Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News
January 02, 2019
OUTER PLANETS
NASA succeeds in historic flyby of faraway world



Tampa (AFP) Jan 01, 2019
NASA rang in the New Year on Tuesday with a historic flyby of the farthest, and quite possibly the oldest, cosmic body ever explored by humankind - a tiny, distant world called Ultima Thule - in the hopes of learning more about how planets took shape. A series of anxiously awaited "phone home" signals arrived after 10:30 am (1530 GMT), indicating that the spacecraft had made it, intact, through the risky, high-speed encounter. "We have a healthy spacecraft," said mission operations manager Al ... read more

MOON DAILY
China's Chang'e-4 probe changes orbit to prepare for moon-landing
Beijing (XNA) Jan 02, 2019
China's Chang'e-4 probe entered a planned orbit Sunday morning to prepare for the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced. ... more
IRON AND ICE
Osiris-REX enters close orbit around asteroid Bennu
Tucson AZ (SPX) Jan 01, 2019
At 2:43 p.m. EST on December 31, while many on Earth prepared to welcome the New Year, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, 70 million miles (110 million kilometers) away, carried out a single, eight-secon ... more
ROBO SPACE
Growing bio-inspired shapes with hundreds of tiny robots
Heidelberg, Germany (SPX) Jan 02, 2019
Hundreds of small robots can work in a team to create biology-inspired shapes - without an underlying master plan, purely based on local communication and movement. To achieve this, researchers from ... more
DRAGON SPACE
China launches telecommunication technology test satellite
Xichang (XNA) Dec 31, 2018
China successfully launched the No. 3 telecommunication technology test satellite on Tuesday. The satellite was launched at 0:53 a.m. Beijing Time by a Long March-3C carrier rocket from the Xi ... more
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OUTER PLANETS
NASA rings in New Year with historic flyby of faraway world
Tampa (AFP) Jan 1, 2019
NASA rang in the New Year on Tuesday with a historic flyby of the farthest, and quite possibly the oldest, cosmic body ever explored by humankind - a tiny, distant world called Ultima Thule - in the hopes of learning more about how planets took shape. ... more
MOON DAILY
China spacecraft in position for first-ever landing on Moon's far side
Beijing (Sputnik) Jan 01, 2019
Orbiting the moon, China's Chang'e 4 lunar lander has moved into position in preparation for mankind's first landing on the far side of Earth's only natural satellite. In entering its planned ... more
OUTER PLANETS
Juno captures images of volcanic plumes on Jupiter's moon Io
San Antonio TX (SPX) Jan 01, 2019
A team of space scientists has captured new images of a volcanic plume on Jupiter's moon Io during the Juno mission's 17th flyby of the gas giant. On Dec. 21, during winter solstice, four of Juno's ... more
IRON AND ICE
In first, NASA spaceship begins close orbit of asteroid Bennu
Tampa (AFP) Jan 01, 2019
A NASA spacecraft set a new milestone Monday in cosmic exploration by entering orbit around an asteroid, Bennu, the smallest object ever to be circled by a human-made spaceship. ... more
MARSDAILY
ExoMars mission has good odds of finding life on Mars if life exists.
Moscow (Sputnik) Jan 01, 2019
As Dr Dartnell pointed out, at this point it is unclear whether life actually exists on Mars; and if it does exist, it remains to be seen how similar this life may be to that on Earth. While N ... more
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MOON DAILY
Women will make up to half of Russia-US Moon flight simulation crew
Moscow (Sputnik) Jan 01, 2019
Women will account for up to half of the crew that will be engaged in the second stage of a joint Russia-US project SIRIUS, which is designed to simulate the conditions of a flight to the Moon, Mark ... more
EXO WORLDS
Early protostar already has a warped disk
Saitami, Japan (SPX) Jan 01, 2019
Using observations from the ALMA radio observatory in Chile, researchers have observed, for the first time, a warped disk around an infant protostar that formed just several tens of thousands of yea ... more
EXO WORLDS
Baby star's fiery tantrum could create building blocks of planets
Warwick UK (SPX) Jan 01, 2019
A massive stellar flare on a baby star has been spotted by University of Warwick astronomers, shedding light on the origins of potentially habitable exoplanets. One of the largest ever seen on ... more
TIME AND SPACE
ESA sets clock by distant spinning stars
Paris (ESA) Jan 01, 2019
ESA's technical centre in the Netherlands has begun running a pulsar-based clock. The 'PulChron' system measures the passing of time using millisecond-frequency radio pulses from multiple fast-spinn ... more
OUTER PLANETS
NASA speeds toward historic flyby of faraway world, Ultima Thule
Tampa (AFP) Dec 31, 2018
A NASA spaceship is zooming toward the farthest, and quite possibly the oldest, cosmic body ever photographed by humankind, a tiny, distant world called Ultima Thule some four billion miles (6.4 billion kilometers) away. ... more


