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NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission slips to spring 2022 after engine issue
File photo of a Hyperbola 1 rocket undergoing launch preparations. Credit: i-Space
The launch of a solid-fueled rocket developed by the Chinese commercial space firm iSpace failed Tuesday, the second launch failure in three orbital attempts by the startup company, Chinese state media said.
A Hyperbola 1 rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan launch base at 3:39 a.m. EDT (0739 GMT; 3:39 p.m. Beijing time), China’s government-run Xinhua news agency said.
Xinhua, which described the launch as a “flight test,” said the rocket exhibited “abnormal performance” after liftoff. Officials did not immediately specify when during the flight the rocket failed.
The news agency said a satellite carried by the rocket “did not enter orbit as scheduled.” Chinese officials did not identify the payload lost on the mission.
The Hyperbola 1 rocket was developed by iSpace, also known as Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology Ltd. On its website, iSpace says the Hyperbola 1 rocket consists of four solid-fueled stages, which are supplemented by liquid-fueled attitude control engines.
Best lens heaters in {year} and why every astrophotographer should have one
The giant, 29-engine Super Heavy vehicle known as Booster 4 rolled out to its South Texas launch site today (Aug. 3) to begin testing ahead of a planned orbital trial.
Samples from Asteroid Ryugu Are Most Primitive Material We've Found
Cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov gave a video tour of the new Russian "Nauka" module that docked at the International Space Station last week.
China launches Tianhui military mapping satellite
A Long March 2D rocket lifts off with the Tianhui 1-04 spacecraft. Credit: Xinhua
China successfully launched a Long March 2D rocket July 29 with a Tianhui military satellite on a mission to collect data for maps and land surveys.
China’s largest state-owned space program contractor said the Tianhui 1-04 satellite launched at 0401 GMT (12:01 a.m. EDT) on July 29 from the Jiuquan space center in the Gobi Desert of northwestern China.
The 13-story Long March 2D rocket fired off its launch pad with around 650,000 pounds of thrust from four hydrazine-fueled main engines. The Long March 2D’s second stage took over a few minutes after liftoff, completing a burn to inject its payload into orbit.
Chinese officials declared the launch a success, and independent orbital tracking data published by the U.S. military indicated the rocket deployed its satellite in a near-circular orbit about 300 miles (500 kilometers) above Earth at an inclination of 97.5 degrees.
The Tianhui 1-04 payload is the sixth in China’s series of Tianhui mapping satellites, joining three similar first-generation spacecraft and two new-generation Tianhui satellites.
GOES-17 satellite bounces back from glitch while monitoring California wildfires
A weather satellite has recovered from a brief anomaly and is back to studying Earth and its ongoing wildfires.
Chinese startup iSpace fails to reach orbit again with Hyperbola-1 rocket
The latest failure of a Chinese commercial rocket may point to growing pains as the country opens its space sector to more private participation, according to a news report.
Supermassive black holes can be surprisingly delicate eaters, astronomers find
Astronomers have imaged an extraordinary black hole picnic of cosmic proportions.
How the Comet Interceptor Will Chase Visitors to the Inner Solar System
How will engineers plan the trajectory of Comet Interceptor, a mission designed to fly by an interstellar visitor, when its target is still unknown?
The post How the Comet Interceptor Will Chase Visitors to the Inner Solar System appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
Russian military communications satellite launched on Soyuz rocket
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft sits atop an Atlas 5 rocket at Cape Canaveral. Credit: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now / Coldlife Photography
Officials scrubbed the planned launch of a Boeing-built crew capsule Tuesday to examine a potential technical issue in the spacecraft’s propulsion system, delaying the start of a critical unpiloted test flight to prove the ship is ready to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station.
Boeing announced the scrub around three hours before the mission’s scheduled launch time of 1:20 p.m. EDT (1720 GMT) Tuesday. The Starliner crew capsule’s Atlas 5 launch was already loaded with cryogenic propellants when officials announced the delay.
“During pre-launch preparations for the uncrewed test flight of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, Boeing engineers monitoring the health and status of the vehicle detected unexpected valve position indications in the propulsion system,” the company said in a statement. “The issue was initially detected during check outs following yesterday’s electrical storms in the region of Kennedy Space Center.”
Assuming engineers are satisfied there’s no additional risk from the potential propulsion system issue, the launch team will prepare for another countdown Wednesday, with liftoff scheduled for 12:57 p.m. EDT (1657 GMT).
The propulsion system valves in question are inside the Starliner’s service module, which has an array of rocket thrusters designed to propel the spacecraft away from its launcher during an in-flight emergency. Other thrusters on the service module are used for in-orbit maneuvers and spacecraft pointing control.
