Latest news on "Space"

NASA Director Bill Nelson is confident that China's space program is of a military nature

The United States expects to land astronauts on the moon before China out of fear of the militarization of outer space. This statement was made on Wednesday at a hearing in the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress by the director of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Bill Nelson.

Ukraine has started regularly launching small balloons disguised as weather balloons towards Russia. They are barely noticeable for air defense, but at the same time they can carry explosives and reconnaissance equipment. Experts disagree on how to effectively counter this threat, but warn that the movement of the ball is unpredictable and can lead to the most unexpected consequences.

Space power plant projects face a range of engineering challenges. One of them is the transfer of energy collected by solar panels in geostationary orbit to Earth. The British company Space Solar not only offered a concise technical solution, but also successfully tested its reduced prototype.

Engineers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States have proposed a method that will help future colonizers of the Moon and their equipment to withstand dangerous lunar dust. We are talking about an electrodynamic dust shield, somewhat reminiscent of the work of a broom.

Mikhail Kotov — on the reasons for the three attempts and the significance of the new Russian heavy-class launch vehicle

On the eve of Cosmonautics Day, on April 11, the Russian Angara-A5 heavy-class launch vehicle made its first launch from the Vostochny cosmodrome. However, it was possible to realize this only on the third attempt. But the Orion upper stage was put into a reference orbit, then it separated from the third stage of the launch vehicle and delivered the Gagarinets small satellite, developed by a private company, to low Earth orbit. After that, a mock-up of the payload was placed into geostationary orbit.

Products, materials and technologies created within the framework of space programs have become firmly embedded in modern life. Using communication, navigation applications in a smartphone, watching TV, we sometimes do not think that these and many other familiar things now have cosmic roots. TASS — about how space technologies help us every day.

The Pentagon is going to work out a scenario in space for the rapid deployment of a satellite orbital grouping in response to the threat posed by spacecraft of a potential enemy. During the exercises, the US military will use two satellites that private aerospace companies will develop specifically for this mission. Thus, the United States wants not only to "send a signal" to other countries that they will be able to quickly resist "aggression in orbit", but also to show exactly how they will do it.

Chinese scientists have assessed their capabilities to implement the project of a promising space nuclear reactor with an electric capacity of one and a half megawatts. This is an installation with a liquid metal coolant and a gas turbine, which by weight and dimensions fits on a medium-class launch vehicle. Several prototypes of its critical components have already passed successful ground tests. But many of the necessary technologies require either international participation or intensive funding to refine.

The ExoMars project has been in limbo for the past two years. On the one hand, the European Space Agency promised to find resources to reformat the Rosalind Franklin rover mission, because without Russian participation, the rover lost its landing platform. On the other hand, it takes a lot of money and time. Finally, ESA has decided on all the nuances and signed a contract to perform the necessary work. The mission has become noticeably more expensive and will be delayed for several more years.

Russia is rolling out a new heavy launch vehicle "Angara-A5"

Russia has launched a new heavy launch vehicle Angara-A5 from the Vostochny cosmodrome into space. This is the most important event in the Russian space industry in several decades. How does the new carrier differ from the legendary Proton, what tasks will the new Angara perform and what significance does it have for the whole country?

Like any universal platform, the MZKT-490100 became the ancestor of a whole family of special purpose vehicles, such as reconnaissance, medical, communications and electronic warfare vehicles, and many others.

The initiative introduces the concept of a "space object" and proposes to empower Roscosmos to conclude concession agreements and PPP agreements on behalf of the Russian Federation in relation to space objects

The State Duma Committee on Property, Land and Property Relations recommended that the lower house of parliament adopt in the first reading a bill on the application of concession agreements and public-private partnership (PPP) agreements in the field of space activities. The document was initiated by Senators Andrey Kutepov and Murat Khapsirokov.

NASA has selected three private companies: Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and Venturi Astrolab, which will compete for the right to build a lunar rover for the Artemis mission. There are special requirements for it — this is a new type of device that should work on the Moon for a long time. Therefore, $ 4.6 billion and 10 years were allocated for its creation.

The private space company Intuitive Machines, which recently managed to land its Odyssey module in the southern circumpolar region of the Moon, announced the development of a new device. This time, the company's engineers will create a jumping robot to explore permanently shaded areas of the Earth's satellite and uneven surface, including steep slopes, craters and hills — difficult areas that engineers can use in the future for the construction of lunar bases.

Colonel Khodarenok: massive use of FAB-3000 can change the course of its

The Russian FAB-3000 aerial bomb, equipped with a guidance device, can become a "doomsday" weapon in a military operation in Ukraine, Chinese expert Shao Yongling believes.

The Assistant Secretary of Defense of the United States for Space Policy, John Plum, said that Washington is working closely with Kiev on this issue

The US government is working with the authorities in Kiev and the American company Starlink, trying to block the use of its satellite communication terminals in Ukraine by the Russian Armed Forces (AF). This was announced at a meeting with the Washington Group of Military Observers (Defense Writers Group), of which TASS is a member, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plum.

In an interview with TASS correspondent Yevgeny Pakhomov, Hero of the Soviet Union Sharma told how he remembered the training in Star City, how space struck him and why all people who saw the Earth from orbit become supporters of peace.

As the researchers note, there are currently virtually no telescopes in Russia capable of performing observations at frequencies above 100 GHz

Russian astronomers have proposed building a telescope on the surface of the Moon that would operate in the sub-terahertz range of electromagnetic waves. Such an installation will allow scientists to obtain detailed images of the surroundings of black holes and for the first time study in detail the motion of matter at the event horizon. This was announced on Monday by the press service of the FIAN Astrocosmic Center.

In mid-March 2024, the launch of two Chinese satellites turned into a failure. The upper stage could not provide the correct trajectory, and the payload did not reach the target orbit. The mission was officially recognized as an emergency, but no details about its goals and the course of the flight were reported. New data from the American space intelligence showed that the vehicles were definitely not lost: they made a maneuver to change the orbit.

Lasers for space debris control

Humanity has set up a dump in near-Earth orbit. Millions of fragments of old satellites and other particles of industrial origin are orbiting the Earth, threatening the ISS and other spacecraft. Scientists are developing ways to solve this problem before it's too late.