Society of Australia but has not yet been peer reviewed. A preprint version is available via thearXiv database.
Ready for liftoff!
We've selected seven new flight directors to oversee NASA's future missions to the
@Space_Station
, the Moon, and beyond from
@NASA_Johnson
's Mission Control Center. Meet the crew: https://go.nasa.gov/39QzNSp
We've selected seven new flight directors to oversee NASA's future missions to the
@Space_Station
, the Moon, and beyond from
@NASA_Johnson
's Mission Control Center. Meet the crew: https://go.nasa.gov/39QzNSp
NASA
NASA Introduces 2022 Class of Flight Directors
NASA has selected seven new additions to the team of flight directors to oversee operations of the International Space Station, commercial crew, and Artemis missions to the Moon.
James Webb Space Telescope discovers candidates for most distant galaxies yet
By Keith Cooper published about 5 hours ago
The two galaxies, if confirmed, existed 300 to 400 million years after the Big Bang.
artist's depiction
An artist's impression of one of the first galaxies. (Image credit: NASA/ESA/ESO/Wolfram Freudling et al. (STECF).)
Astronomers have spotted what may be the two most distant galaxies ever seen hiding in early-release images from NASA's newest space telescope.
The James Webb Space Telescope's early science work includes a program called the Grism Lens-Amplified Survey from Space, or GLASS. Through GLASS, astronomers are scrutinizing the galaxy cluster Abell 2744, which is so massive that its gravity is able to distort the space around it and act as a gravitational lens to magnify the images of far more distant galaxies behind it.
Astronomers led by Rohan Naidu of the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovered the two candidate galaxies, called GLASS-z11 and GLASS-z13, in th
By Keith Cooper published about 5 hours ago
The two galaxies, if confirmed, existed 300 to 400 million years after the Big Bang.
artist's depiction
An artist's impression of one of the first galaxies. (Image credit: NASA/ESA/ESO/Wolfram Freudling et al. (STECF).)
Astronomers have spotted what may be the two most distant galaxies ever seen hiding in early-release images from NASA's newest space telescope.
The James Webb Space Telescope's early science work includes a program called the Grism Lens-Amplified Survey from Space, or GLASS. Through GLASS, astronomers are scrutinizing the galaxy cluster Abell 2744, which is so massive that its gravity is able to distort the space around it and act as a gravitational lens to magnify the images of far more distant galaxies behind it.
Astronomers led by Rohan Naidu of the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovered the two candidate galaxies, called GLASS-z11 and GLASS-z13, in th
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SpaceX's next astronaut launch for NASA slips to late September
By Meghan Bartels published 26 minutes ago
photo of rocket on launch pad
SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endurance and its Falcon 9 rocket stand atop Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, before the launch of the Crew-3 mission. (Image credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX's next Dragon passengers will need to wait a little longer to get off the ground.
SpaceX and NASA will launch Crew-5, their next crewed mission to the International Space Station, no earlier than Sept. 29, according to a NASA statement(opens in new tab) released on Thursday (July 21). The delay will see the mission slip behind the next launch of astronauts on a Russian Soyuz vehicle.
"A launch at the end of September will allow SpaceX to complete hardware processing and mission teams will continue to review the launch date based on the space station's visiting spacecraft schedule," NASA officials wrote.
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Crew-5 includes NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina.
The flight will be a crucial milestone for NASA, which has long argued in favor of "crew swaps" in which Russian cosmonauts fly on NASA's commercially procured missions and NASA astronauts continue to ride on Russian Soyuz capsules.
After lengthy negotiations, NASA announced last week that Crew-5 will be the first SpaceX flight to carry a cosmonaut. NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos have also agreed that cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev will fly on Crew-6, currently targeting launch in the spring. Meanwhile, NASA astronauts Frank Rubio and Loral O'Hara will each fly on Soyuz missions in the coming months.
The new schedule for Crew-5 means that the vehicles will be swapping launch slots as well as passengers.
