China testing own reusable rocket technologies
Beijing (XNA) Apr 25, 2016 -
China is working on its own reusable rocket technologies, a source close to the research told Xinhua Thursday.
Chinese experts have already built a prototype model to test theories on the reusable rocket booster's landing subsystems. They have completed "experimental verifications" using "multiple parachutes" supposedly attached to the booster, a source with China Academy of Launch Vehicle ...
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150 Long March rocket launches scheduled 2016-2020
Beijing (XNA) Apr 25, 2016 -
China will launch about 150 of its Long March carrier rockets over the next five years, one of its space chiefs said on Friday, days ahead of celebrations marking the launch of the country's first satellite 46 years ago.
"In the 13th Five-Year Plan period [2016-2020], we will see about 30 launches [of the Long March series] each year," Chen Xuechuan, assistant president of China Aerospace ...
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Herschel captures galactic panorama of the Milky Way
Paris (ESA) Apr 25, 2016 -
This new video from ESA's Herschel space observatory reveals in stunning detail the intricate pattern of gas, dust and star-forming hubs along the plane of our Galaxy, the Milky Way.
Against the diffuse background of the interstellar material, a wealth of bright spots, wispy filaments and bubbling nebulas emerge, marking the spots where stars are being born in the Galaxy.
The video w ...
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Kepler spacecraft recovered and returned to the K2 Mission
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Apr 25, 2016 -
The Kepler spacecraft has been recovered and, as of 8:30 a.m. PDT today, it is back on the job as the K2 mission searching for exoplanets - planets beyond our solar system.
The team began the process of returning the spacecraft to science late on Tuesday. The process involved a succession of steps over the course of the next two days. The pointing tables and science targets - instructions ...
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British astronaut Tim Peaks ran London Marathon from space
London (UPI) Apr 24, 2016 -
In an out-of-this-world feat, British astronaut Tim Peake competed in his own version of the London Marathon on Sunday.
Peake completed 26.2 miles strapped into a harness attached to a treadmill aboard the International Space Station in 3:35:21. In 1999, he completed the distance on the ground in 3:18:50.
The 44-year-old astronaut's conditions were much different than the approxi ...
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Cosmic beacons reveal the Milky Way's ancient core
Potsdam, Germany (SPX) Apr 25, 2016 -
An international team of astronomers led by Dr. Andrea Kunder of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) in Germany has discovered that the central 2,000 light-years within the Milky Way galaxy hosts an ancient population of stars. These stars are more than 10 billion years old and their orbits in space preserve the early history of the formation of the Milky Way.
For the firs ...
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Dark matter does not contain certain axion-like particles
Stockholm, Sweden (SPX) Apr 25, 2016 -
Researchers at Stockholm University are getting closer to corner light dark-matter particle models. Observations can rule out some axion-like particles in the quest for the content of dark matter. The article is now published in the Physical Review Letters.
Physicists are still struggling with the conundrum of identifying more than 80 percent of the matter in the Universe. One possibility ...
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The Universe, where space-time becomes discrete
Trieste, Italy (SPX) Apr 25, 2016 -
Our experience of space-time is that of a continuous object, without gaps or discontinuities, just as it is described by classical physics. For some quantum gravity models however, the texture of space-time is "granular" at tiny scales (below the so-called Planck scale, 10-33 cm), as if it were a variable mesh of solids and voids (or a complex foam). One of the great problems of physics today is ...
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Congress seeks partnership on major space policy legislation
Washington DC (SPX) Apr 25, 2016 -
Congressman Doug Lamborn has partnered with Congressman Jim Bridenstine (OK-01) as an original cosponsor on the American Space Renaissance Act.
This legislation will permanently secure the United States as the world's preeminent space-faring nation. The comprehensive and bold reform bill covers national security, civil, and commercial space policies and programs.
"Space is critical t ...
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Europe makes fourth attempt to launch Russian rocket
Paris (AFP) April 25, 2016 -
Europe will attempt to launch a Russian Soyuz rocket for the fourth time Monday after weather conditions and technical faults halted previous take-offs, launch service Arianespace said.
The launch from French Guiana was initially scheduled for Friday and was to be Europe's first of the year from the South American space centre.
"Operations to replace the central inertial unit of the Soy ...
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Students observe damaged Hitomi X-ray satellite and debris
Daytona Beach FL (SPX) Apr 20, 2016 -
Engineering Physics students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Daytona Beach Campus have made several high-cadence telescope observations of the recently damaged Hitomi X-ray satellite and several of its debris pieces.
Hitomi, also known as ASTRO-H, was a Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite that was launched in February. The $275 million spacecraft was 46 feet long when deployed and ...
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Space Subcommittee examines commercial challenges
Washington DC (SPX) Apr 22, 2016 -
The House Space Subcommittee has held a hearing to examine the current state of the small satellite commercial launch industry, which generates hundreds of billions of dollars of economic activity and serves both the private and public sector. Several companies are currently working to supply the growing demand for commercial launches. Witnesses discussed various policy challenges that may need ...
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China plans to launch core module of space station around 2018
Beijing (XNA) Apr 22, 2016 -
China will launch a core module belonging to its first space station around 2018, according to a senior engineer with China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. on Thursday. Two space labs will be launched later and dock with the core module, "Tianhe-1," said Wang Zhongyang, spokesperson with a key research institute attached to the corporation.