New Horizons Spacecraft on Target to Reach Ultima Thule

MERCURY RISING
Researchers model glaciation on Mercury's poles
Washington (UPI) Dec 28, 2018
Mercury's poles are marked by large craters. Icy deposits hide inside. Now, scientists think they know how the ice got there. ... more
Space News from SpaceDaily.com

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OUTER PLANETS
NASA spaceship closes in on distant world
Tampa (AFP) Dec 28, 2018
NASA's unmanned New Horizons spacecraft is closing in on its historic New Year's flyby target, the most distant world ever studied, a frozen relic of the solar system some four billion miles (6.4 billion kilometers) away. ... more
OUTER PLANETS
The PI's Perspective: Anticipation on Ultima's Doorstep
Laurel MD (SPX) Dec 28, 2018
The New Horizons spacecraft is healthy and on final approach to the first close-up exploration of a Kuiper Belt object in history, and the farthest exploration of any world, ever. In just a fe ... more
IRON AND ICE
Holiday Asteroid Imaged with NASA Radar
Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 24, 2018
The December 2018 close approach by the large, near-Earth asteroid 2003 SD220 has provided astronomers an outstanding opportunity to obtain detailed radar images of the surface and shape of the obje ... more
MARSDAILY
Over Six Months Without Word From Opportunity
Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 24, 2018
Mars atmospheric opacity (tau) over the rover site remains at a storm-free range around 1.0. No signal from Opportunity has been heard since Sol 5111 (June 10, 2018). Opportunity likely experi ... more
MARSDAILY
3D photogrammetric evidence for trace fossils at Vera Rubin Ridge, Gale Crater, Mars
Buckingham UK (SPX) Dec 24, 2018
On sol 1922 and 1923, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover (Curiosity) mission in Gale Crater, using its microscopic imager (MAHLI) returned over 84 images to Earth of enigmatic metallic dark- ... more
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Over Six Months Without Word From Opportunity
Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 24, 2018
Mars atmospheric opacity (tau) over the rover site remains at a storm-free range around 1.0. No signal from Opportunity has been heard since Sol 5111 (June 10, 2018). Opportunity likely experienced a low-power fault, a mission clock fault and an up-loss timer fault. Since the loss of signal, the team has been listening for the rover over a broad range of times, frequencies and polari ... more
+ ExoMars mission has good odds of finding life on Mars if life exists.
+ 3D photogrammetric evidence for trace fossils at Vera Rubin Ridge, Gale Crater, Mars
+ The C-Space Project Opens Mars Base as a Space Education Facility
+ Mars Express gets festive: A winter wonderland on Mars
+ Mars 2020 rover to capture sound on the Red Planet
+ InSight places its first instrument on Mars
+ InSight Engineers Have Made a Martian Rock Garden


