ScientistPankaj: James Webb Space Telescope marks deployment of all mirrors

Thursday, January 20, 2022

James Webb Space Telescope marks deployment of all mirrors

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January 19, 2022

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The Launchpad

China sends classified satellite into space during first launch of 2022

(CCTV)

China executed its first launch of 2022 with a classified mission, the Shiyan 13 test satellite. The Long March 2D rocket carrying Shiyan 13 launched from the China National Space Administration's (CNSA) northern Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center Tuesday (Jan. 17) at 10:35 a.m. local time (0235 GMT, or 9:35 p.m. EST on Jan. 16).

Full Story: Space (1/19)

Cosmonauts on spacewalk ready new Russian docking port for future space station arrivals

Russia's new multi-port docking module at the International Space Station is now ready to receive its first spacecraft after two cosmonauts completed a seven-hour spacewalk.

Full Story: Space (1/19)

Spaceflight

James Webb Space Telescope marks deployment of all mirrors

(NASA)

NASA's massive new observatory has notched another milestone. After nearly a full month in space, the James Webb Space Telescope, also known as JWST or Webb, is nearly at the end of its deployment work. The complicated series of deployments has seen the telescope transform from its tightly-folded launch configuration to what looks like a real observatory, although science observations remain months away.

Full Story: Space (1/19)

NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission readies for 'wet dress rehearsal'

The first moonbound rocket and spacecraft of NASA's Artemis program are expected to do a "wet dress rehearsal" on the launch pad in February, the agency said. Engineers on the mission, expected to launch later this year, put the mission hardware through a series of checks to make sure they're ready for the milestone, which will be key in determining Artemis 1's readiness for flight.

Full Story: Space (1/19)

The Mars rover Perseverance has pebbles stuck in its drill. NASA has a plan to fix it.

NASA's Perseverance rover will dump its latest Mars sample to unclog pebbles from its drill. Perseverance mission managers made the unexpected announcement that they had to dump out Percy's latest sample via a blog post on Friday (Jan. 14). The team even shared in the post that they never thought they would have to do that as one of Perseverance's main goals is to pick up Mars samples for future analysis.

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Science & Astronomy

Moon's crust may have formed from 'slushy' magma ocean long ago

(NASA)

The moon's crust might have formed from an unevenly layered "slush" of magma that once covered the entire body, a new study reports. It's the latest turn of the wheel on scientists' picture of how the moon and its features formed, a picture that's been continually changing ever since Apollo astronauts brought moon rocks back to Earth in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

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Massive asteroid safely zooms by Earth, a million miles away

A huge asteroid made its closest approach of the next two centuries Tuesday (Jan. 18), flying quite safely past our planet. Asteroid 7482 (1994 PC1), which is classified as a near-Earth asteroid, only got within five lunar distances of our planet, the equivalent of 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers). The Virtual Telescope Project, which is based in Rome, hosted a livestream allowing viewers to watch the 3,400-foot-wide (1 km) object during the closest part of its flyby.

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Chilly, damp Mars may have hosted an ancient ocean

A cold, wet Mars could have supported an ocean in the northern parts of the Red Planet three billion years ago, a new study finds. New 3D climate simulations of the planet's ancient atmosphere and water suggest a liquid ocean once existed in the northern lowland basin of Mars. This ocean potentially persisted even when average global surface temperatures were below the freezing point of water, the peer-reviewed work suggests.

Full Story: Space (1/18)

SpaceX

SpaceX launches 49 Starlink internet satellites, lands rocket at sea

(SpaceX)

SpaceX's Starlink internet megaconstellation keeps growing. A two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket topped with 49 Starlink satellites lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida Tuesday (Jan. 18) at 9:02 p.m. EST (0203 GMT on Jan. 19). About nine minutes later, the rocket's first stage came down to Earth for a pinpoint touchdown on the SpaceX droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast.

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SpaceX's Starlink satellites leave streaks in asteroid-hunting telescope's images

A prime ground-based observatory that scans the sky for exploding stars and dangerous near-Earth asteroids is struggling with disruptive light streaks from SpaceX's Starlink internet satellite constellation, a new study revealed.

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Technology

Lasting devastation from Tonga volcano eruption revealed in satellite images

(Maxar Technologies)

Tonga's volcanic eruption has left behind damage so severe that satellites can see it from space. On Saturday (Jan. 15), the volcano erupted on the island Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai in the South Pacific kingdom of Tonga after it began brewing a couple of days earlier. It was the volcano's second explosive event in two months, and this eruption was seven times as powerful as the previous eruption in December, with its consequences reaching out thousands of miles across planet Earth.

Full Story: Space (1/18)

NASA wants your ideas to reuse trash and waste on a Mars mission

NASA just opened a challenge seeking ways to go to Mars and back with a minimum of wasted materials. The agency's tournament lab, along with crowdsourcing platform HeroX, have launched a "Waste to Base" challenge looking for ideas to recycle trash, waste, carbon dioxide and foam packaging materials during a two- to three-year crewed Red Planet mission. Competitors have until March 15 to enter the challenge, and several prizes of up to $1,000 each will be awarded for novel ideas, out of a total purse of $24,000.

Full Story: Space (1/19)