China to build global quantum communication network in 2030
Hefei, China (XNA) Nov 04, 2014 -
China will build a global quantum communication network by 2030, said a leading Chinese quantum physicist on Sunday.
"China's quantum information science and technology is developing very fast and China leads in some areas in this field," said Pan Jianwei, a Chinese quantum scientist and professor at the University of Science and Technology of China.
The field of quantum communicatio ...
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Virgin boss hits out after safety warning claim
Los Angeles, United Kingdom (AFP) Nov 03, 2014 -
Questions about why the Virgin Galactic spaceship crashed switched focus Monday to a prematurely-deployed lever on the doomed flight, as Virgin's boss suggested it may "well be" the cause.
But Branson also hit out against "hurtful" critics and "self-proclaimed experts" after a rocket scientist said that the company had ignored safety warnings ahead of the deadly crash of one of its spacecraf ...
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Five years in space: one satellite, three missions
Paris (ESA) Nov 05, 2014 -
ESA's Proba-2 celebrates five years in orbit today. From technology demonstrator to solar observatory and now space weather platform, the mission has provided triple value to European scientists.
The second PRoject for OnBoard Autonomy mission was launched in 2009 as part of ESA's programme for proving new technology in space.
Orbiting at about 725 km, this minisatellite - smaller th ...
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NASA Team Advances Next-Generation 3D-Imaging Lidar
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Nov 06, 2014 -
Building, fixing, and refueling space-based assets or rendezvousing with a comet or asteroid will require a robotic vehicle and a super-precise, high-resolution 3-D imaging lidar that will generate real-time images needed to guide the vehicle to a target traveling at thousands of miles per hour.
A team of technologists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, now is de ...
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KVH Receives Order for Military Navigation Systems
Middletown RI (SPX) Nov 06, 2014 -
KVH Industries has announced that it has received a $4.3 million order for its TACNAV tactical navigation systems from a new customer who is a major defense contractor providing armored vehicles for an international military client.
With a short delivery requirement, shipments for this order are expected to be substantially completed in the fourth quarter of 2014.
"KVH is extremely p ...
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1 Ukrainian soldier killed, 17 injured in fighting: officials
Donetsk, Ukraine (AFP) Nov 08, 2014 -
One Ukrainian soldier has been killed and 17 troops and civilians wounded in fighting over the past 24 hours, officials said Saturday, as clashes continued to break a nominal truce.
One paratrooper was shot dead by a sniper in the ruins of Donetsk's international airport, where Ukrainian forces are almost surrounded by rebels, Ukraine's military said in a statement.
Another 15 serviceme ...
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Carrier completes dry dock phase of overhaul
Newport News, Va. (UPI) Nov 6, 2014 -
The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) has completed the dry dock phase of its mid-life overhaul and will now undergo final outfitting and testing.
Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, said that for the next 24 months it will finish the ship's overhaul and install major components and test ship systems.
In earlier work, it conducted r ...
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Factory for F-35 wings inaugurated in Israel
Tel Aviv, Israel (UPI) Nov 6, 2014 -
Israel Aerospace Industries has officially inaugurated its production line for wings for Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.
The production line actually began manufacturing its first pair of wings for the aircraft in September and is scheduled to produce four wings each month, according to an Israeli Air Force announcement on Thursday.
"Our dream is becomin ...
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Indonesia receives helicopters from Airbus
Marignane, France (UPI) Nov 7, 2014 -
Different model helicopters for combat search-and-rescue and light attack missions have been handed over to Indonesia's military by Airbus Helicopters.
The aircraft are the EC725 Caracal and Fennec family of helicopters.
The EC725 is a long-range tactical transport with a cruise speed of 177 miles per hour and a range of 533 miles.
Airbus Helicopters said the first of six ...
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Hesco Bastion contracted for more defensive barriers
North Charleston, Va. (UPI) Nov 6, 2014 -
A five-year indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract has been given to Hesco Bastion Inc. by the U.S. military for force protection barrier systems.
Hesco's barriers are an earth-filled basket system that have been used extensively in Iraq and Afghanistan to protect troops and their facilities from direct and indirect fire. They are comprised of collapsible wire mesh container a ...
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Orbital blames rocket engine failure for launchpad blast
Washington (AFP) Nov 05, 2014 -
Orbital Sciences Corporation said Wednesday a preliminary probe into last month's unmanned rocket blast shows an engine failure was to blame for the explosion shortly after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia.
The type of engines used to power the Antares rocket were a pair of decades-old Ukrainian-designed AJ-26s, that were refurbished by Aerojet Rocketdyne.
"Preliminary evidence and ...
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India to launch unmanned crew module in December
Bangalore, India (IANS) Nov 04, 2014 -
India will launch an unmanned crew module in December onboard a heavy rocket to test its re-entry into the atmosphere for the country's future maiden human space flight, the space agency chief said Thursday.
"We will send an unmanned crew module on the experimental GSLV-Mark III rocket in December and test its re-entry into the earth's atmosphere for a human space flight plan in future," I ...
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India to test fly bigger space vehicle next month
New Delhi (XNA) Nov 04, 2014 -
India will conduct a partial test flight of a bigger and better space vehicle next month, a top official of the state-owned space agency has reportedly said.
The landmark test flight of GSLV Mark-III will lead to "a future workhorse vehicle that will stay with us for many years," Indian Space Research Organization chief K. Radhakrishnan was quoted by the media as saying in the southern cit ...