China spacecraft in position for first-ever landing on Moon's far side
Beijing (Sputnik) Jan 01, 2019
Orbiting the moon, China's Chang'e 4 lunar lander has moved into position in preparation for mankind's first landing on the far side of Earth's only natural satellite. In entering its planned orbit on Sunday, the Chinese spacecraft will "prepare for the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon," stated the China National Space Administration, cited by the state-owned Xinhua medi ... more
+ Women will make up to half of Russia-US Moon flight simulation crew
+ China's Chang'e-4 probe changes orbit to prepare for moon-landing
+ Getting a glimpse inside the moon
+ Israeli spacecraft gets special passenger before moon journey
+ NASA seeks US partners to develop reusable systems to land astronauts on Moon
+ Learning from lunar lights
+ China launches rover for first far side of the moon landing
NASA spaceship closes in on distant world
Tampa (AFP) Dec 28, 2018
NASA's unmanned New Horizons spacecraft is closing in on its historic New Year's flyby target, the most distant world ever studied, a frozen relic of the solar system some four billion miles (6.4 billion kilometers) away. The cosmic object, known as Ultima Thule, is about the size of the US capital, Washington, and orbits in the dark and frigid Kuiper Belt about a billion miles beyond the dw ... more
+ New Horizons Spacecraft on Target to Reach Ultima Thule
+ NASA succeeds in historic flyby of faraway world
+ NASA rings in New Year with historic flyby of faraway world
+ NASA speeds toward historic flyby of faraway world, Ultima Thule
+ Juno captures images of volcanic plumes on Jupiter's moon Io
+ The PI's Perspective: Anticipation on Ultima's Doorstep
+ NASA spacecraft hurtles toward historic New Year's flyby
Early protostar already has a warped disk
Saitami, Japan (SPX) Jan 01, 2019
Using observations from the ALMA radio observatory in Chile, researchers have observed, for the first time, a warped disk around an infant protostar that formed just several tens of thousands of years ago. This implies that the misalignment of planetary orbits in many planetary systems - including our own - may be caused by distortions in the planet-forming disk early in their existence. T ... more
+ Baby star's fiery tantrum could create building blocks of planets
+ Scientists discover how and when DNA replicates
+ NASA study finds sugars, key ingredient for life, can form in space
+ Narrowing the universe in the search for life
+ A young star caught forming like a planet
+ Planets with Oxygen Don't Necessarily Have Life
+ Where did the hot Neptunes go
What You Need to Know About Russia's Vostochny Cosmodrome
Vostochny (Sputnik) Dec 28, 2018
The Soyuz-2.1a rocket with two Russian and 26 foreign satellites lifted off from the Vostochny space center in Russia's Far East on Thursday, which became the fourth launch from the cosmodrome. The Vostochny cosmodrome is the first civilian spaceport in Russia, designed to prepare and launch spacecraft for scientific, socio-economic and commercial purposes. It ensures Russia's indepe ... more
+ Russian Soyuz-2 1a Rocket With Satellites Blasts Off From Vostochny Cosmodrome
+ Russia touts hypersonic missile speed
+ Number of World's Space Launches in 2018 Exceeds 100, Space Industry Source Says
+ Difficulties in Planned Soyuz Launches Preparation to Emerge in 2020 - Source
+ China's first private rocket production base begins operation
+ Plesetsk spaceport to prepare launch pad for Angara rocket in May
+ Two Soyuz launches with UK satellites planned for 1st Quarter of 2019