The Crew-5 mission was previously aiming to arrive at the orbiting laboratory earlier in September. Under the new schedule, rather than Crew-5 replacing the currently orbiting Crew-4 astronauts before the next Soyuz launch, the Soyuz crews will turn over first. The launch of the next Soyuz and return of the current Soyuz crew is scheduled to occur between Sept. 16 and Sept. 30, according to NASA.
In addition to the schedule update, NASA and SpaceX also offered details about the rocket and capsule that will fly Crew-5.
The mission will use the Dragon capsule Endurance, which also carried Crew-3 for a November 2021 launch; the capsule returned to Earth from that flight in early May. Although SpaceX routinely reflies its hardware, NASA noted that this flight will mark a new milestone; it will be the first commercial crew flight to carry four veteran Draco engines to steer the capsule, with no new so-called forward bulkhead Draco engines. Teams are also switching out the capsule's heat shield, parachutes and pod panels, according to the statement.
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Endurance will launch atop a brand-new Falcon 9 booster, but mission personnel still have some issues to address on that end as well. The booster sustained some damage during the journey from the SpaceX production center in California to a test facility in Texas, according to the statement. Accordingly, the company is replacing both the interstage, which connects the first and second stages, and some instruments.
Both SpaceX and NASA are confident in the booster, which underwent a host of tests to ensure that there was no damage beyond the interstage segment; additional tests will also occur after all the replacements are complete, according to the statement.
By Meghan Bartels published 26 minutes ago
photo of rocket on launch pad
SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endurance and its Falcon 9 rocket stand atop Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, before the launch of the Crew-3 mission. (Image credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX's next Dragon passengers will need to wait a little longer to get off the ground.
SpaceX and NASA will launch Crew-5, their next crewed mission to the International Space Station, no earlier than Sept. 29, according to a NASA statement(opens in new tab) released on Thursday (July 21). The delay will see the mission slip behind the next launch of astronauts on a Russian Soyuz vehicle.
"A launch at the end of September will allow SpaceX to complete hardware processing and mission teams will continue to review the launch date based on the space station's visiting spacecraft schedule," NASA officials wrote.
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In pictures: Amazing launch photos of SpaceX's Crew-4 mission
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Crew-5 includes NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina.
The flight will be a crucial milestone for NASA, which has long argued in favor of "crew swaps" in which Russian cosmonauts fly on NASA's commercially procured missions and NASA astronauts continue to ride on Russian Soyuz capsules.
After lengthy negotiations, NASA announced last week that Crew-5 will be the first SpaceX flight to carry a cosmonaut. NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos have also agreed that cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev will fly on Crew-6, currently targeting launch in the spring. Meanwhile, NASA astronauts Frank Rubio and Loral O'Hara will each fly on Soyuz missions in the coming months.
The new schedule for Crew-5 means that the vehicles will be swapping launch slots as well as passengers.
The Crew-5 mission was previously aiming to arrive at the orbiting laboratory earlier in September. Under the new schedule, rather than Crew-5 replacing the currently orbiting Crew-4 astronauts before the next Soyuz launch, the Soyuz crews will turn over first. The launch of the next Soyuz and return of the current Soyuz crew is scheduled to occur between Sept. 16 and Sept. 30, according to NASA.
In addition to the schedule update, NASA and SpaceX also offered details about the rocket and capsule that will fly Crew-5.
The mission will use the Dragon capsule Endurance, which also carried Crew-3 for a November 2021 launch; the capsule returned to Earth from that flight in early May. Although SpaceX routinely reflies its hardware, NASA noted that this flight will mark a new milestone; it will be the first commercial crew flight to carry four veteran Draco engines to steer the capsule, with no new so-called forward bulkhead Draco engines. Teams are also switching out the capsule's heat shield, parachutes and pod panels, according to the statement.
