Science

HELSINKI — China launched a small space mining test spacecraft and eight other commercial satellites into orbit on a Long March 6 rocket late Monday. The Long March 6 lifted off from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, north China, at 11:20 p.m. Monday Eastern. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC) announced launch success within

WASHINGTON — Blue Origin filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office April 26 over NASA’s decision to select only SpaceX for its Human Landing System (HLS) program, arguing the agency “moved the goalposts” of the competition. The company, in a lengthy filing with the GAO, claimed that in addition to not giving companies the

CNSA, Roscosmos invite international partnerships; China reveals outline and objectives for lunar research station. HELSINKI — Russia and China have formally invited countries and international organizations to join the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) project being developed by the two nations. China National Space Administration (CNSA) and Russia’s Roscosmos said the ILRS project would be

Inside the ultra-high vacuum chamber: The laser was sent through a calcium fluoride window into the chamber, where it interacted with the sample. The kinetic energies of the photoemitted electrons were recorded by a hemispherical kinetic energy analyser. (Courtesy: Alex Tanner) A collaboration involving experimental and computational chemical physicists has revealed new clues as to

TAMPA, Fla. — OneWeb’s growing low Earth orbit broadband constellation is set to reach 182 satellites, after Arianespace launched its latest batch of 36 spacecraft April 25. Arianespace launched the satellites with a Soyuz-2.1b rocket that blasted off 6:14 p.m. Eastern from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia, putting them into a near-polar orbit at an

Lockheed Martin Space hired 2,700 people plus 700 interns in 2020, a year unlike any other for human resources managers. Almost overnight, the prime contractor with about 23,000 employees switched from its traditional in-person approach to virtual recruitment, interviewing and training. SpaceNews correspondent Debra Werner spoke with Lockheed Martin Space executives Nick Spain, human resources

Zhongfan Liu, founding president of Beijing Graphene Institute, describes how the institute is pioneering the industrialization of new graphene materials Graphene pioneer: Zhongfan Liu is founding president of Beijing Graphene Institute. (Courtesy: Beijing Graphene Institute) What is the role of the Beijing Graphene Institute (BGI) and why was it created? Officially opened in 2018, the

WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station April 24, less than 24 hours after its launch from Florida, giving the station its largest crew in a decade. The Crew Dragon spacecraft Endeavour, which launched from the Kennedy Space Center April 23, docked with the station’s Harmony module at 5:08

HELSINKI — China is set to launch the first module for its own space station next week after rolling out a Long March 5B rocket at Wenchang spaceport late Thursday. The 53.7-meter-long Long March 5B is now expected to launch the 22-ton Tianhe space station core module around April 29, although authorities have not officially

Starry night: a laser-painted interpretation of the van Gogh masterpiece. (Courtesy: Yaroslava Andreeva) Vividly coloured paintings have been created by researchers in Russia by using a laser to heat the surface of a metal until it begins to evaporate. Developed by Vadim Veiko, Yaroslava Andreeva and colleagues at ITMO University in Saint Petersburg, the technique

ORLANDO — The White House announced April 22 its intent to nominate an ocean scientist to be the next administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and a Defense Department official to be NASA’s next chief financial officer. The White House said that it will nominate Rick Spinrad to be administrator of NOAA and

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — SpaceX launched a Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying four astronauts from three nations April 23 as the commercial crew program moves firmly into operations. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 39A here at 5:49 a.m. Eastern on the Crew-2 mission. The Crew Dragon spacecraft separated from the Falcon

The prototype proton therapy system will use MRI to visualize tumour motion in real time during treatments. (Courtesy: B Oborn) Proton therapy is an advanced cancer treatment technique that delivers highly targeted dose to the tumour while sparing surrounding normal tissue, enabled by the finite range of the proton beam. This precision targeting, however, is

“Climate change” is changing. There has been a growing push by scientists, environmental advocates and others to refer to the Earth’s changing climate as a “climate crisis” or even “climate emergency” to better reflect the severity of the problem and the urgency to take action to mitigate the worst of its effects. On April 12,

Lamborn: “Every dollar spent on moving Space Command is a wasted dollar that could be spent on enhancing space capabilities” WASHINGTON — U.S. Space Command has close ties to other military space organizations in Colorado, but if it has to move to Alabama it could continue to do its job without major disruption, Gen. James

Visualizing subcellular structures deep inside the brains of living animals could improve our understanding of how neurons function in their native environment. Thanks to an improved super-resolution microscopy technique developed at Yale University, that dream is now one step closer to reality. Writing in Optica, the researchers combined stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy with two-photon

The Space Development Agency needs “affordable” optical terminals that can be mass produced WASHINGTON — Each of the satellites in the Space Development Agency’s mesh network known as the Transport Layer could have as many as five laser links so they can talk to other satellites, airplanes, ships and ground stations.  Realizing that goal will