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At 27 inches in length and 500 Galactic Credits ($350) in price, this would make the ultimate "Star Wars" shrine.
Boeing's Starliner launch delayed yet again
Boeing's Starliner astronaut taxi will have to wait to launch ... again.
NASA is Going Ahead With a Hopping Lander to Explore the Lunar Surface
Methods of movement for robotic explorers of other worlds have been as varied as the worlds themselves. Some missions have been simple landers, some rovers, and now there’s even been a helicopter flight on Mars. But there is an unexplored hybrid mode of movement that will soon be coming to a Moon near you – hopping. NASA just granted an additional $41.6 million to support development of a hopping lunar lander that will explore the inside of craters that are permanently in shadow.
The mission, known as Micro-Nova, was granted as part of NASA’s $370 million “Tipping Point” contract for technologies that are developing milestone-based new technologies. The $41.6 million was awarded to Intuitive Machines, a Texas-based company that specializes in developing autonomous systems for drones and other exploration technologies. To be clear – the “hopping” the Micro-Nova will do is actually a control flight using thrusters rather than the more biological form of hopping that insects do on Earth. The company won’t be working alone on the project – they recruited scientists from Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration.
Intuitive Machines video discussing the Micro-Nova HopperCredit – Intuitive Machines YouTube Channel
Those specialists will help to define what Micro-Nova will carry as part of its 1 kg payload. Most likely it will involve cameras to peer into areas that no person has ever seen before. The reason Micro-Nova uses its unique mobility technique is to peer into “permanently shaded regions” (PSRs) of the moon. Rovers would be unable to descend into the craters, and helicopters wouldn’t work with the moon’s lack of atmosphere. So a hopper is the best bet to reach these difficult environments.
They are not just difficult because they are hard to reach – they are also hard to observe and extraordinarily cold. Even once Micro-Nova is in the crater, it will still only be able to take full color spectra images of its immediate surroundings, but it should be able to take black-and-white images of a wider swath of the whole crater. Any information it is able to gather is better than the complete lack available right now at least.
Conceptual illustration of permanently shadowed, shallow icy craters near the lunar south pole.
Credit: UCLA/NASA
Two Bizarre red Asteroids Somehow Migrated From the Kuiper Belt all the way to the Main Asteroid Belt
If asked to pick what color asteroids in the asteroid belt would be, red is likely not one that would come to mind for most people. But that is exactly the color of two new asteroids found by Hasegawa Sunao of JAXA and an international team of researchers. The catch is the objects don’t appear to be from the asteroid belt at all, but are most likely Trans-Neptunian objects that were somehow transported into what is commonly thought of as the asteroid belt. How exactly they got there is still up for debate.
The two asteroids, known as 203 Pompeja and 269 Justitia, were originally thought to be D-type asteroids, are rich in silicates and carbon, and make up the majority of the Jupiter Trojan asteroids that orbit behind the giant planet. There is a group of these types of asteroids called the Cybeles which make up their own separate group of asteroids a little farther out from the larger belt.
Distribution curve of locations of various asteroid groups.
Credit – Astronomical Image – NASA, Ryugu Image – JAXA, Hasegawa et al.
However, the two new asteroid’s spectral lines were “too steep”, making them much more like the “Centaurs” – a body that is larger than an asteroid but smaller than a planet that orbits between Jupiter and the Kuiper belt. The reddish color they reflect is indicative of having organic compound on its surface, which is one of two distinct categories Centaurs can be – the other one being “blue”.
That spectra makes 203 Pompeja and 269 Justitia unique in the asteroid belt, but they are similar to their asteroid neighbors in other ways, such as their size (110km diameter for Pompeja and 55km diameter for Justitia) and their orbit, which puts them right in the middle of the traditional asteroid belt. But why a Trans-Neptunian Centaur would migrate into the asteroid belt remains a mystery.
Mediterranean continues to bake
Image: This map generated using data from Copernicus Sentinel-3 shows the temperature of the land surface on 2 August 2021.
What would happen if Earth suddenly stopped spinning?
If Earth abruptly stopped spinning, what would happen to everything on it?
NASA astronauts 'very excited' about Boeing's upcoming Starliner OFT-2 launch
Astronauts are eager to see Boeing's Starliner spacecraft launch to space today (Aug. 3), despite issues with the capsule's previous uncrewed spaceflight.
How will Ukraine keep SpaceX's Starlink internet service online?
One estimate suggests that 13 billion tons (12 metric tons) of ice made its way into the ocean on a single day.
Ukrainians urge satellites to publicly share real-time images of the Russian invasion
Madness, mayhem, heroics and hijinks — fans of "Lower Decks" have plenty to look forward to.
Skyglow forces dung beetles in the city to abandon the Milky Way as their compass
Globally, nights are becoming ever brighter.