RELATED STORIES:
— In photos: SpaceX's Crew-3 astronaut launch for NASA
— See SpaceX's Crew-3 Dragon capsule streak back to Earth in these amazing photos
— See amazing photos of SpaceX's Ax-1 private astronaut launch and mission
Endurance will launch atop a brand-new Falcon 9 booster, but mission personnel still have some issues to address on that end as well. The booster sustained some damage during the journey from the SpaceX production center in California to a test facility in Texas, according to the statement. Accordingly, the company is replacing both the interstage, which connects the first and second stages, and some instruments.
Both SpaceX and NASA are confident in the booster, which underwent a host of tests to ensure that there was no damage beyond the interstage segment; additional tests will also occur after all the replacements are complete, according to the statement.
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Europe's new Venus probe will have to survive months-long scorching 'aerobrake' procedure
By Tereza Pultarova published about 10 hours ago
'Aerobraking around Venus is going to be much more challenging than for ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter.'
Europe's EnVision mission to Venus will aerobrake for two years to get into its target science orbit.
Europe's EnVision mission to Venus will aerobrake for two years to get into its target science orbit. (Image credit: ESA)
Europe's planned Venus exploration mission will depend on a challenging aerobraking procedure to lower its orbit, which will test the thermal resiliency of the spacecraft's materials to their limits.
The EnVision mission, expected to launch in the early 2030s, will study the geology and atmosphere of Venus, the hellish planet that once may have looked quite like Earth but turned into a scorched hostile world due to a runaway greenhouse effect.
To get EnVision to its target orbit, 310 miles (500 kilometers) above Venus' surface (which is so hot that it would melt lead), will take thousands of passes through the planet's thick atmosphere over a period of two years, the European Space Agency (ESA) said in a statement(opens in new tab).
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"EnVision as currently conceived cannot take place without this lengthy phase of aerobraking," ESA's EnVision study manager, Thomas Voirin, said in the statement.
Related: How Venus turned into hell, and how Earth is next
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The van-sized spacecraft, which will launch on Europe's future Ariane 6 rocket, will not be able to carry enough fuel to slow itself down in Venus' orbit using onboard propulsion. Instead, it will use the aerobraking procedure and follow a highly elliptical orbit that will take it periodically to within 80 miles (130 km) of Venus' surface at its closest and about 155,000 miles (250,000 km) from the planet at its farthest point.
ESA previously used aerobraking to slow down the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter before it entered its scientific orbit around Mars. But Mars' atmosphere is much thinner than that of Venus, and its gravity is much lower, which affects the speed of the orbiting spacecraft.
"Aerobraking around Venus is going to be much more challenging than for Trace Gas Orbiter," Voirin said. "The gravity of Venus is about 10 times higher than that of Mars. This means velocities about twice as high as for TGO will be experienced by the spacecraft when passing through the atmosphere, and heat is generated as a cube of velocity."
ESA briefly tested aerobraking around Venus during the final months of the Venus Express mission, which eventually spiraled toward the planet and burned up in the atmosphere in 2014. As Venus Express was already at the end of its mission, spacecraft controllers didn't worry about the damage sustained by the spacecraft caused by the heat. EnVision, on the other hand, will be expected to explore Venus for at least four years.
Engineers are already busy working out the right materials that would enable EnVision to withstand the extreme conditions. In addition to the heat experienced during the aerobraking procedure, the spacecraft will also be exposed to very high concentrations of highly reactive atomic oxygen. Atomic oxygen is a form of oxygen present in the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere, which consists of a single oxygen atom. Atomic oxygen, a nemesis of all low Earth orbit spacecraft, burned thermal blankets on several NASA space shuttle missions in the 1980s.
Observations by previous Venus missions showed that atomic oxygen is present in the upper layers of Venus' atmosphere at concentrations similar to those around Earth.
"The concentration is quite high. With one pass it doesn’t matter so much, but over thousands of times it starts to accumulate and ends up with a level of atomic oxygen fluence we have to take account of, equivale
By Tereza Pultarova published about 10 hours ago
'Aerobraking around Venus is going to be much more challenging than for ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter.'
