Donald Trump launched the US space force, the first new US military service in more than 70 years. ‘Space is the world’s new war-fighting domain,’ Trump said during a signing ceremony of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act that includes the force.
The move is part of a $1.4tn (£1.1tn) government spending package reversing automatic spending cuts to defence and domestic programmes
Continue reading...US president approves funding for America’s first new military service in 70 years
Donald Trump has launched space force, the first new US military service in more than 70 years.
In signing the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act that includes the force, Trump claimed a victory for one of his top national security priorities two days after being impeached by the House of Representatives.
Continue reading...Officials say spacecraft is in stable orbit but problem may delay mission to carry Nasa astronauts
Boeing’s new Starliner capsule ran into trouble and went off course in orbit minutes after blasting off on Friday on its first test flight, a crucial dress rehearsal for next year’s inaugural launch with astronauts.
Initially everything went flawlessly as the Atlas V rocket launched with the Starliner shortly before sunrise. But half an hour into the flight, Boeing reported that the capsule had not got into the position needed to get to the International Space Station.
Continue reading...European Space Agency asks for help from Nasa with ExoMars project as trials fail and cost rises to €1bn
Space engineers are racing against time to fix major faults in the robot probe they plan to send to Mars next year. The complex parachute system that should slow ExoMars – Europe’s largest ever planetary mission – as it plunges into the Martian atmosphere failed catastrophically during recent tests.
As a result, the European Space Agency has called for emergency help from Nasa space engineers to help them save their stricken mission. New parachutes are now being tested at the US Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and will be subject to high-altitude trials in two or three months.
Continue reading...Flying closer than any other mission, spacecraft set to unravel the sun’s mysteries
Nasa’s Parker Solar Probe, which has flown closer to the sun than any spacecraft, has beamed back its first observations from the edge of the sun’s scorching atmosphere.
The first tranche of data offers clues to long-standing mysteries, including why the sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona, is hundreds of times hotter than its surface, as well as the precise origins of the solar wind.
Continue reading...Nasa satellite sends back images showing wreckage of Chandrayaan-2 mission, with debris found scattered nearly a kilometre away
A Nasa satellite orbiting the moon has found India’s Vikram lander, which crashed on the lunar surface in September, the US space agency said on Monday.
Nasa released an image taken by its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) that showed the site of the spacecraft’s impact and associated debris field, with parts scattered over almost two dozen locations spanning several kilometres.
Continue reading...Engineers plan to collect rocks on Mars and bring samples to Earth, in one of the most complex robot space projects envisaged. The scheme, being developed by Nasa and the European Space Agency (Esa), will involve robot rovers finding rocks that might contain evidence of past life.
The samples would be blasted into space, intercepted by an unmanned spacecraft, and dropped by parachute in the Utah desert, with the 500g of Martian soil and rock shared with researchers round the world.
Continue reading...Nasa craft is second to travel beyond heliosphere but gives most detailed data yet
Twelve billion miles from Earth, there is an elusive boundary that marks the edge of the sun’s realm and the start of interstellar space. When Voyager 2, the longest-running space mission, crossed that frontier more than 40 years after its launch it sent a faint signal from the other side that scientists have now decoded.
The Nasa craft is the second ever to travel beyond the heliosphere, the bubble of supersonic charged particles streaming outwards from the sun. Despite setting off a month ahead of its twin, Voyager 1, it crossed the threshold into interstellar space more than six years behind, after taking the scenic route across the solar system and providing what remain the only close-up images of Uranus and Neptune.
Continue reading...The air force’s mystery space plane is back on Earth, following a record-breaking two-year mission.
Related: Virgin Galactic launches (on the New York Stock Exchange)
Continue reading...Christina Koch and Jessica Meir leave International Space Station to replace faulty device
Two Nasa astronauts have embarked on the first all-female space walk in a historic first.
Christina Koch and Jessica Meir floated feet-first out of the International Space Station’s Quest airlock on Friday lunchtime UK time, tasked with replacing a failed power control unit.
