhou 1A rocket lifted off Sunday from the Jiuquan space center in northwestern China. Credit: Xinhua Demonstrating a quick turnaround launch capability, China launched a light-class, solid-fueled Kuaizhou 1A rocket Sunday, four days after the same type of satellite booster fired into orbit from the same launch pad. The four-stage Kuaizhou 1A booster delivered…
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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…