Europe's EnVision mission to Venus will aerobrake for two years to get into its target science orbit.
Europe's EnVision mission to Venus will aerobrake for two years to get into its target science orbit. (Image credit: ESA)
Europe's planned Venus exploration mission will depend on a challenging aerobraking procedure to lower its orbit, which will test the thermal resiliency of the spacecraft's materials to their limits.
The EnVision mission, expected to launch in the early 2030s, will study the geology and atmosphere of Venus, the hellish planet that once may have looked quite like Earth but turned into a scorched hostile world due to a runaway greenhouse effect.
To get EnVision to its target orbit, 310 miles (500 kilometers) above Venus' surface (which is so hot that it would melt lead), will take thousands of passes through the planet's thick atmosphere over a period of two years, the European Space Agency (ESA) said in a statement(opens in new tab).
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Do you speak English? Work A Canada Job From Home In Ethiopia
Work From Home Jobs
"EnVision as currently conceived cannot take place without this lengthy phase of aerobraking," ESA's EnVision study manager, Thomas Voirin, said in the statement.
Related: How Venus turned into hell, and how Earth is next
Click here for more Space.com videos...
CLOSE
The van-sized spacecraft, which will launch on Europe's future Ariane 6 rocket, will not be able to carry enough fuel to slow itself down in Venus' orbit using onboard propulsion. Instead, it will use the aerobraking procedure and follow a highly elliptical orbit that will take it periodically to within 80 miles (130 km) of Venus' surface at its closest and about 155,000 miles (250,000 km) from the planet at its farthest point.
ESA previously used aerobraking to slow down the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter before it entered its scientific orbit around Mars. But Mars' atmosphere is much thinner than that of Venus, and its gravity is much lower, which affects the speed of the orbiting spacecraft.
"Aerobraking around Venus is going to be much more challenging than for Trace Gas Orbiter," Voirin said. "The gravity of Venus is about 10 times higher than that of Mars. This means velocities about twice as high as for TGO will be experienced by the spacecraft when passing through the atmosphere, and heat is generated as a cube of velocity."
ESA briefly tested aerobraking around Venus during the final months of the Venus Express mission, which eventually spiraled toward the planet and burned up in the atmosphere in 2014. As Venus Express was already at the end of its mission, spacecraft controllers didn't worry about the damage sustained by the spacecraft caused by the heat. EnVision, on the other hand, will be expected to explore Venus for at least four years.
Engineers are already busy working out the right materials that would enable EnVision to withstand the extreme conditions. In addition to the heat experienced during the aerobraking procedure, the spacecraft will also be exposed to very high concentrations of highly reactive atomic oxygen. Atomic oxygen is a form of oxygen present in the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere, which consists of a single oxygen atom. Atomic oxygen, a nemesis of all low Earth orbit spacecraft, burned thermal blankets on several NASA space shuttle missions in the 1980s.
Observations by previous Venus missions showed that atomic oxygen is present in the upper layers of Venus' atmosphere at concentrations similar to those around Earth.
"The concentration is quite high. With one pass it doesn’t matter so much, but over thousands of times it starts to accumulate and ends up with a level of atomic oxygen fluence we have to take account of, equivale
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nt to what we experience in low Earth orbit, but at higher temperatures,” Voirin said.
ESA is currently testing materials for their ability to withstand both the heat and the concentration of atomic oxygen expected during EnVision's aerobraking and hopes to have some candidate materials selected by the end of this year.
"We want to check that these parts are resistant to being eroded, and also maintain their optical properties — meaning they do not degrade or darken, which might have knock-on effects in terms of their thermal behavior, because we have delicate scientific instruments that must maintain a set temperature," Voirin said. "We also need to avoid flaking or outgassing, which leads to contamination."