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China media claim victory after Japan agreement
Beijing (AFP) Nov 08, 2014 -
Chinese state-run media claimed victory Saturday for Beijing after it reached an accord with Japan to tone down tensions over territorial and historical disputes that had fuelled concerns of conflict.
The two sides issued similar statements Friday after a meeting in Beijing between State Councillor Yang Jiechi, China's top foreign policy official, and Shotaro Yachi, Japanese Prime Minister S ...
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Air Force orders more Griffin missiles from Raytheon
Tucson (UPI) Nov 7, 2014 -
The U.S. Air Force has given Raytheon an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for supply of Griffin missiles and support services.
The award has a maximum value of $85.5 million. The first increment was funded at $32.5 million.
"Raytheon will deliver Griffin A and B Block II/III missiles as well as test and support equipment under firm-fixed-price contract line item n ...
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Anti-missile system for airliners passes testing
Tel Aviv, Israel (UPI) Nov 7, 2014 -
An autonomous system that protects aircraft from shoulder-fired missiles is to be installed on Israeli civilian aircraft.
The system from Elbit Systems Electro-Optic is called Flight Guard and uses thermal imaging and laser-fiber technology, which creates high-intensity laser beams, according to an announcement by the Israeli Air Force and Elbit Systems.
"Flight Guard is installe ...
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Lockheed Martin, Navy deliver communications satellite
Palo Alto, Calif. (UPI) Nov 7, 2014 -
The third MUOS secure military communications satellite has been delivered to Florida by Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Navy for launch next year.
The MUOS, or Mobile User Objective System, spacecraft, much like a cellular telephone tower, provides troops on the move with beyond-line-of-sight capability to send and receive secure voice and data communications using an Internet Protocol-ba ...
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Kerry denies US linked Iran atom talks to militant efforts
Beijing (AFP) Nov 08, 2014 -
US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday vehemently denied that Washington offered to discuss cooperation with Iran in the fight against Islamic militancy if a nuclear deal was reached with Tehran.
"There is no linkage whatsoever of the nuclear discussions with any other issue," Kerry told reporters in Beijing, where he was attending annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum ...
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Iran failing to provide answers: UN nuclear watchdog
Vienna (AFP) Nov 07, 2014 -
Iran is still failing to provide answers in a probe into its nuclear activities, and is unlikely to do so before a November 24 deadline for a deal with world powers, the UN atomic watchdog said Friday.
"Iran has not provided any explanations" on two issues that Tehran had undertaken to clarify by August 25, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a new quarterly report.
Iran and t ...
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Destroyer simultaneously fires SM-2 and SM-3 missiles
Kauai, Hawaii (UPI) Nov 7, 2014 -
Raytheon SM-2 and SM-3 missiles were launched simultaneously from a U.S. Navy destroyer in a recent integrated air and missile defense exercise in the Pacific.
In the test by the Navy and the Missile Defense Agency, a Standard Missile-3 Block IB destroyed a short-range ballistic missile target, while two SM-2 Block IIIAs destroyed two cruise missile targets.
"This test showcases ...
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Comet flyby of Mars changed chemistry of atmosphere: NASA
Washington (AFP) Nov 07, 2014 -
Last month, an exotic deep space comet flew by Mars and unleashed an unexpectedly strong meteor shower that briefly changed the chemistry of the Red Planet's upper atmosphere, NASA said Friday.
The comet, Siding Spring, came from a distant region of the solar system known as the Oort Cloud.
Its rare shave past Earth's neighboring planet on October 19 at a speed of 35 miles (56 kilometers ...
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International Space Station astronauts put GoPro camera in a floating ball of water
Washington DC (UPI) Nov 06, 2014 -
How cool is it to be an astronaut? Pretty incredibly cool.
Recently on board the International Space Station, NASA astronauts Steve Swanson and Reid Wiseman and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst studied the science of water surface tension in microgravity on board the ISS.
Unrestricted by gravity, water is pretty sticky thanks to surface tension. It wants to stick t ...
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Penguin-bot is a happy feat for science
Paris (AFP) Nov 03, 2014 -
Brazenly, the down-covered baby penguin lookalike rolls in on four wheels for a huddle with real-life chicks, right under the noses of adult birds which seem to pay it no heed.
The infiltration is for a good cause: the cute and fluffy robot is a remote-controlled spy designed by scientists wishing to monitor the skittish penguins without causing them stress.
An international team tested ...
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CERN discovery could be Higgs, could be another particle
Copenhagen, Denmark (UPI) Nov 7, 2014 -
Scientists were quite excited when researchers last year announced they had observed the Higgs particle in the CERN particle accelerator known as the Large Hadron Collider. Prior to this discovery, the Higgs boson was a subatomic particle whose existence was predicated solely on theory, not direct evidence.
Now, a new study casts some doubt on the certainty of that discovery, suggesting ...
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Lack of oxygen delayed the rise of animals on Earth
New Haven CT (SPX) Nov 04, 2014 -
Geologists are letting the air out of a nagging mystery about the development of animal life on Earth. Scientists have long speculated as to why animal species didn't flourish sooner, once sufficient oxygen covered the Earth's surface.
Animals began to prosper at the end of the Proterozoic period, about 800 million years ago - but what about the billion-year stretch before that, when most ...
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