Latest news on "Space"

A group of American scientists is working to create reflectors that can redirect solar energy into shaded lunar craters. This will allow future colonizers to work smoothly with the resource necessary for life on the Moon — deposits of water ice, of which there are quite a lot in such craters.

NASA's Office of the Inspector General has released a report that has raised serious doubts about the ability of the manned spacecraft lobbied by this agency to reach the Moon in 2026, as envisaged by the American space program. Industry observers believe that the ship can be replaced with SpaceX's Starship, but NASA has so far rejected discussion of this option. If adopted, it would be a moral disaster for the agency.

Mikhail Kotov — about the difficult fate of the American manned spacecraft

The launch to the International Space Station (ISS) of Boeing Corporation's first manned CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, which was scheduled for May 6 and subsequently postponed, will now take place no earlier than May 10. In fact, this is just one small postponement in a series of long cancellations and date changes plaguing this ship.

Russian interference is reported to seriously reduce the effectiveness of GPS-guided munitions supplied by the West. As a result, the US Air Force is purchasing additional homing heads (homing) to give the high-precision extended-range direct hit bombs (JDAM-ER) supplied to Ukraine the ability to hit GPS signal jammers. It is believed that this will turn one of the weapons most affected by this countermeasure into a means used to destroy it.

The return of the Shenzhou-17 crew to Earth and the continued work of the Shenzhou-18 astronauts in orbit attract attention to the Chinese space station. The compact research complex with spacious interiors stands in stark contrast not only to the Soviet prototypes, to which it is habitually attributed, but also to the much more modern International Space Station.

The White House continues to inflame the atmosphere around the plans allegedly existing in Moscow for the use of nuclear weapons in space, invented by the American authorities themselves. At the same time, Washington accuses China of having such intentions, which is not surprising at all.

Today, the All-Russian public organization "Union of Machine Builders of Russia" celebrates the 17th anniversary of its formation. Sergey Chemezov, CEO of Rostec State Corporation and Chairman of Soyuzmash of Russia, highly appreciated the role of the organization in ensuring the technological independence and defense capability of the country, solving key tasks for the production of civilian products and congratulated all Russian machine builders on this holiday.

Future colonists of the Moon will face a difficult task. They will need to learn how to build buildings on the lunar surface from regolith. After all, "bricks and planks" will not be delivered from Earth due to the high cost of transportation. Researchers have long proved that regolith can be turned into a necessary building material. Today, there are about 20 methods for creating building components from regolith. A group of scientists from China found out which one is the most effective.

The Chinese manned spacecraft Shenzhou-18, which was launched from the Jiuquan cosmodrome in Gansu Province in the northwestern part of China, successfully entered Earth orbit. Shenzhou-18 will deliver a crew of three taikonauts to the Chinese Tiangong orbital station, the assembly of the basic configuration of which was completed in 2022.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu inspected the progress of construction and modernization of infrastructure facilities at the Plesetsk state test cosmodrome (Arkhangelsk Region), the military department reported on Wednesday.

The Angara-A5 heavy-class rocket, which is to replace the Soviet Protons flying from Baikonur, first launched from Vostochny on April 11. This launch was preceded by the tremendous work of the starters and rocket scientists, and the plans include the appearance of new versions of the Angara, including reusable stages.

A new era of energy or a pipe dream?

Japan has announced plans to send solar energy from space to Earth in 2025, two years after a similar achievement by American engineers. This development is a step towards a potential space-based solar power plant that could contribute to the abandonment of fossil fuels.

After years of delay due to COVID-19 and budget issues, the Dragonfly space project has finally been officially approved by NASA. The mission to send a research vehicle to Saturn's largest moon, Titan, will start in 2028. She will become the ideological heir to the Mars Ingenuity Mars project, a new milestone in the use of rotorcraft to explore other worlds.

The Economist: a drone with a flight range of up to three thousand km has been created in Ukraine

Kiev has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the development of UAVs that can detect and hit targets at a range of up to 3 thousand km. This is reported by the British magazine The Economist. How dangerous these drones are, what cities they can reach and how to protect themselves from them - in the material of the military observer of the Newspaper.En" by Mikhail Khodarenka.

Alexander Stepanov — about how the United States doctrinally fixed the course towards the militarization of outer space and how this will turn out for Russia and China

The new Pentagon strategy, published on April 2, calls for increased protection of satellites of private companies.

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.