RELATED STORIES:
— Mercury-bound spacecraft snaps selfie with Venus in close flyby (photo)
— Solar Orbiter spacecraft sends postcard from Venus in flyby video
— The 10 weirdest facts about Venus
Venus, sometimes considered Earth's twin because of their similar sizes, has lately been somewhat sidelined by solar system explorers as the potentially more habitable Mars (which is likelier to harbor traces of life) has become the favorite. But a 2020 study that detected molecules that could be traces of living organisms in the planet's sulfur-rich clouds sparked a new surge of interest in Venus.
In addition to Europe, NASA has plans to send orbiters to the scorching-hot planet: The DAVINCI+ and VERITAS missions, which are expected to launch between 2028 and 2030. Currently, a lone spacecraft, Japan's Akatsuki, is orbiting Venus, studying its dense atmosphere in an attempt to unravel the mysteries of its harsh climate.
ESA is currently testing materials for their ability to withstand both the heat and the concentration of atomic oxygen expected during EnVision's aerobraking and hopes to have some candidate materials selected by the end of this year.
"We want to check that these parts are resistant to being eroded, and also maintain their optical properties — meaning they do not degrade or darken, which might have knock-on effects in terms of their thermal behavior, because we have delicate scientific instruments that must maintain a set temperature," Voirin said. "We also need to avoid flaking or outgassing, which leads to contamination."
RELATED STORIES:
— Mercury-bound spacecraft snaps selfie with Venus in close flyby (photo)
— Solar Orbiter spacecraft sends postcard from Venus in flyby video
— The 10 weirdest facts about Venus
Venus, sometimes considered Earth's twin because of their similar sizes, has lately been somewhat sidelined by solar system explorers as the potentially more habitable Mars (which is likelier to harbor traces of life) has become the favorite. But a 2020 study that detected molecules that could be traces of living organisms in the planet's sulfur-rich clouds sparked a new surge of interest in Venus.
In addition to Europe, NASA has plans to send orbiters to the scorching-hot planet: The DAVINCI+ and VERITAS missions, which are expected to launch between 2028 and 2030. Currently, a lone spacecraft, Japan's Akatsuki, is orbiting Venus, studying its dense atmosphere in an attempt to unravel the mysteries of its harsh climate.
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Watch Blue Origin launch 6 people to suborbital space today
By Mike Wall published about 4 hours ago
The NS-22 mission is scheduled to launch Thursday (Aug. 4) at 9:30 a.m. EDT.
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The Blue Origin NS-22 group.
The Blue Origin NS-22 group. (Image credit: Blue Origin)
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin will launch six people to suborbital space and back on Thursday morning (Aug. 4), and you can watch the action live.
A New Shepard suborbital vehicle is scheduled to lift off from Blue Origin's West Texas site Thursday at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT) on the company's sixth human spaceflight. You can watch live here at Space.com, courtesy of Blue Origin, or directly via the company(opens in new tab). Coverage will begin 30 minutes before launch.
The mission — known as NS-22 because it's the 22nd overall New Shepard flight, crewed or uncrewed — will carry six people, including Coby Cotton, one of the founders of the popular YouTube channel Dude Perfect.
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In photos: Blue Origin's 1st New Shepard passenger launch with Jeff Bezos
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Blue Origin announced the NS-22 crew on July 22, 2022.
The crewmembers for Blue Origin's NS-22 mission, which is scheduled to launch on Aug. 4, 2022. (Image credit: Blue Origin)
Also onboard are Mário Ferreira and Sara Sabry, who will become the first people from Portugal and Egypt, respectively, to reach the final frontier. You can read more about all the passengers in our NS-22 crewmembers story.
New Shepard is an automated, reusable rocket-capsule combo designed to take people and research payloads on brief trips to suborbital space. The rocket comes back to Earth for a powered landing like the first stages of SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy orbital rockets do, and the crew capsule lands softly under parachutes.
New Shepard missions last just 11 minutes or so from start to finish. Passengers get to see the curve of Earth against the blackness of space and experience a few minutes of weightlessness.
