Science

WASHINGTON — The White House announced the new membership of an advisory group of the National Space Council Dec. 16 with wholesale changes in the roster reflecting a new emphasis on climate change and workforce issues. Vice President Kamala Harris, chair of the National Space Council, announced a roster of 30 members of the Users’

Happy holidays: a nanoscale snowflake made using a gallium solvent. (Courtesy: Waipapa Taumata Rau/University of Auckland) The spin imparted on a baseball by a pitcher plays a crucial role in the ball’s trajectory – and how easy it is for the batter to hit the ball. If the ball has lots of spin, the Magnus

Updated 7:10 p.m. Eastern with launch slip. WASHINGTON — The first Electron launch from Wallops will mark what spaceport officials hope is the start of a new era of increased launch activity there. Rocket Lab said Dec. 15 that its first Electron launch from Launch Complex 2 on Wallops Island, Virginia, has slipped two days

WASHINGTON — A coolant leak in a Soyuz spacecraft docked to the International Space Station Dec. 14 forced flight controllers to cancel a Russian spacewalk there and raised questions about the spacecraft’s ability to return to Earth safely. Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin were preparing for a spacewalk when station controllers noticed a coolant

This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast features an interview with Andrew Cheng, who is a lead scientist on the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) space mission. In September 2022 the DART spacecraft smashed into an asteroid and was successful in changing the orbit of that near-Earth object. DART was conceived and executed by

TAMPA, Fla. — Microsoft said Dec. 14 it is partnering with satellite operator Viasat to find solutions for bringing internet access to 10 million unserved or underserved people within three years. Viasat is the first satellite operator to join Microsoft’s Airband initiative, which aims to deliver connectivity to a quarter of a billion people by

‘We’re in this strange new period of constriction of launch’ WASHINGTON — The United States and Europe, at least in the immediate future, will be largely dependent on SpaceX for satellite launches and human spaceflight missions, creating a supply and demand imbalance that might not be sustainable, warned Casey Dreier, chief policy adviser for the

Interacting system: A diagram of the researchers’ four-qubit superconducting quantum chip. (Courtesy: Y Yu) Researchers at Nanjing University in China have used a superconducting quantum chip to simulate a system of particles that are neither fermions nor bosons. As part of this simulation, they measured a parameter known as the quantum geometric tensor that provides

WASHINGTON — Two African countries became the first from the continent to join the Artemis Accords as the United States works to bring more emerging space nations into the agreement. During the Space Forum portion of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit here Dec. 13, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced that Rwanda and Nigeria would sign the

WASHINGTON — Quantum Space has raised $15 million to further development of the first in a constellation of satellites intended to provide services in cislunar space. Quantum Space said that Prime Movers Lab invested $15 million in a Series A round in the Rockville, Maryland-based company. The funding will support development of its QS-1 spacecraft

The excitement of space: Stemettes co-founder Anne-Marie Imafidon addressing the Appleton Space Conference. (Courtesy: Margaret Harris) Space exploration is widely seen as exciting and inspirational. It captures the public imagination in ways that other scientific endeavours do not, to the extent that kids dream of becoming astronauts and rocket scientists when they grow up. They

Elon Musk used Twitter to communicate SpaceX’s ascent as the world’s most powerful space company. What happens to Musk’s space ambitions now that he owns Twitter? Elon Musk has long been both a power user of Twitter and one of the most powerful people to use it. Credit: SpaceNews illustration/B. Berger No one influences spaceflight

WASHINGTON — The successful conclusion of the Artemis 1 mission Dec. 11 won widespread support from politicians and industry, a sign of broad support for a program that has suffered extensive delays. The Artemis 1 mission wrapped up 25 and a half days after its liftoff on the inaugural flight of the Space Launch System

In this short video, filmed at ASTRO 2022, Sun Nuclear’s Erin Schesny introduces the company’s quality assurance (QA) portfolio, designed to optimize workflows and provide patient safety within radiation oncology. She explains that Sun Nuclear, now part of the Mirion Medical family of companies, aims to provide a complete end-to-end QA solution for the diagnostic

WASHINGTON — As Artemis 1 nears its conclusion, U.S. Space Command is using the mission to highlight its role in supporting NASA, even as the space agency considers alternatives to some of those services. The Orion crew capsule is scheduled to splash down at 12:39 p.m. Eastern Dec. 11 in the Pacific Ocean off the

WASHINGTON — Fifty years to the day after the last Apollo moon mission touched down on the lunar surface, NASA’s plans to return to the moon took a major step forward with the successful splashdown of the Orion spacecraft to end the Artemis 1 mission. The Orion spacecraft splashed down off the coast of Baja

Grounded: illustration of how SuperGPS would be rolled out in a city. (Courtesy: TU Delft/Stephan Timmers) Researchers in the Netherlands have created a ground-based alternative to global satellite navigation systems (GNSSs) – claiming that it could offer a far greater positioning and timekeeping accuracy in cluttered urban environments. The team’s SuperGPS system uses an atomic-clock

TAMPA, Fla. — The top Democrat and Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee introduced bipartisan legislation Dec. 8 to reform the Federal Communication Commission’s satellite licensing rules. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.) and the ranking member, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), said their legislation is needed to modernize