Science

The 12 m-long bridge took over four years to design and contains a network of sensors. (Courtesy: Adriaan De Groot) The world’s first 3D-printed steel footbridge has been unveiled in the centre of Amsterdam. Developed by Imperial College London and the Alan Turing Institute, the 12 m-long bridge took over four years to design and

HELSINKI — China conducted a clandestine first test flight of a reusable suborbital vehicle Friday as a part of development of a reusable space transportation system. The vehicle launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center Friday and later landed at an airport just over 800 kilometers away at Alxa League in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region,

WASHINGTON — An 18-year-old Dutch man will fly on Blue Origin’s first crewed New Shepard suborbital flight, taking the place of the unidentified winner of an auction last month for the seat. Blue Origin announced July 15 that Oliver Daemen will be the fourth and final member of the crew of the New Shepard flight

Branched cracks in a single crystal of 2D hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN). Image courtesy: J. Lou/Rice University Fracture tests carried out on hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) show that this 2D material has an intrinsic toughening mechanism, contradicting its reputation for brittleness. This unexpected behaviour, which was observed by Jun Lou, Huajian Gao and colleagues at

TAMPA, Fla. — Astranis has started building four very small geostationary orbit satellites as it gears up to produce dozens and later hundreds of them simultaneously. “This is the beginning of a ramp-up of our production rate,” Astranis CEO John Gedmark said. The San Francisco-based company has placed orders worth more than $30 million with

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed that Defense Secretary Austin received Brown’s letter expressing his desire to withdraw.  WASHINGTON — President Biden’s pick to serve as undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, Michael Brown, has withdrawn his nomination. Brown is the director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), the Pentagon’s commercial outreach office based in

The road in Paris named after French physicist Hippolyte Fizeau, as drawn by an artist in 1896. Credit: Séguin, F., Dessinateur. En 1896. Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris. D.10405 An 1851 experiment in which the French physicist Hippolyte Fizeau showed that light gets “dragged along” when it travels through a moving medium has been given

Before joining the NRO, Guetlein served as a program executive officer at the Missile Defense Agency. WASHINGTON — President Biden has nominated the deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office Maj. Gen. Michael Guetlein for promotion to lieutenant general and assignment as commander of the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command. The White House submitted

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has reached a settlement with in-space transportation company Momentus and the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) it is planning to merge with regarding false claims the companies made, while continuing to pursue legal action against the Russian founder of Momentus. The SEC announced July 13 it is

First author Philipp Koch and senior author Friedhelm Hummel perform an MRI scan. (Courtesy: F Hummel, EPFL) Stroke – a life-threatening condition arising from restriction of the blood supply to the brain – is a leading cause of long-term disability. In Europe, there are over 1.5 million new cases each year, with less than 15%

MDA’s cubesats were two of seven government and commercial payloads launched in Virgin Orbit’s second operational mission. WASHINGTON — Two Missile Defense Agency cubesats launched June 30 aboard Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne successfully began communicating with ground stations last week, the agency announced July 12. The satellites are the first of a series of network communications

WASHINGTON — A House appropriations subcommittee advanced a spending bill July 12 that would provide NASA with a small increase over what the administration proposed for fiscal year 2022, but does not address some key areas of concern. The commerce, justice and science (CJS) subcommittee favorably reported a spending bill that provides $25.04 billion for

High harmonics: a NIR pulse (red) is focussed, and high harmonics are generated in a gas jet that is placed before or behind the NIR focus. The generated XUV light (violet) has a size and divergence that are like the NIR beam. The process involves the multiple ionization of atoms in the gas, which is

TAMPA, Fla. — Israeli fleet operator Spacecom has secured an extension to use AsiaSat-8 until 2024, filling a coverage gap left by the loss of its Amos-6 satellite in 2016. The company agreed to lease Hong Kong-based AsiaSat’s satellite, which it calls Amos-7, for an extra two years for an annual fee of $14 million.

SPACEPORT AMERICA, N.M. — Virgin Galactic and its founder, Richard Branson, hailed a successful test flight by the company’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane that carried him and five others to suborbital space, but offered few new details about the company’s future plans. In a press conference here July 11, Branson and others said the “Unity 22”

Six pack: supernova 2018zd is marked with a small white circle on the outskirts of galaxy NGC2146 and meets the six criteria for being a new, third type of supernova predicted 40 years ago. This composite image was made with data from the Hubble Space Telescope, Las Cumbres Observatory and other sources. (Courtesy: Joseph Depasquale/STScI)

SPACEPORT AMERICA, N.M. — Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson and five other people flew to the edge of space on the company’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle July 11, the culmination of an effort that started nearly 17 years ago. The SpaceShipTwo vehicle, named VSS Unity, took off from Spaceport America in the southern New Mexican desert

SEOUL, South Korea – Hackers linked to North Korea broke into the network of a South Korean aerospace company last month that holds confidential rocket propulsion technologies developed for the nation’s first indigenous space launch vehicle KSLV-2, the state spy agency said July 8. The breach of Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) took place in mid-June