An Arianespace Soyuz rocket launched 36 new OneWeb internet satellites into orbit tonight (April 25), further building the company’s broadband constellation. The rocket lifted off from Vostochny Cosmodrome in eastern Russia at 6:14 p.m. EDT (2214 GMT or 7:14 a.m. local time on Monday, April 26). If all goes to plan, this next clutch of satellites will fly to a near-polar orbit, joining a growing constellation at an altitude of roughly 280 miles (450 kilometers). All 36 satellites are scheduled to be deployed by about four hours after launch, Arianespace…
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Mars helicopter Ingenuity goes long distance in 3rd flight on Red Planet
Make it a hat trick on the Red Planet for NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity. The 4-lb. (1.8 kilograms) chopper aced its third-ever Martian flight early this morning (April 25), adding to its already impressive resume. “Third flight in the history books.” officials at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California wrote on Twitter. “Our #MarsHelicopter continues to set records, flying faster and farther. The space chopper is demonstrating critical capabilities that could enable the addition of an aerial dimension to future missions to Mars & beyond.” And today’s sortie was…
Read MoreProxima Centauri shoots out humongous flare, with big implications for alien life
Scientists have spotted one of the largest stellar flares ever recorded in our galaxy. The jets of plasma shot outward from the sun’s nearest neighbor, the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri. The flare, which was around 100 times more powerful than any experienced in our solar system, could change the way scientists think about solar radiation and alien life. Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf — the smallest, dimmest and most common type of main sequence stars in the galaxy — located approximately 4.25 light-years from Earth. Its mass is…
Read MoreWith 11 people on space station, astronauts get crafty with sleeping spots
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have had to devise some creative sleeping arrangements, because the orbiting lab is a little crowded right now. Four more spaceflyers arrived at the ISS this morning (April 24) via SpaceX’s Crew-2 mission, bringing the total number of astronauts aboard the station to 11. That’s a lot, considering the orbiting lab usually hosts six people at a time (though there have been as many as 13 crewmembers aboard at once). Eight of the 11 astronauts came up on SpaceX Crew Dragon capsules —…
Read MoreMeet ‘Zhurong’: China names Tianwen-1 Mars rover ahead of mid-May landing attempt
China has named its first-ever Mars rover “Zhurong” after an ancient fire god ahead of a landing attempt on the Red Planet in May. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) revealed the name at the sixth China Space Day held in Nanjing on Saturday (April 24). Zhurong was the most popular of 10 shortlisted names for a public vote that opened in January, and that choice was backed by an expert panel and the CNSA itself. Related: The latest news about China’s space program Going with the fire god is…
Read MoreFar-out Gas Giant Exoplanet Puzzles Astronomers
Astronomers have discovered a super-Jupiter orbiting its young star on a surprisingly wide orbit. How did it get there? The post Far-out Gas Giant Exoplanet Puzzles Astronomers appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
Read MoreMars helicopter Ingenuity snaps epic photo of rover tracks, will attempt 3rd flight Sunday
NASA’s history-making Mars helicopter Ingenuity will make its third Red Planet flight this weekend, if all goes according to plan. The Ingenuity team is targeting early Sunday morning (April 25) for sortie number three. The flight plan calls for Ingenuity to get about 16.5 feet (5 meters) above the floor of Mars’ Jezero Crater, travel a total of 330 feet (100 m) and stay aloft for 80 seconds, chief pilot Håvard Grip of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory wrote in a blog post today (April 23). Grip did not give an…
Read MoreNASA to Air Live Coverage of SpaceX Crew-1 Astronauts’ Return to Earth
NASA will provide live coverage of the upcoming return activities for the agency’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission with NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, and Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) from the International Space Station.
Read MoreHubble Telescope captures stunning photo of rare fast-burning star for 31st birthday
Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope unveiled a stunning new image of a fast-burning star to celebrate the iconic observatory’s 31st anniversary. The star itself, dubbed AG Carinae, is of a class called Luminous Blue Variables and appears surrounded by a huge shell of material that the star blew into space thousands of years ago. That shell, called a nebula, is 5 light-years wide, about the distance from Earth to the nearest star beyond our sun, Alpha Centauri, according to the European Space Agency, which helps operate Hubble. “I like…
Read MoreTour SpaceX’s Crew-2 Dragon capsule with 4 thrilled astronauts (and a penguin?)
Four astronauts riding a reused SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft shared a brief glimpse of their life in orbit just hours after a flawless launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Crew-2 mission astronauts — NASA’s Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, European Space Agency’s (ESA) Thomas Pesquet and Japanese spaceflyer Akihiko Hoshide — introduced their fifth companion: a soft toy penguin called “GuinGuin.” “It was really cool to see GuinGuin start flying after we reached zero G,” Kimbrough joked during the video tour. Photos: See stunning views of SpaceX’s…
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