China launches telecommunication technology test satellite
Xichang (XNA) Dec 31, 2018
China successfully launched the No. 3 telecommunication technology test satellite on Tuesday. The satellite was launched at 0:53 a.m. Beijing Time by a Long March-3C carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province. The satellite was developed and produced by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. There have been 296 ... more
+ China launches first Hongyun project satellite
+ China's Chang'e-4 probe enters lunar orbit
+ China launches rover for first far side of the moon landing
+ Evolving Chinese Space Ecosystem To Foster Innovative Environment
+ China sends 5 satellites into orbit via single rocket
+ China releases smart solution for verifying reliability of space equipment components
+ China unveils new 'Heavenly Palace' space station as ISS days numbered
Holiday Asteroid Imaged with NASA Radar
Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 24, 2018
The December 2018 close approach by the large, near-Earth asteroid 2003 SD220 has provided astronomers an outstanding opportunity to obtain detailed radar images of the surface and shape of the object and to improve the understanding of its orbit. The asteroid will fly safely past Earth on Saturday, Dec. 22, at a distance of about 1.8 million miles (2.9 million kilometers). This will be th ... more
+ Astrodynamics and the Gravity Measurement Descent Operation
+ Osiris-REX enters close orbit around asteroid Bennu
+ In first, NASA spaceship begins close orbit of asteroid Bennu
+ Navigating NASA's first mission to the Trojan asteroids
+ ALMA gives passing comet its close-up
+ NASA telescopes take a close look at the brightest comet of 2018
+ Space telescope detects water in a number of asteroids


Radiance Technologies tapped for U.S. Army laser research
Washington (UPI) Nov 30, 2018
The U.S. Army is contracting Radiance Technologies for high energy laser lethality research, assessment and support in the amount of $28.2 million. Work on the contract, announced Thursday by the Department of Defense, will be performed in Huntsville, Ala., and is expected to be completed by November 2023. It falls under a small business contract under acquisition rules, though R ... more
+ Lockheed Martin's missile defense laser concept continues toward development
+ Lockheed Martin, General Atomics, Boeing compete for laser-armed drone
+ Microwave weapon suspected in mystery attacks on US diplomats: report
+ Team Dynetics receives contract for next phase of 100kW laser weapon system for US Army
+ Dyenetics, Lockheed chosen for work on 100 KW laser weapon
+ Raytheon contracted to develop laser for U.S. Army
+ China firm develops 'laser gun'
Lockheed awarded $3.3B for PAC-3 missiles for Saudi Arabia, Kuwait
Washington (UPI) Dec 24, 2018
Lockheed Martin has been awarded a contract for Phased Array Tracking Radar to Intercept on Target Advanced Capability-3, or Patriot PAC-3, missiles for Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The contract, announced Friday by the Department of Defense, is worth a total of $3.3 billion for production of the missiles, with associated ground support equipment and initial spares of both PAC-3 missiles an ... more
+ Missile Defense Agency awards Lockheed Martin contract to design, manufacture and construct defense radar station in Hawaii
+ US approves $3.5 billion Patriot missile sale to Turkey
+ Pentagon conducts latest successful test of US-Japan interceptor
+ Aegis Combat System demonstrates success during on-land test against Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile
+ Navy to purchase new containers for air defense missiles
+ Navy to commission new Arleigh Burke destroyer USS Thomas Hudner
+ Raytheon to supply Romania with Patriot missile defense systems


NASA Research Reveals Saturn is Losing Its Rings at "Worst-Case-Scenario" Rate
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Dec 18, 2018
New NASA research confirms that Saturn is losing its iconic rings at the maximum rate estimated from Voyager 1 and 2 observations made decades ago. The rings are being pulled into Saturn by gravity as a dusty rain of ice particles under the influence of Saturn's magnetic field. "We estimate that this 'ring rain' drains an amount of water products that could fill an Olympic-sized swimming p ... more
+ Water on Saturn's Moon Phoebe Is Out of This World
+ A new way to create Saturn's radiation belts
+ Saturn's Moon Dione Covered by Mysterious Stripes
+ Cutting through the mystery of Titan's atmospheric haze
+ Surprising chemical complexity of Saturn's rings changing planet's upper atmosphere
+ Latest insights into Saturn's weird magnetic field only make things weirder
+ In its final days, Cassini bathed in 'ring rain'
Illuminating nanoparticle growth with X-rays
Upton NY (SPX) Jan 02, 2019
Hydrogen fuel cells are a promising technology for producing clean and renewable energy, but the cost and activity of their cathode materials is a major challenge for commercialization. Many fuel cells require expensive platinum-based catalysts - substances that initiate and speed up chemical reactions - to help convert renewable fuels into electrical energy. To make hydrogen fuel cells commerci ... more
+ Pitt chemical engineers develop new theory to build improved nanomaterials
+ MIT team invents method to shrink objects to the nanoscale
+ Artificial synapses made from nanowires
+ How microscopic machines can fail in the blink of an eye
+ Stealth-cap technology for light-emitting nanoparticles
+ Nano-scale process may speed arrival of cheaper hi-tech products
+ Watching nanoparticles