RELATED STORIES:
— Jeff Bezos: Blue Origin and Amazon founder
— In photos: William Shatner launches to space on Blue Origin's New Shepard
— Blue Origin launches Michael Strahan and crew of 5 on record-setting suborbital spaceflight
Blue Origin has not revealed how much it charges for this experience. For comparison, Virgin Galactic, the company's chief competitor in the suborbital space tourism field, sells seats aboard its VSS Unity space plane for $450,000.
By Mike Wall published about 4 hours ago
The NS-22 mission is scheduled to launch Thursday (Aug. 4) at 9:30 a.m. EDT.
(opens in new tab)
(opens in new tab)
(opens in new tab)
(opens in new tab)
(opens in new tab)
The Blue Origin NS-22 group.
The Blue Origin NS-22 group. (Image credit: Blue Origin)
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin will launch six people to suborbital space and back on Thursday morning (Aug. 4), and you can watch the action live.
A New Shepard suborbital vehicle is scheduled to lift off from Blue Origin's West Texas site Thursday at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT) on the company's sixth human spaceflight. You can watch live here at Space.com, courtesy of Blue Origin, or directly via the company(opens in new tab). Coverage will begin 30 minutes before launch.
The mission — known as NS-22 because it's the 22nd overall New Shepard flight, crewed or uncrewed — will carry six people, including Coby Cotton, one of the founders of the popular YouTube channel Dude Perfect.
Sponsored Links
“Move Your Money Early” Millionaire Trader Warns
VisionaryProfit
In photos: Blue Origin's 1st New Shepard passenger launch with Jeff Bezos
RECOMMENDED VIDEOS FOR YOU...
Click here for more Space.com videos...
CLOSE
Blue Origin announced the NS-22 crew on July 22, 2022.
The crewmembers for Blue Origin's NS-22 mission, which is scheduled to launch on Aug. 4, 2022. (Image credit: Blue Origin)
Also onboard are Mário Ferreira and Sara Sabry, who will become the first people from Portugal and Egypt, respectively, to reach the final frontier. You can read more about all the passengers in our NS-22 crewmembers story.
New Shepard is an automated, reusable rocket-capsule combo designed to take people and research payloads on brief trips to suborbital space. The rocket comes back to Earth for a powered landing like the first stages of SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy orbital rockets do, and the crew capsule lands softly under parachutes.
New Shepard missions last just 11 minutes or so from start to finish. Passengers get to see the curve of Earth against the blackness of space and experience a few minutes of weightlessness.
RELATED STORIES:
— Jeff Bezos: Blue Origin and Amazon founder
— In photos: William Shatner launches to space on Blue Origin's New Shepard
— Blue Origin launches Michael Strahan and crew of 5 on record-setting suborbital spaceflight
Blue Origin has not revealed how much it charges for this experience. For comparison, Virgin Galactic, the company's chief competitor in the suborbital space tourism field, sells seats aboard its VSS Unity space plane for $450,000.
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1 tsp of neutron star weighs the same as the human population
1 tsp of neutron star weighs the same as the human population
An artist's impression of a rotating neutron star, known as a pulsar. Credit Pitris / Getty Images
A neutron star’s density is mind-boggling. These stars are composed almost entirely of neutrons packed together in a tiny radius.
Just a teaspoonful of this material would weigh over a trillion kilograms — more than the weight of the entire human population (which reaches a few hundred billion kilograms).
To make something as dense as a neutron star, the whole of humanity would need to be crammed into a space the size of a sugar cube.
1 tsp of neutron star weighs the same as the human population
An artist's impression of a rotating neutron star, known as a pulsar. Credit Pitris / Getty Images
A neutron star’s density is mind-boggling. These stars are composed almost entirely of neutrons packed together in a tiny radius.
Just a teaspoonful of this material would weigh over a trillion kilograms — more than the weight of the entire human population (which reaches a few hundred billion kilograms).
To make something as dense as a neutron star, the whole of humanity would need to be crammed into a space the size of a sugar cube.
