WASHINGTON — NASA expects that retiring the International Space Station in favor of leasing capacity on commercial space stations will ultimately save the agency up to $1.8 billion per year. That estimate comes from an updated ISS transition report published by NASA last week. The report was submitted to Congress as an update to a
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SDA and General Atomics have been unable to communicate with the LINCS satellites launched June 30 WASHINGTON — After a setback in a laser communications experiment launched last June, the Space Development Agency and satellite manufacturer General Atomics are considering next steps. General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems on June 30 launched an experiment for SDA known
WASHINGTON — NASA’s InSight Mars lander has recovered from a safe mode caused by a dust storm in January, but the project’s leader says the mission is still likely to end within a year because of declining power levels. In a presentation at a meeting of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) Feb. 3,
Two phases: this graph shows the momentum distribution of the shaken quantum gas during the phase transition. The central peak on the left corresponds the initial Mott insulator while the two peaks on the right indicate the distinct staggered order of the superfluid phase. Shown upper right is a schematic of the ball-and-hillside representation of
WASHINGTON — The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is establishing a center to help astronomers deal with the adverse effects of satellite constellations. The IAU said Feb. 3 it selected a proposal jointly submitted by the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, or NOIRLab, run by the National Science Foundation, and the Square Kilometer Array Observatory (SKAO)
TAMPA, Fla. — A shortage of skilled workers has pushed the launch of the first ViaSat-3 broadband satellite from the first half of 2022 to “late summer,” Viasat said Feb. 3 as the pandemic continues to disrupt the industry’s supply chains. Viasat executive chair Mark Dankberg said during the company’s financial results investor call that
Game on: the graphics for GENIGMA were designed by Xavi Ramiro. (Courtesy: /CRG/CNAG-CRG) Solving scientific problems by turning them into games is a popular strategy of citizen science projects, which use the brains of the public to do research in areas as diverse as astronomy and genetics. The latest scientific task to be gamified is
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab will expand facilities in Colorado it obtained from a corporate acquisition last year as the company gears up for the first launch in a “crazy busy” year. Rocket Lab announced Feb. 2 that will open a new “space systems complex” in Littleton, Colorado, near the current offices of Advanced Solutions, Inc.
WASHINGTON — A new satellite developed by Boeing for the military’s Wideband Global Satcom constellation passed a critical design review and will transition to production, the Space Force said Feb. 1. This is the 11th satellite of the WGS constellation, named WGS-11+, projected to be completed in 2024. Lt. Col. David Edsen, WGS-11+ program manager
A prototype of a quantum resistance standard based on the quantum anomalous Hall effect with a disc magnet. (Courtesy: Y Okazaki) Researchers in Japan have proposed a new way of defining the standard unit of electrical resistance that would do away with the need for strong magnetic fields. The new proposal, which would create a
WASHINGTON — A startup led by a former acting administrator of NASA has announced plans to develop platforms serviced by robotic vehicles in cislunar space to support a range of applications. Maryland-based Quantum Space announced Feb. 3 it’s starting work on a spacecraft platform that would initially operate at the Earth-moon L-1 Lagrange point and
WASHINGTON — NASA is postponing the rollout of the first Space Launch System for a final prelaunch test by a month to give workers more time to complete vehicle preparations. NASA announced Feb. 2 that it was delaying the rollout of the SLS from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Complex 39B for a fueling
X marks the spot: the CMS experiment at CERN undergoing an upgrade. (Courtesy: Maximilien Brice/CERN) A mysterious “X” particle comprising four quarks and first seen in 2003, has been found in the quark–gluon plasma produced in heavy ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The observation was made by physicists working on CERN’s Compact
WASHINGTON — NASA and SpaceX are investigating the delayed opening of a parachute on a cargo Dragon spacecraft that recently returned to Earth, an incident similar to one that took place on a Crew Dragon spacecraft last year. NASA confirmed Feb. 2 that the cargo Dragon spacecraft that splashed down off the Florida coast Jan.
WASHINGTON — Astra Space will launch four NASA-sponsored cubesats on its Rocket 3.3 vehicle as soon as Feb. 5 on a mission that will be the first to use a streamlined set of commercial launch regulations. Astra announced Feb. 1 that it expected to launch its vehicle from Space Launch Complex 46 at Cape Canaveral
A blueprint for a quantum computer that uses trapped ions as qubits. (Courtesy: Ion Quantum Technology Group, University of Sussex) How big does a quantum computer need to be to accomplish something useful? Physicists from the University of Sussex, UK recently set out to answer this question for two pragmatic computational tasks: breaking the encryption
WASHINGTON — Launch companies Relativity Space and SpaceX were among the companies that submitted proposals last year to NASA for initial development of commercial space stations. NASA selected proposals led by Blue Origin, Nanoracks and Northrop Grumman Dec. 2 for funded Space Act Agreements as part of the Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations, or CLD,