Continue reading...The Soviet cosmonaut almost didn’t make it back into his capsule in 1965, when his suit inflated in the space vacuum
Alexei Leonov, the legendary Soviet cosmonaut who became the first human to walk in space 54 years ago, has died in Moscow at 85.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos announced the news on its website on Friday, but gave no cause of death. Leonov had health issues for several years, according to Russia media.
Continue reading...The gas giant has 82 moons, surpassing the 79 known to orbit its larger neighbour
Saturn has taken over from Jupiter as host to the most moons in the solar system after astronomers spotted 20 more lumps of rock orbiting the ringed planet.
It brings the number of Saturnian moons to 82, surpassing the 79 that are known to orbit Jupiter, its larger, inner neighbour.
Continue reading...Observations reveal cluster of galaxies about 12bn light years away linked by gas filaments
The cosmic web, a vast, mysterious structure that links up far-flung galaxies, has been observed directly for the first time.
The observations reveal that an ancient cluster of galaxies about 12bn light years away in the constellation of Aquarius are linked together by a network of faint gas filaments. The existence of the cosmic web is central to current theories of how galaxies first formed following the big bang, but until now evidence for it had remained largely circumstantial.
Continue reading...PM says five-year commitment designed to make Australia ‘partner of choice’ to support expeditions to moon and Mars
Scott Morrison has used a visit to Nasa on Saturday local time to unveil a $150m investment in Australian businesses and new technology to support the American space agency launch expeditions to the moon and to Mars.
The Australian prime minister on his second day in the American capital visited Nasa, and also laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery. Morrison visited the graves of Australian military personnel and visit the tomb of The Unknown Soldier.
Continue reading...Smashing of monster asteroid half a billion years ago thought to have caused mini ice age
An enormous dust cloud that swept through the ancient solar system sent Earth into a mini ice age that sparked an explosion in primitive life on the planet, scientists say.
The space dust was created when a monster asteroid was smashed to pieces in a violent collision somewhere between Mars and Jupiter nearly half a billion years ago.
Continue reading...Scientists say Milky Way’s Sagittarius A* has been more active in recent months
Unseeable and inescapable, black holes already rank among the more sinister phenomena out in the cosmos. So it may come as disconcerting news that the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way appears to be growing hungrier.
Astronomers monitoring the colossal object, called Sagittarius A*, found that in the past year it appears to have consumed nearby matter at an unprecedented rate.
Continue reading...Efforts are underway to establish contact, days after communications were lost during failed landing
The lander module from India’s moon mission has been located on the lunar surface, the day after it lost contact with the space station, and efforts are underway to try to establish contact with it, the head of the nation’s space agency said.
The cameras from the moon mission’s orbiter had located the lander, said K. Sivan, the chairman of the Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) according to the Press Trust of India news agency. He added: “It must have been a hard landing.”
Continue reading...Prime minister Narendra Modi consoles scientists distraught as complex mission goes awry
India’s attempt to land an unmanned craft on the moon’s uncharted south polar region appears to have gone awry, when communication with the landing vehicle was lost moments before touchdown.
“Communications from lander to ground station was lost,” said Kailasavadivoo Sivan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation early on Saturday. Data was still being analysed, he told a room full of distraught scientists at the agency’s tracking centre in Bengaluru.
Continue reading...ESA say its Aeolus Earth observation satellite fired thrusters to avoid crash
The European Space Agency has said it altered the trajectory of one of its observation satellites to avoid a collision with a craft operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
“@ESA’s Aeolus Earth observation satellite fired its thrusters, moving it off a collision course with a @SpaceX satellite in their Starlink constellation,” the agency’s Twitter account said.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has said the newly formed US Space Command will 'defend America's vital interests in space, the next war-fighting domain'. Speaking at a ceremony in Washington, Trump said Space Command would protect US satellites orbiting the planet and detect missile launches abroad, and would be followed by the establishment of the Space Force, 'the sixth branch of the United States armed forces'. Creating a new military branch still requires congressional approval and the matter has met with skepticism from both Democrats and Republicans
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