The construction of space station is expec ...
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Russia to put 11 communications satellites into orbit by 2025
Moscow (Sputnik) Apr 22, 2016 -
Russia plans to put a dozen of new communications satellites into the Earth's orbit in the next nine years, the head of the country's communications agency Rossvyaz said Thursday.
"A program has been laid out on how to expand the civil satellite constellation in 2017-2025. Under it, we plan to launch seven satellites into the geostationary orbit and four into the highly-elliptical orbit," ...
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China set to launch "more livable" space lab in Q3
Beijing (XNA) Apr 22, 2016 -
China will put the country's second space lab Tiangong-2 into space in the third quarter of this year with more livable conditions for astronauts, a spokesman said here Thursday.
According to Wang Zhongyang, spokesman with the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), the new space lab will consist of a hermetically sealed experiment cabin, designed to provide astronauts with clean air and ...
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China aims for deeper space with new generation rockets
Beijing (XNA) Apr 22, 2016 -
China will take its new generation heavy-lift rocket Long March-5 to the skies later this year, and is planning even bigger models.
According to Wang Jue, head of the Long March-5 project, the rocket has a liftoff weight of 869 tonnes, with a payload capacity of 25 tonnes to the low Earth orbit (LEO) and 14 tonnes to the geostationary transfer orbit (GTO).
"It can carry more than two ...
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China defends right to carry out 'normal' missile tests
Beijing (AFP) April 21, 2016 -
China said on Thursday it was "normal" to carry out ballistic missile launches, after a US media report accused Beijing of having test-fired an intercontinental weapon last week.
US media site Washington Free Beacon, citing unidentified Pentagon officials, reported that China had carried out a test of its DF-41 long-range missile on April 12.
The report linked the tests to tensions betw ...
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Clashes between Iraqi Kurds, Turkmen kill nine
Kirkuk, Iraq (AFP) April 24, 2016 -
Clashes between Kurdish peshmerga forces and Turkmen Shiite paramilitaries killed nine people in a flashpoint northern town and closed the road to Baghdad before a ceasefire was announced on Sunday.
Tuz Khurmatu, part of a swathe of territory claimed by both Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region and Baghdad, has been divided between Turkmen and Kurds since fighting erupted between the two sides l ...
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Dutch students open world's first pop-up drone cafe
The Hague (AFP) April 23, 2016 -
Would you like a drone with your cocktail? The world's first cafe using the tiny domestic unmanned aircraft as servers has opened in a Dutch university.
The pop-up drone cafe will be serving up all weekend as part of celebrations for the "Dream and Dare" festival marking the 60th anniversary of the Eindhoven University of Technology.
The 20 students behind the project, who spent nine mon ...
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Indonesian navy impounds Chinese trawler for illegal fishing
Jakarta (AFP) April 24, 2016 -
Indonesian warships have detained a Chinese trawler allegedly operating illegally in Indonesian waters, just weeks after a confrontation between vessels from the two countries caused tensions, the navy said Sunday.
The trawler was intercepted by two navy ships on Friday after receiving information that a ship wanted by Interpol in Argentina had been spotted in Aceh, in the northwest of Sumat ...
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Obama to send up to 250 more troops to Syria: senior official
Hanover, Germany (AFP) April 24, 2016 -
US President Barack Obama will on Monday announce plans to send up to 250 more military personnel to Syria, according to a senior administration official, intensifying US assistance to rebels as a ceasefire falters.
Obama "tomorrow will announce that he has authorized up to 250 additional forces deploying to Syria," the source said, adding that the president would confirm the deployment in a ...
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Obama calls on China to increase pressure on N.Korea
Hanover, Germany (AFP) April 24, 2016 -
US President Barack Obama on Sunday urged China to increase pressure on North Korea after another "provocative" weapons test.
Speaking after a North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un hailed a submarine-launched ballistic missile test as an "eye-opening success," Obama said: "North Korea continues to engage in continuous provocative behaviour."
He added: "We have cultivated cooperation with the C ...
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UN slams N. Korea missile launch, Obama rejects test offer
United Nations, United States (AFP) April 25, 2016 -
The UN Security Council echoed international condemnation Sunday of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) test by North Korea, while US President Barack Obama dismissed Pyongyang's offer of a nuclear moratorium.
Saturday's test, personally monitored by supreme leader Kim Jong-Un, was the latest in a series of provocative moves by Pyongyang that have further fuelled tensions on the d ...
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US military to conduct large-scale drills to counter 'strategic threats'
Washington DC (SPX) Apr 25, 2016 -
A massive exercise involving many, if not all, of nine US combatant commands will target an array of strategic threats facing the United States and its allies, the Department of Defense's US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) announced in a press release on Friday.
Beginning Saturday, the drill entitled "Global Lightning 2016" will integrate "nearly every conceivable strategic threat to our nati ...
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US to buy excess nuclear materials from Iran
Washington (Sputnik) Apr 25, 2016 -
The United States and Iran are expected to finalize a deal for Washington to purchase an estimated $8.6 million worth of heavy water to help Iran comply with its nuclear agreement, according to US media reports on Friday.
According to US officials, the purchase is intended to help Iran quickly reduce its stockpile of nuclear material as required by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (J ...
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