Space junk on collision course with the moon likely a Chinese rocket – experts

Posted on March 2, 2022 by Admin

Space junk to smash into the far side of the moon at 5,800mph on Friday and it may take weeks, even months, to confirm the impact

The moon is about to get walloped by 3 tons of space junk, a punch that will carve out a crater that could fit several semi-tractor-trailers.

The leftover rocket will smash into the far side of the moon at 5,800mph (9,300km/h) on Friday, away from telescopes’ prying eyes. It may take weeks, even months, to confirm the impact through satellite images.

Springtime asteroid hit ramped up extinction rates, say scientists

Posted on February 23, 2022 by Admin

Animals in northern hemisphere would have been more vulnerable to intense heat just after winter

Having an asteroid slam into Earth was catastrophic for the dinosaurs, but the season of the strike may have substantially ramped up extinction rates for others species, research suggests.

Scientists have found evidence that the devastating impact 66m years ago, which wiped out three-quarters of Earth’s species and created the Chicxulub crater in modern-day Mexico, happened in the spring in the northern hemisphere.

Starwatch: red star Antares makes striking winter appearance

Posted on February 21, 2022 by Admin

Usually twinkling in summer months, the ‘rival of Mars’ will appear clearer in still winter air

This week offers early risers a chance to see the silver moon next to the deep-red star Antares. The chart shows the view looking south from London at 0500 GMT on the morning of 24 February.

The moon will be low in the sky with an altitude of just 12 degrees; Antares will be even lower, so find the clearest southern horizon that you can. With 46.8% of its visible surface illuminated, the moon will be more or less at its last quarter phase, about to become a waning crescent.

Rocket on collision course with the moon ‘built by China not SpaceX’

Posted on February 14, 2022 by Admin

Astronomers say mistake over object that is due to hit lunar surface in March highlights difficulties of deep space tracking

Astronomy experts say they originally misread the secrets of the night sky: it turns out that a rocket expected to crash into the moon in early March was built by China, not SpaceX.

A rocket will indeed strike the lunar surface on 4 March, but contrary to what had been announced, it was built not by Elon Musk’s company, but by Beijing, experts now say.

SpaceX to lose up to 40 Starlink satellites after geomagnetic storm

Posted on February 9, 2022 by Admin

Elon Musk’s firm says 80% of the satellites it launched last week are expected to burn up instead of reaching orbit

SpaceX will lose up to 40 of the 49 Starlink satellites it launched last week as the result of a geomagnetic storm, the company has announced.

Elon Musk’s firm launched the satellites into low-Earth orbit on 3 February from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but 80% of them are now expected to burn up instead of reaching their intended orbit.

International Space Station will plummet to a watery grave in 2030

Posted on February 2, 2022 by Admin

Nasa confirmed the ISS will plunge into the Pacific ocean to join other decommissioned space stations, satellites and space debris

The International Space Station (ISS) will continue its operations until 2030 before heading for a watery grave at the most remote point in the Pacific, Nasa confirmed in a new transition plan this week.

More than 30 years after its 1998 launch, the ISS will be “de-orbited” in January 2031, according to the space agency’s budget estimates. Once out of orbit the space station will make a dramatic descent before splash landing in Point Nemo, which is about 2,700km from any land and has become known as the space cemetery, a final resting place for decommissioned space stations, old satellites, and other human space debris.

Astronomers discover mysterious pulsing object that may be new class of star

Posted on January 26, 2022 by Admin

Experts say object is a match for predicted class of neutron star with ultra-powerful magnetic field

Astronomers have discovered a mysterious object emitting a radio wave beam that pulsed every 20 minutes.

The team behind the discovery believe the object could be a new class of slowly rotating neutron star with an ultra-powerful magnetic field. The repeating signals were detected during the first three months of 2018, but then disappeared, suggesting they were linked to a dramatic, one-off event, such as a starquake.

James Webb space telescope takes up station a million miles from Earth

Posted on January 24, 2022 by Admin

$10bn observatory manoeuvred into position at four times the orbit of the moon, with first images expected in June

The world’s largest and most powerful telescope has reached its final destination – an observation post one million miles away from Earth.

