Science

Hausjärvi, FINLAND — Two Shenzhou-12 astronauts conducted a spacewalk late Saturday to carry to install equipment required for the long-term operation of China’s space station. Liu Boming opened the hatch of the Tianhe module at 8:11 p.m. Eastern June 3 and was later joined outside by Tang Hongbo. Activities were completes at 2:57 a.m. June

WASHINGTON — A multibillion-dollar radio telescope is moving into its construction phase while still working to raise funding and deal with satellite megaconstellations whose interference “change the game” for their plans. In a June 29 talk at the annual meeting of the European Astronomical Society, Philip Diamond, director general of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA)

Taken from the July 2021 issue of Physics World where it first appeared under the headline “It’s the little things”. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app. Angela Saini and her son Aneurin review Nano: the Spectacular Science of the Very (Very) Small by Jess Wade,

On Dec. 6, 2020, a Japanese spacecraft raced back from deep space at more than 26,000 mph (11.7 km/s), dropped a capsule into Earth’s atmosphere and sped away. The payload was recovered as intended in the Australian outback, and within it were more than 5 grams of material collected from the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu. The

WASHINGTON — NASA is seeking proposals to begin the next phase of Artemis lunar lander services, moving quickly despite unresolved protests about its selection of SpaceX to develop a lunar lander. NASA issued a request for proposals July 1 for what it calls “Sustainable Human Landing System Studies and Risk Reduction.” The solicitation, Appendix N

TAMPA, Fla. — Astra’s shares closed up 4.5% to $12.90 July 1 after the launch vehicle developer’s first day on the Nasdaq stock exchange, which raised nearly $500 million ahead of its first commercial mission this summer. The venture started trading on Nasdaq after merging with special-purpose acquisition company Holicity, whose shareholders approved the deal

WASHINGTON — Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson will be on the company’s next flight of its SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle July 11, going to space days before fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos. Virgin Galactic announced late July 1 that it had scheduled its next flight of SpaceShipTwo, called “Unity 22,” for July 11 at no earlier than

Artist’s impression of cosmic filaments. Credit: AIP/ A. Khalatyan/ J. Fohlmeister The universe is full of spinning objects. Galaxies, the stars within galaxies, the Earth, the Earth around the Sun, the Moon around the Earth – all rotate around an axis. An international team of astronomers has now added to this list by uncovering evidence

WASHINGTON — Small launch vehicle company Astra will begin trading on the Nasdaq exchange July 1 after completing its merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Astra said June 30 that shareholders of Holicity, a SPAC, had overwhelmingly approved the merger. The companies announced the deal in February, which would raise nearly $500 million in

WASHINGTON — SpaceX launched 88 satellites on a Falcon 9 June 30 on the company’s second dedicated smallsat rideshare mission. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 3:31 p.m. Eastern, more than halfway into a nearly hourlong launch window because of weather. A launch attempt

By Allison Kubo Hutchison USGS: Pyroclastic flow at Mount Saint Helens on August 7, 1980. The volcano erupts. The immense pressure within the volcano due to the build-up of gases causes fragmentation. The thicker and more viscous the magma the more fragmentation occurs (Read more about that here). The fragmented magma cools into sharp, glasslike

Join the audience for a live webinar at 3 p.m. BST/10 a.m. EDT on 28 July 2021, sponsored by Hiden Analytical in partnership with The Electrochemical Society, exploring the mechanisms of non-uniform reaction in electrodes and their mitigation Want to take part in this webinar? During battery (dis)charging, lithium (de)intercalation in electrodes is usually spatially

Country to focus on a range of exploration, human spaceflight, space infrastructure and transportation objectives. HELSINKI — China’s space administration has outlined its priorities in space science, technology, applications and exploration for the coming years. Lunar, interplanetary and near-Earth asteroid missions, space station construction, a national satellite internet project and developing heavy-lift launch vehicles and

WASHINGTON — On the eve of its second revenue-generating launch, Virgin Orbit is looking to 2022 to ramp up its launch activity and operate from several airports in the United States and Great Britain. In a call with reporters June 209, Virgin Orbit Chief Executive Dan Hart confirmed that the company was “green for launch”

Danger zone: NIST firefighters douse flames bursting from a building as a flashover occurs during an experiment. (Courtesy: NIST) New machine learning algorithms could soon help firefighters forecast dangerous flashover ignition events using sensor data from burning buildings. Called P-Flash, the system was developed by Thomas Cleary and colleagues at the National Institute of Standards

TAMPA, Fla. — Astroscale is joining forces with four satellite ground station providers to deliver the level of connectivity it needs for the world’s first commercial debris removal demonstration this year. The Tokyo-based startup plans to use 16 ground stations in total to support its End of Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) mission, which comprises

TAMPA, Fla. — Inmarsat has named Fredrik Gustavsson, a former airline executive, as chief strategy officer in the British satellite operator’s third board appointment in three months. Gustavsson was head of strategy and mergers and acquisitions at European airline easyJet from 2012 to 2019, where he oversaw deals including the purchase of parts of Germany’s