TOP NEWS

Astronauts Finally Find Location of Elusive Leak on The International Space Station

On Monday night, NASA flight controllers woke the three men living on the International Space Station. A small air leak seemed to have grown quickly, and ground control wanted to find it fast.

NASA and Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, had already narrowed down the likely location of the leak to several modules on the station’s Russian side.

Read more at: Sciencealert

Stunning Images From Hubble, Chandra, And More Reveal Value Of Space Telescope Teamwork

What do you get when you put a space telescope to work with another space telescope or two? Amazing compilation images of our universe.

NASA recently highlighted some collaborations between its Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, particularly the Hubble Space Telescope, showing what sorts of images can be produced when you look at the same object in different wavelengths of light.

Read more at: Space.com

NEW SPACE/COMMERCIAL

How SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin And Others Compete In The Growing Space Tourism Market

There’s an emerging industry thought to be only science fiction not too long ago that’s close to becoming a reality: space tourism.

And a handful of companies – including one publicly traded name – are competing neck and neck to be leaders in the emerging market.

But what space tourism entails, and how much it costs per person, varies greatly depending on a company’s technological capabilities.

Read more at: CNBC

Rocket Factory Augsburg Signs Agreement With Andøya Space For Maiden Flight

Rocket Factory Augsburg AG (RFA), a participation of space technology company OHB SE, will be establishing a launch site for a micro launcher together with Norwegian company Andøya Space. The two partners have now signed a letter of intent to this effect. The site is to provide launch services for small satellites from 2022.

“This partnership is of key importance as it will enable RFA and Andøya Space to launch the first satellite from continental Europe on a European launch vehicle,” said Dr. Stefan Brieschenk, Chief Operation Officer of RFA.

Read more at: OHB

Startup Street: Agnikul Cosmos Partners With Alaska Aerospace To Test Launch Its Agnibaan

Chennai based AgniKul Cosmos has partnered with Alaska Aerospace Corporation to test launch its Agnibaan launch vehicle from the Pacific Spaceport Complex, Alaska on Kodiak Island in the United States. The vision is to provide a rapid, agile and low-cost access to space.

To know more on this and the road ahead, CNBC-TV18 spoke to Moin SPM, Co-Founder and COO of AgniKul.

Read more at: CNBCTV18

NASA Safety Panel Wonders If Boeing Can Meet Starliner Schedule

NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) is wondering if Boeing will be able to meet the current schedule for Starliner flights. Boeing plans to refly its Orbital Flight Test in December, one year after the first attempt suffered a number of anomalies, followed by a test flight with a crew next June. ASAP wonders if Boeing will be ready. In addition to the 80 recommendations of a Boeing-NASA independent review team, ASAP said Boeing itself identified another 31 and “other issues” have arisen since. ASAP also wants NASA to formalize a lessons learned process that crosses program boundaries and involves not just NASA, but the broader community.

Read more at: Spacepolicy online

SPACE HAZARDS & STM

18 SPCS Now Predicts Debris-On-Debris Collisions In Space, Enhancing Space Domain Awareness For All

For the first time, the Combined Force Space Component Command’s 18th Space Control Squadron began publically sharing data for debris-on-debris conjunction predictions via www.Space-Track.org, Sept. 24.

Previously, the 18 SPCS only released debris-on-active satellite conjunction prediction data publically due to limited conjunction screening and reporting capacity.

Through a project titled Reduction of Conjunction Assessment Processing (ReCAP), 18 SPCS personnel reduced the daily number of legacy low to no-risk early conjunction reporting to satellite owners and operators by more than 30 percent. Additionally, the 18 SPCS increased the total number of objects screened daily by more than 350 percent.

NOTE: The 18 SPCS was the 2019 IAASS Joseph P. Loftus Space Sustainability Award Winner

Read more at: Vandenberg

UN Space Chief Calls For Mass Action To Save Earth And Cosmos

The director of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs has called for renewed collective action to protect space for future generations and tackle the climate emergency and other global challenges.

Simonetta Di Pippo addressed an online seminar on Monday as part of the annual Autumn Conference of the European Space Policy Institute.

Read more at: National

Solar Storms Could Be More Extreme If They ‘Slipstream’ Behind Each Other

Modeling of an extreme space weather event that narrowly missed Earth in 2012 shows it could have been even worse if paired with another event.

The findings suggest space weather predictions should be updated to include how close events enhance one another.

Read more at: Phys.org

Op-Ed | Social Distancing, Self-Isolation, And … Space Debris?

The pandemic of 2020 has brought great loss and suffering, assuredly impacting every human life on the planet in one way or another. While a number of countries appeared to have the virus under control, we are now seeing second surges of cases and can expect to realize the full impact of COVID-19 for many years to come.

To learn and grow from this, we must continue to question and study the factors that made the virus so deadly and difficult to contain. In addition to better preparing us for the next pandemic, or teaching us how to prevent it altogether, this reflection also reveals lessons we can apply to other issues we face as a collective society.

Read more at: Spacenews

First Physics-Based Method For Predicting Large Solar Flares

Solar flares emit sudden, strong bursts of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun’s surface and its atmosphere, and eject plasma and energetic particles into inter-planetary space. Since large solar flares can cause severe space weather disturbances affecting Earth, to mitigate their impact their occurrence needs to be predicted. However, as the onset mechanism of solar flares is unclear, most flare prediction methods so far have relied on empirical methods.

Read more at: innovations-report

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