Nasa’s $10bn James Webb space telescope launched on Christmas Day last year from French Guiana on a quest to behold the dawn of the universe. Due to its sheer size, Webb had to launch folded inside the Ariane 5, a European rocket.

To the moon and beyond: what 2022 holds for space travel

Posted on January 2, 2022 by Admin

From lunar missions to anti-asteroid defence systems, there are plenty of exciting scientific developments to look forward to

This year promises to be an important one for space exploration, with several major programmes reaching the launch pad over the next 12 months. The US is to return to the moon, undertaking a set of missions intended to establish a lunar colony there in a few years. China is expected to complete its Tiangong space station while Europe and Russia will attempt to land spacecraft on Mars, having failed at every previous attempt. India, South Korea and Japan are also scheduled to put a number of missions into space.

China anger after space station forced to move to avoid Elon Musk Starlink satellites

Posted on December 27, 2021 by Admin

China said its space station deployed prevention collision avoidance control measures in July and October and called on the US to ‘bear responsibility’

Beijing has called on the UN to remind the US to abide by the treaty regulating outer space after space satellites launched by tech tycoon Elon Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX almost collided with its space station twice in the past year.

China said its space station deployed prevention collision avoidance control measures in July and October to avoid colliding with Starlink satellites in a recent report submitted by Beijing to the UN’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space earlier this month.

The Great British race to space

Posted on December 26, 2021 by Admin

In the outermost parts of our islands, a new industry in satellites, rockets and launch ports is poised for take-off

In the next 12 months, Britain is expected to make a remarkable aerospace breakthrough. For the first time, a satellite will be fired into orbit from a launch pad in the United Kingdom.

It will be a historic moment – though exactly where this grand adventure will begin is not yet clear. A series of fledgling operations, backed by the UK Space Agency, are now competing to be the first to launch a satellite from British soil.

Nasa launches $10bn James Webb space telescope

Posted on December 25, 2021 by Admin

Successor to the Hubble telescope takes off on board rocket from ESA’s launch base in French Guiana

The most ambitious, costly robot probe ever built, the $10bn James Webb telescope, has been blasted into space on top of a giant European rocket.

Engineers reported on Saturday that the observatory – which has been plagued by decades of delays and huge cost overruns – was operating perfectly after going through the most nervously watched lift-off in the history of uncrewed space exploration.

Astronomers on tenterhooks as $10bn James Webb telescope set for lift off

Posted on December 24, 2021 by Admin

Nasa’s flagship mission counts down to launch at 1220 GMT on Christmas Day from Kourou, French Guiana

Final checks and fuelling are under way for the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, a flagship mission for Nasa that aims to observe worlds beyond the solar system and the first stars and galaxies that lit up the cosmos.

If all goes to plan, the $10bn (£7.4bn) observatory will become the largest and most powerful telescope ever sent into space when it blasts off at 12.20pm UK time on Christmas Day onboard an Ariane 5 rocket from the European Space Agency’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

‘We’re all citizens of planet Earth’: former astronaut Bill Nelson on his mission at Nasa

Posted on December 24, 2021 by Admin

Nasa’s new administrator discusses the space race with China, UFOs, billionaire ‘astronauts’ and building a ‘mission control’ for climate change

When Apollo 11 launched in July 1969, Bill Nelson was an army lieutenant on leave behind the iron curtain, listening with colleagues to the BBC on shortwave radio.

“There were three young Americans standing on the hills overlooking Budapest, screaming at the top of our lungs, cheering as that rocket lifted off,” Nasa’s new administrator recalled in a video interview.

Nasa to launch newest space telescope on Christmas Day

Posted on December 21, 2021 by Admin

The James Webb space telescope, considered the Hubble’s successor, will stay on the ground an extra day due to high winds

Dangerously high winds will keep Nasa’s newest space telescope on the ground for at least an extra day, with the launch now targeted for Saturday – Christmas Day – at the earliest.

