Science

Piling up: this image shows water flowing from left to right past a partially submerged sphere. A pile up of water is clearly seen to the immediate left of the sphere. (Courtesy: Harris Lab) Researchers in the US have made several unexpected discoveries when observing how water flows around partially submerged spheres. Their simple experiments

WASHINGTON —  Sedaro, a startup that develops digital engineering software, won a Space Force contract to demonstrate the use of digital twins to design spacecraft. The $1.5 million contract announced Aug. 22 is a Small Business Innovation Research Phase 2 award under the Orbital Prime program run by the U.S. Space Force and the Air

WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying four people representing four different space agencies docked with the International Space Station Aug. 27, almost 30 hours after its launch from Florida. The Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance docked with the zenith port of the station’s Harmony module at 9:16 a.m. Eastern. While the docking took place

Since the new “supercapacitor” concrete would retain its strength, a house with a foundation made of this material could store a day’s worth of energy produced by solar panels or windmills, and allow it to be used whenever it’s needed. (Courtesy: Franz-Josef Ulm, Admir Masic and Yang-Shao Horn) A new cost-effective and efficient supercapacitor made

WASHINGTON — SpaceX says it successfully test-fired the booster for its next Starship launch, although that liftoff may still be weeks away. SpaceX fired the Raptor engines in the Super Heavy booster designated Booster 9 in a static-fire test at its Starbase test site in Boca Chica, Texas, at approximately 1:35 p.m. Eastern Aug. 25.

WASHINGTON — A Falcon 9 launched a multinational crew to the International Space Station Aug. 26 after a one-day delay to check the spacecraft’s life support system. The SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 3:27 a.m. Eastern on the Crew-7 mission for NASA. The Crew Dragon

Whether it’s at a concert, play or lecture, we love to show our appreciation by clapping our hands. Laura Hiscott hears from two researchers who know how to make great applause (Courtesy: iStock/nikada) It might be hard to imagine yourself in ancient Rome, but if you were dropped into the audience of a play 2000

SAN FRANCISCO – With funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, MyRadar will develop and launch cubesats to validate technology for its future weather and environmental data constellation. MyRadar announced a NOAA Phase 2 SBIR grant Aug. 18 for a pair of Orbital Wildfire Resilience cubesats. The cubesats, measuring 10 centimeters on a side,

WASHINGTON — A new Inmarsat communications satellite has suffered an “unexpected anomaly,” the second in as many months for a Viasat-owned spacecraft that could create bigger headaches for the space insurance sector. Viasat, which completed its acquisition of Inmarsat in May, announced Aug. 24 that the Inmarsat-6 (I-6) F2 spacecraft encountered a problem with its

[embedded content] If you have seen the film Oppenheimer, you may have enjoyed the visual effects that were used in the film to illustrate esoteric physical concepts – I certainly did. There has been a bit of a debate in the movie press about whether computer-generated imagery (CGI) was used to create the effects. As

WASHINGTON — Ahead of a final meeting of a United Nations working group on reducing space threats, members states of the European Union, but not the E.U. itself, have pledged not to conduct destructive direct-ascent anti-satellite tests. In a document recently published by the U.N. Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on Reducing Space Threats, a “joint

WASHINGTON — NASA is preparing for the release of a new decadal survey for space research that the agency hopes will provide guidance on research to pursue on the International Space Station and how to transition that to commercial successors. The National Academies announced Aug. 23 that it will release the decadal survey for biological

Conformable ultrasound breast patch MIT researchers have designed a wearable ultrasound device that could detect breast tumours when they are still in early stages. (Courtesy: Canan Dagdeviren) A wearable ultrasound scanner that could help detect breast cancer earlier – and thus improve survival rates – has been developed by a research team headed up at

WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab successfully reflew an engine on an Electron launch Aug. 23 as the company moves a step closer to reusing the entire rocket booster. The Electron rocket lifted off from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 7:45 p.m. Eastern. The “We Love the Nightlife” mission deployed a Capella Space

WASHINGTON — Australian startup HEO, which uses space-based sensors to inspect and image objects in orbit, announced Aug. 23 it has completed an $8 million Series A funding round.   Previously known as HEO Robotics, the company changed its name to just HEO to reflect its focus on commercial in-orbit inspection and space-based space situational awareness,

Essential for life: this illustration shows how fundamental constants of nature set the fundamental lower limit for liquid viscosity. (Courtesy: thehackneycollective.com) The values of the fundamental physical constants – seemingly fine-tuned for the emergence of nuclear matter and ultimately life – might not have been fixed at the universe’s outset but instead changed over time

WASHINGTON — A payload adapter that is the target of a European debris cleanup mission may have itself been damaged by a debris impact. The European Space Agency said Aug. 22 that it was informed 12 days earlier by the U.S. Space Force’s 18th Space Defense Squadron, responsible for space domain awareness activities, that it