Science

Metal-rich monster: The asteroid 16 Psyche is due to get a visit from the Psyche spacecraft in 2026. (Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech)”> Metal-rich monster: The asteroid 16 Psyche is due to get a visit from the Psyche spacecraft in 2026. (Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech) Astronomers have used the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) to gain a more detailed picture

TAMPA, Fla. — Arianespace launched its ninth mission for broadband startup OneWeb Aug. 21, expanding its low Earth orbit constellation to 288 satellites. A total of 34 satellites for OneWeb launched on a Soyuz rocket at 6:13 p.m. Eastern from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. They separated from the launcher during nine successful sequences, according to Arianespace,

In early August, Russian media reported that the country’s space agency, Roscosmos, had yet to order new spacesuits for its cosmonauts to replace the aging suits required for space station spacewalks. Dmitry Rogozin, head of Roscosmos, turned to Twitter to refute the claims, saying that cosmonauts “will not have to perform spacewalks in their underwear.”

Matin Durrani recalls his brushes with the Nobel-prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg, who died on 23 July 2021 at the age of 88. A passion for physics: Steven Weinberg at the 2016 March meeting of the American Physical Society in Baltimore, US (Courtesy: Matin Durrani/IOP Publishing) For reasons I can no longer quite remember, I was

There’s no such thing as a free launch — especially when it comes to suborbital joy rides Whether or not you agree with Elon Musk that we need higher volume and lower cost access to space so that a small portion of humanity can flee our imperiled planet and become planetary refugees, at least he

The world watched with excitement as former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and three others lifted off July 20 toward the farthest edge of Earth’s atmosphere aboard the Blue Origin New Shepard. This mission took place only nine days after Virgin Group founder Richard Branson boarded the Virgin Galactic VSS Unity, embarking on the first fully

Taken from the August 2021 issue of Physics World where it first appeared under the headline “The candyfloss cosmos”. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app. Laura Hiscott muses on how candy floss is made, and an unlikely link to astrophysics (Courtesy: iStock/lilu330) If you’ve ever

SANTA FE, N.M. — Shareholders of a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) voted Aug. 20 to merge with Rocket Lab, giving the small launch vehicle and spacecraft developer an infusion of cash. Vector Acquisition Corporation announced that its shareholders approved a series of motions at its annual general meeting to merge the SPAC with Rocket Lab.

HELSINKI — Chinese astronauts Nie Haisheng and Liu Boming embarked on a second Shenzhou-12 spacewalk late Thursday to carry out work on a space station robotic arm. Shenzhou-12 mission commander Nie opened the hatch of the Tianhe module at 8:38 p.m. Eastern Aug. 19 to begin a planned near seven-hour extravehicular activity, the China Manned

Left to right: Livia Eberlin, James Suliburk and Jialing Zhang are developing a new diagnostic device. Their experimental setup is seen in the background. (Courtesy: James Suliburk) Scientists in the US have conducted the first clinical tests of a new diagnostic device called MasSpec Pen. The “pen” is able to detect differences between healthy and

SANTA FE, N.M. — NASA will stop work on a Human Landing System award to SpaceX through the end of October as a federal court takes up a suit filed by Blue Origin protesting the contract. The Court of Federal Claims issued a schedule Aug. 19 for a suit filed by Blue Origin protesting NASA’s

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea will invest 16 trillion won ($13.6 billion) over the next 10 years in bolstering its defense capabilities in outer space. This includes 1.6 trillion won to be used to develop “core technologies” for military satellites. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), the national arms procurement agency, unveiled the roadmap

SEOUL, South Korea — Satrec Initiative, a satellite maker under South Korea’s Hanwha Group, will send a high-resolution imaging satellite called SpaceEye-T into low Earth orbit by the first quarter of 2024, in the first step toward building its own constellation of Earth observation satellites. The company unveiled the plan Aug. 18, saying SpaceEye-T will

Taken from the August 2021 issue of Physics World. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app. During their physics degree at the University of Birmingham, Marion Cromb did four internships across industry and academia. They speak to Laura Hiscott about what they learnt from these varied

WASHINGTON — Firefly Aerospace has hired a former SpaceX and Blue Origin engineer as its new chief operating officer to guide the company’s shift from development to production, although exactly when the company’s first launch will take place remains unclear. Firefly announced Aug. 17 that Lauren Lyons will become chief operating officer of the company,

TAMPA, Fla. — Shares in Spire Global, the small satellite constellation operator, closed down 5.2% to $9.41 at the end of its first day as a public company Aug. 17. The operator is now trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the “SPIR” ticker, after shareholders of special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) NavSight approved

Electrons exhibiting maximal dissipation in the normal state before passing into a state of minimal dissipation in the superconducting state. Courtesy: Erik van Heumen (Amsterdam) Nobody really understands why cuprates – highly-doped copper oxides – are high-temperature superconductors, and researchers in the UK and the Netherlands have now discovered that the materials don’t conform to