Nasa announced the latest delay Tuesday. Upper-level high wind could force a rocket off-course or even damage or destroy it.

‘Peeing is very easy’: Japanese billionaire returns to Earth after documenting life on ISS

Posted on December 19, 2021 by Admin

Yusaku Maezawa spent 12 days at the space station, marking Russia’s return to space tourism after a decade-long pause

A Japanese billionaire has returned to Earth after 12 days spent on the International Space Station, where he made videos about performing mundane tasks in space including brushing his teeth and going to the toilet.

Online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano parachuted on to Kazakhstan’s steppe at around the expected landing time of 03.13 GMT on Monday, along with Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, Russia’s space agency said.

Nasa sets new date for James Webb space telescope launch

Posted on December 18, 2021 by Admin

The instrument will be the largest and most powerful telescope ever to be launched into space

The much-delayed launch of the James Webb space telescope will go ahead on 24 December, Nasa and the company overseeing the launch have confirmed.

The project, begun in 1989, was originally expected to deploy the instrument – which will be the largest and most powerful telescope ever to be launched into space – in the early 2000s.

Nasa’s solar probe ‘touches’ sun for first time, dives into unexplored atmosphere

Posted on December 14, 2021 by Admin

The Parker probe is exploring the corona to help scientists better understand solar outbursts that can interfere with life on Earth

A Nasa spacecraft has officially “touched” the sun, plunging through the unexplored solar atmosphere known as the corona.

Scientists announced the news Tuesday during a meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

Daughter of US astronaut rockets into space aboard Blue Origin spacecraft

Posted on December 11, 2021 by Admin

Laura Shepard Churchley, whose father, Alan Shepard, made history in 1961 as the first American to travel into space, was among the crew of six

The eldest daughter of pioneering US astronaut Alan Shepard took a joyride to the edge of space aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket on Saturday, 60 years after her late father’s famed suborbital Nasa flight at the dawn of the Space Age.

Laura Shepard Churchley, 74, who was a schoolgirl when her father first streaked into space, was one of six passengers buckled into the cabin of Blue Origin‘s New Shepard spacecraft as it lifted off from a launch site outside the west Texas town of Van Horn.

Japanese fashion tycoon to blast off for ISS as Russia revives space tourism

Posted on December 7, 2021 by Admin

Yusaku Maezawa to become first space tourist sent to space station by Russia in more than a decade

The Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has said he can barely contain his excitement on the eve of blasting off to the International Space Station in a prelude to a more ambitious trip around the moon with Elon Musk’s SpaceX planned in 2023.

The 46-year-old fashion magnate and art collector has been training at a space centre outside Moscow before becoming the first space tourist to travel to the ISS in more than a decade.

Roundup Newswires

Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network

Category Archives: Space

Space junk on collision course with the moon likely a Chinese rocket – experts

Springtime asteroid hit ramped up extinction rates, say scientists

Starwatch: red star Antares makes striking winter appearance

Rocket on collision course with the moon ‘built by China not SpaceX’

SpaceX to lose up to 40 Starlink satellites after geomagnetic storm

International Space Station will plummet to a watery grave in 2030

Astronomers discover mysterious pulsing object that may be new class of star

James Webb space telescope takes up station a million miles from Earth

To the moon and beyond: what 2022 holds for space travel

China anger after space station forced to move to avoid Elon Musk Starlink satellites

The Great British race to space

Nasa launches $10bn James Webb space telescope

Astronomers on tenterhooks as $10bn James Webb telescope set for lift off

‘We’re all citizens of planet Earth’: former astronaut Bill Nelson on his mission at Nasa

Nasa to launch newest space telescope on Christmas Day

‘Peeing is very easy’: Japanese billionaire returns to Earth after documenting life on ISS

Nasa sets new date for James Webb space telescope launch

Nasa’s solar probe ‘touches’ sun for first time, dives into unexplored atmosphere

Daughter of US astronaut rockets into space aboard Blue Origin spacecraft

Japanese fashion tycoon to blast off for ISS as Russia revives space tourism