Starfish Space on Wednesday announced a new funding round that will allow it to complete development and build of three spacecraft that will be used for on-orbit docking and maneuvering […]

ISRO and IIT Madras have launched a Centre of Excellence in Fluid and Thermal Sciences to tackle critical thermal management challenges in spacecraft and launch vehicles. This collaboration, backed by ₹1.84 crore funding, will enable advanced research, helping to improve spacecraft design reliability and longevity. The centre aims to address extreme temperature variations in space, fostering new technologies and experts in space engineering.

It won’t search for life, but rather determine whether conditions there could support it.

The post NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft will scour Jupiter moon for the ingredients for life appeared first on Boston.com.

On Thursday, March 21, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket with the Soyuz MS-25 manned spacecraft was supposed to blast off from launch pad No. 31 (Vostok) at Baikonur Cosmodrome. The rocket launch was aborted at the last moment. The countdown was stopped approximately 20 seconds before the start time. "Attention at the launch complex. The launch was automatically aborted. Bring the units of the launch complex to their original condition. Prepare to be parked for 24 hours,” the announcer of the broadcast hosted by Roscosmos said. The launch was dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Soviet cosmonaut and first man in space Yuri Gagarin.

Chinese manned spacecraft Shenzhou-19 with three taikonauts on board was successfully launched into low-Earth orbit from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, UDN Global reports. The spacecraft blasted off on October 29 at 23:27 Moscow time, or October 30 at 04:27 local time. A Long March 2 °F-19 launch vehicle was used for the liftoff. About ten minutes into the flight, the Shenzhou-19 manned spacecraft successfully separated from the rocket and flew into orbit. There are three crew members on board the Shenzhou-19. They will conduct 86 scientific experiments in space, including experiments in the field of medicine, biology, fundamental physics of microgravity, materials science and space technology, the agency notes.

It's hoped that TRACERS will help scientists better understand how the Sun influences our planet.

NASA is launching the DART spacecraft to crash into an asteroid. Could it save us from armageddon?

Cameras on spacecraft are our eyes into the Cosmos. Sometimes they teach us things, sometimes they reveal gaps in our knowledge.

As the first-ever “full-scale planetary defense test” to deflect a space rock, the DART mission aims to show that protecting Earth from a hazardous asteroid is possible.

The mission is a test to see if NASA could knock an Earth-bound asteroid off its path, should we ever need to.

Experts are working on a unique experiment that will use an inflatable aeroshell/heat shield to protect a spacecraft when entering a planet's atmosphere or returning to Earth

Gemini 8 was in trouble. After completing the first space docking with another craft, it begins to spin uncontrollably. Ditching protocol, commanding officer Neil Armstrong tries an unorthodox plan.

On its 66th flyby of the king of planets, Juno has captured spectacular views of the stormy atmosphere, processed by citizen scientists

The stratosphere seems to be full of aluminium particles and other metals that come from spacecraft burning up in the atmosphere, and those particles could mess up polar clouds

On 19 and 20 August, the JUICE mission will make the first ever attempt to get a gravitational boost from both Earth and the moon on its way to Jupiter

NASA discovered the cause of a pulsating noise coming from a speaker on the Boeing Starliner spacecraft after astronaut Butch Wilmore reported the sound.

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft landed on Earth Saturday morning, with two test pilots left behind because of NASA's concerns that their return was too risky.

A massive NASA spacecraft is ready to set sail for Jupiter and its moon Europa. The craft, named Europa Clipper, will determine if conditions there could support life.

NASA reconnected with Voyager 1, which is located nearly 15 billion miles away from Earth, after a brief pause that triggered the spacecraft's fault protection system.

The Europa Clipper, set for launch in October, will explore a distant ocean world.

Solar storms have the ability to harm astronauts and force massive blackouts

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras on Monday announced a collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to establish a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for research in 'Fluid and Thermal Sciences'.

This ‘Centre of Excellence in the area of Fluid and Thermal Sciences’ will be the Nodal Centre to study Thermal problems regarding design, analysis and testing of various components

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft has left the International Space Station (ISS) and is on its way back to Earth. 

The Kepler spacecraft was launched in March of 2009 to study extrasolar planets. One of its major goals is the detection of terrestrial planets in habitable zones.

The post Kepler spacecraft used by Smithsonian astronomers to find other earths appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

NASA's Kepler spacecraft is proving itself to be a prolific planet hunter. Within just the first four months of data, astronomers have found evidence for more than 1,200 planetary candidates. Of those, 408 reside in systems containing two or more planets, and most of those look very different than our solar system.

The post The Kepler spacecraft’s astounding haul of multiple-planet systems appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

NASA's Kepler spacecraft has spotted a planet that alternately runs late and
early in its orbit because a second, "invisible" world is tugging on it.
This is the first definite detection of a previously unknown planet using
this method.

