WASHINGTON — Boeing is continuing its investigation into the thruster issue that delayed the launch of its CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle but could soon run into schedule conflicts on both the International Space Station and with its launch vehicle. In an Aug. 6 statement, Boeing said it was continuing to study why several valves
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Taken from the 2021 issue of Physics World Instrumentation and Vacuum Briefing, where it appeared under the headline “Listening to the rhythm of the climate”. You can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app. In February 2021 geophysicist Rob Abbott spent a week on the North Slope of Alaska, US, using a novel
In the 1964 Cold War satire, “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” the United States, the Soviet Union and the rest of the soon-to-be-annihilated world learn the hard way that the whole point of a doomsday machine is lost if you keep it a secret. That line, delivered
WASHINGTON — NASA scientists and engineers are working to understand why the first sampling attempt by the Mars rover Perseverance failed to collect any material. In a statement late Aug. 6, NASA said that while Perseverance had drilled a sample from a rock on the floor of Jezero Crater, that sample did not make it
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. Building sandcastles is one of the little pleasures of a holiday on the beach, but what do you really know about the science of these structures? Ian Randall grabs his
WASHINGTON — The leaders of a NASA exoplanet mission are considering using a spare camera for a companion mission that would enable them to confirm existing discoveries and make new ones. NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) launched in April 2018 to perform an all-sky survey. The spacecraft’s four cameras observe regions of the sky
WASHINGTON — A NASA smallsat mission to test the orbit that will be used by the lunar Gateway will launch from New Zealand and not Virginia as originally planned. Rocket Lab announced Aug. 6 that it will launch the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) mission on an Electron rocket from
Surfer dude: Christoph Pöhler with a piece of former wind turbine rotor blade in the Fraunhofer WKI’s wood workshop. (Courtesy: Fraunhofer WKI) Stand-up paddle boarding is up near the top of my bucket list, so I was pleased to learn that researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research, Wilhelm-Klauditz-Institut have created a board that
HELSINKI — China sent the Zhongxing-2E into geosynchronous transfer orbit Thursday with the launch of a Long March 3B rocket from Xichang. The Long March 3B ignited at 12:30 p.m. Eastern August 5, rising above the hills of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province after midnight local time. The China Aerospace Science and
Bruno: ‘It’s taking us longer to move through this test program. And the same is true on the production part of this’ WASHINGTON — United Launch Alliance underestimated the challenges Blue Origin would face in the development, testing and manufacturing of the BE-4 rocket engine, ULA’s CEO Tory Bruno said Aug. 5. The engine program
A novel semiconducting material with high thermal conductivity can be integrated into high-power computer chips to cool them down and so improve their performance. The material, boron arsenide, is better at removing heat than the best thermal-management devices available today, according to the US-based researchers who developed it. An electron microscopy image of a gallium
WASHINGTON — The new chief executive of Momentus hopes to turn the page on the company’s past regulatory problems and focus on development of its in-space propulsion technology it plans to demonstrate next year. John Rood formally took over as chief executive of Momentus Aug. 1. Rood spent more than 20 years in various U.S.
The Space and Missile Systems Center says ‘requests for equitable adjustment are considered on a case-by-case basis’ WASHINGTON — Raytheon’s contract for the Global Positioning System Next Generation Operational Control System, known as OCX, is increasing by $13.5 million due to pandemic-related costs. The U.S. Space Force on Aug. 2 announced a modification to Raytheon’s
WASHINGTON — Japanese lunar lander developer ispace raised $46 million in a new funding round Aug. 4 to support future missions to the moon. Tokyo-based ispace said it raised the $46 million Series C round from seven investors, led by Incubate Fund, a Japanese venture capital fund. Incubate Fund had been investing in ispace since
TAMPA, Fla. — Significantly faster communications could be coming to the International Space Station in 2024, after SpaceLink won funding to test its incoming relay satellites. The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), which manages the U.S. National Laboratory on the ISS, awarded the startup a contract to test its 10 gigabit
Heart of the matter: cross-section of the designed heart-shaped phase singularity sheet (left). The extended dark region in the centre image is a cross-section of the singularity sheet. The phase (right) is undefined on the singularity sheet. (Courtesy: Daniel Lim/Harvard SEAS) Researchers in the US have shown for the first time how regions of complete
Space-base communications from GPS satellites would give the military an additional layer of connectivity in medium Earth orbit WASHINGTON — The next generation of Global Positioning System satellites could host additional payloads to provide communications services, the U.S. Space Force said in a request for information. The RFI issued last month by the Space and