New squeezing record at GEO600 gravitational-wave detector
Hannover, Germany (SPX) Dec 17, 2018
The detection of Einstein's gravitational waves relies on highly precise laser measurements of small length changes. The kilometer-size detectors of the international network (GEO600, LIGO, Virgo) are so sensitive that they are fundamentally limited by tiny quantum mechanical effects. These cause a background noise which overlaps with gravitational-wave signals. This noise is always presen ... more
+ Mini-detectors for the gigantic
+ Portsmouth researchers make vital contribution to new gravitational wave discoveries
+ Four New Gravitational Wave Detections Announced
+ Universal laws in impact dynamics of dust agglomerates under microgravity conditions
+ Griffith precision measurement takes it to the limit
+ Gravitational waves could shed light on dark matter
+ In five -10 years, gravitational waves could accurately measure universe's expansion
Our universe: An expanding bubble in an extra dimension
Uppsala, Sweden (SPX) Jan 01, 2019
Uppsala University researchers have devised a new model for the Universe - one that may solve the enigma of dark energy. Their new article, published in Physical Review Letters, proposes a new structural concept, including dark energy, for a universe that rides on an expanding bubble in an additional dimension. We have known for the past 20 years that the Universe is expanding at an ever a ... more
+ Beyond the black hole singularity with loop quantum gravity
+ The coolest experiment in the universe
+ ESA sets clock by distant spinning stars
+ Physicists develop new theory to answer fundamental questions about black holes
+ Cosmologists claim universe is riding on an expanding bubble in an extra dimension
+ Precision experiment first to isolate, measure weak force between protons, neutrons
+ Electrically charged higgs versus physicists: 1-0 until break


Growing bio-inspired shapes with hundreds of tiny robots
Heidelberg, Germany (SPX) Jan 02, 2019
Hundreds of small robots can work in a team to create biology-inspired shapes - without an underlying master plan, purely based on local communication and movement. To achieve this, researchers from EMBL, CRG and Bristol Robotics Laboratory introduced the biological principles of self-organisation to swarm robotics. Science Robotics publishes the results on 19 December. "We show that it is ... more
+ Self-driving rovers tested in Mars-like Morocco
+ First Harris T7 bomb disposal robots sent to British army
+ New models sense human trust in smart machines
+ Robot shown on Russian TV revealed to be man in costume
+ Artificial joint restores wrist-like movements to forearm amputees
+ Norfolk Navy Shipyard introducing exoskeletons for workers
+ Insight into swimming fish could lead to robotics advances
Insitu gets defense contract for Blackjack unmanned aircraft
Washington (UPI) Dec 28, 2018
Insitu has won a $12 million contract for spare and sustainment parts for the Blackjack unmanned aircraft system, the Defense Department announced. The company, a division of Boeing headquartered in Bergen, Wash., was awarded $12,167,690 for firm-fixed-price delivery against a previously issued basic ordering agreement for parts to maintain the Naval Supply Systems Command's RQ-21A Blac ... more
+ General Atomics, Raytheon contracted for Reaper drone support
+ New foldable drone can navigate narrow holes
+ General Atomics receives $40 million for Gray Eagle drone services
+ Using drones to simplify film animation
+ General Atomics tapped for French MQ-9 drone support
+ Logos demonstrates Redkite advanced surveillance pod
+ Drones offer ability to find, ID and count marine megafauna
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