ScientistPankaj: NASA's DART spacecraft, humanity's first asteroid defense mission, less than one month from launch

Thursday, October 28, 2021

NASA's DART spacecraft, humanity's first asteroid defense mission, less than one month from launch

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October 27, 2021

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The Launchpad

Watch Russia launch a new space station cargo ship tonight

(Roscosmos)

A Russian cargo ship is set to launch to the International Space Station tonight, and you can watch it live. The Progress 79 spacecraft is set to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan no earlier than 8 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, Oct. 27 (0000 GMT or 5 a.m. local time.) You can watch the Progress 79 cargo ship launch live on this page and the Space.com homepage at launch time, courtesy of NASA TV. The webcast will begin at 7:45 p.m. EDT (2345 GMT). You can also watch it directly from NASA TV.

Full Story: Space (10/27)

NASA's DART spacecraft, humanity's first asteroid defense mission, less than one month from launch

NASA is less than one month away from launching humanity's first-ever asteroid-deflecting mission, known as DART, short for "Double Asteroid Redirection Test." DART is a spacecraft that will launch in late November with the purpose of deflecting an asteroid. The craft will hit an asteroid head-on in an attempt to move it onto a slightly different path. While the asteroid target does not pose a risk of impacting Earth, this will be an important, first-of-its-kind test of this kind of technology.

Full Story: Space (10/27)

Spaceflight

China launches 40th orbital rocket mission of 2021, a new record

(CCTV)

China's set a new national record for rocket launches today (Oct. 27) with a satellite launch from the Gobi Desert. The launch was China's 40th mission of 2021 and delivered the Jilin-1 Gaofen 02F remote sensing satellite into orbit on a Kuaizhou-1A rocket. Its success brings China's rocket launch rate beyond the country's previous record of 39 first set in 2018 and tied in 2020, according to SpaceNews.

Full Story: Space (10/27)

China launches military satellite to take aim at space junk

China successfully launched a military satellite to test "space debris mitigation technology," according to state media reports. Footage from China Central Television shows the rocket, backdropped by hills, lifting off amid cloudy conditions at the launch site. The satellite on board is called Shijian-21 and will be "used for the verification of space debris mitigation technology."

Full Story: Space (10/27)

L+600 and counting: ESA astronaut to be 600th person in space on SpaceX Crew-3 launch

A German astronaut is set to become the 600th person to enter space and he will do so flying with a U.S. astronaut who once came close to being number 500. Matthias Maurer with the European Space Agency (ESA) will gain the distinction of being the sexcentenarian space traveler when he launches to the International Space Station as a member of SpaceX's Crew-3 mission, currently scheduled for early Sunday morning (Oct. 31).

Full Story: Space (10/27)

Science & Astronomy

Weird stellar remnant may be from one of the first stars in the universe

(Shutterstock)

Astronomers have detected an extremely unusual star that they believe is a stellar fossil, or remnant, of one of the universe's very first stars. The star, named AS0039, is located in the Sculptor dwarf galaxy around 290,000 light-years from the solar system. This stellar remnant has the lowest concentration of metal, particularly iron, of any star measured outside the Milky Way. The researchers think that finding is evidence that the remnant is a direct descendent of one of the universe's earliest stars, which contained very little metal.

Full Story: Space (10/26)

Microbes could help future Mars explorers make rocket fuel and oxygen on the Red Planet

Future Mars astronauts could make rocket fuel on the Red Planet using air, water and sunlight, a new study finds. The technology could fuel the astronauts' flights back to Earth. Making rocket fuel on Mars instead of shipping it from Earth could not only save billions of dollars, but it could also generate tons of oxygen to help people exploring Mars breathe, scientists added.

Full Story: Space (10/27)

Search for Life

Proxima Centauri's mysterious radio signal was definitely not aliens

(ESO)

Potential evidence of extraterrestrial radio signals from Proxima Centauri, the closest star to Earth, were likely just interference from human technology, researchers say. The mysterious signals were first detected in 2020 by the Breakthrough Listen project, which hunts for evidence of alien "technosignatures" — radio waves and other evidence of extraterrestrial technology. The initiative uses some of the largest radio telescopes in the world to capture data across broad swaths of the radio spectrum in the direction of a wide range of celestial targets.

Full Story: Space (10/26)

Entertainment

'NOVA Universe Revealed' on PBS brings the cosmos down to Earth tonight

(PBS)

PBS's newest science series, NOVA Universe Revealed, premieres tonight, October 27, at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT Oct. 28). Space.com got a sneak peek at the five-episode series, which takes viewers on an epic journey through the cosmos. The first hour-long episode focuses on our sun and stars like it. Titled "Age of Stars," it explores the life and death cycle of a star, including stunning archival footage from the ESA, Hubble Space Telescope and NASA, among other space organizations. Imagery from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory makes for a gorgeous look at our sun. Scientists interviewed in the episode explain how a star is born and how it explodes into a supernova, and speculate about an ultimate age of darkness.

Full Story: Space (10/27)