Science
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
Blue sky thinking: the new solar device is said to be very good at both electricity generation and desalination. (Courtesy: iStock/ELyrae) A device that can generate electricity while desalinating seawater has been developed by researchers in Saudi Arabia and China, who claim that their new system is highly efficient at performing both tasks. The device
HELSINKI — China plans to use a new super heavy-lift rocket currently under development to construct a massive space-based solar power station in geostationary orbit. Numerous launches of the upcoming Long March 9 rocket would be used to construct space-based solar power facilities 35,786 kilometers above the Earth, according to Long Lehao, chief designer of
The U.S. Space Force is eager to tap into the vibrant commercial market for space services enabled by increasingly capable small satellites and cheaper access to orbit. Commercial services of particular interest to the military include imagery, analytics, weather data and broadband from low-Earth orbit constellations. “It’s really crucial that we figure out how to
HELSINKI — China has released landing process footage from its Zhurong rover as well as video and sounds of the vehicle roving on Mars. Footage of the entry, descent and landing shows deployment of a supersonic disk-gap-band parachute, separation of the backshell, followed by powered descent, a hazard-avoidance hover phase, and landing. The China National
WASHINGTON — SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell says the company is “shooting for July” for the first orbital launch of the company’s Starship vehicle despite lacking the regulatory approvals needed for such a launch. Speaking at the National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference (ISDC) June 25, Shotwell said the company was pressing ahead with plans