The post Invisible world “spotted” tugging on visible planet by Kepler spacecraft appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

NASA's next Small Explorer (SMEX) mission to study the little-understood lower levels of the sun's atmosphere has been fully integrated and final testing is underway.

The post NASA’s IRIS spacecraft scheduled to launch in April appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, the report of the Kepler spacecraft’s death was greatly exaggerated. Despite a malfunction that ended its primary mission in May 2013, […]

The post Kepler spacecraft proves it can still find planets appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Get a look behind the scenes as we installed “Outside the Spacecraft: 50 Years of Extra-vehicular Activity,” a new exhibition on view at the Museum […]

The post “Outside the Spacecraft,” a new exhibition at the Air and Space Museum appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A speedy NASA probe has crossed the orbit of Neptune, notching one more spaceflight milestone on its way toward a historic flyby of Pluto.

A miniature space farm, robot legs, and microbes collected by cheerleaders are just a few of the odd passengers headed to the International Space Station.

The Planetary Society's tiny LightSail spacecraft has sent a photo of its deployed solar sail down to Earth.

Mercury is not just hellishly hot but apparently covered in brimstone. A vast part of the planet is covered with dried lava – enough to bury the state of Tex

As part of its mission to analyze Bennu, OSIRIS-REx has set a new record for closest orbit of a planetary body by a spacecraft.

Recent studies of optimization methods and GNC of spacecraft near small bodies focusing on descent, landing, rendezvous, etc., with key safety constraints such as line-of-sight conic zones and soft landings have shown promising results; this paper considers descent missions to an asteroid surface with a constraint that consists of an onboard camera and asteroid surface markers while using a stochastic convex MPC law. An undermodeled asteroid gravity and spacecraft technology inspired measurement model is established to develop the constraint. Then a computationally light stochastic Linear Quadratic MPC strategy is presented to keep the spacecraft in satisfactory field of view of the surface markers while trajectory tracking, employing chance based constraints and up-to-date estimation uncertainty from navigation. The estimation uncertainty giving rise to the tightened constraints is particularly addressed. Results suggest robust tracking performance across a variety of trajectories.

Disclosed herein is a method for determining a trajectory for a transfer of a spacecraft from a starting space body to a target space body with respect to a given central space body, wherein the determined trajectory is optimal with respect to a given space mission requirement to be met by the transfer of the spacecraft. The method comprises providing, according to the Pontryagin maximum principle, a physical-mathematical model relating model quantities and physical quantities representing the transfer of the spacecraft with respect to the given central space body.

Methods and apparatus are presented for spacecraft operation using non-Eigen axis attitude transitions via control momentum gyroscopes (CMGs) to avoid or mitigate singularities by providing a time-varying attitude command vector including a plurality of time-varying attitude command signals or values representing a plurality of spacecraft states and control trajectories as a guidance command input to an attitude controller of the spacecraft without modifying the spacecraft feedback control law.

Boeing, typically among NASA's key contractors but whose space program has experienced setbacks and delays, submitted a bid but was not selected.

We’ve reported before on 3D printing technology being used to make parts for satellites and other spacecraft, and this trend looks set to continue in the future, with Thales Alenia Space being one of the major companies leading the way.

Nice way to get to Alpha Centauri though boffin tells us: 'Such a laser system could be used as a weapon'

Coin-sized pieces of graphene can be accelerated by firing low-powered lasers at them in micro-gravity conditions, say scientists. The technology could be a stepping stone to graphene solar sails, which could propel future spacecraft using starlight or a laser array.…

Ever since Dragon became the first private spacecraft to visit the ISS in 2012, it had spent 520 days at the International Space Station

BEIJING: China’s new prototype spacecraft “successfully landed” on Friday, marking an important step in its ambitions to run a permanent space station and send astronauts to the moon. The spacecraft — which was launched Tuesday — arrived safely at a predetermined...

China just tested its biggest rocket yet, along with a new capsule designed to carry humans to its planned space station, the moon and beyond

A spacecraft designed to study re-entry into Earth's atmosphere has a nose coated in cork, a cheap and lightweight alternative to other materials

China just tested its biggest rocket yet, along with a new capsule designed to carry humans to its planned space station, the moon and beyond

The hypothetical Planet 9 has been bandied about for several years, first mentioned in 2014, but researchers have yet to find it. Now, a well-known theoretical physicist believes we could find the mysterious object using "laser-launched spacecraft."

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the ground-based Gemini Observatory in Hawaii have teamed up with the Juno spacecraft to probe the mightiest storms in the solar system, taking place more than 500 million miles away on the giant planet Jupiter.