NASA

MILAN — A group of existing and proposed spaceports are joining forces to share lessons learned and potentially develop standards for launch facilities around the world. Eight spaceports in six countries signed a memorandum of understanding Oct. 13 during an event held on the sidelines of the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) here. The agreement outlines plans for the launch facilities to work together to address issues in the development and operation of their facilities. “This partnership demonstrates our collective commitment to underscore the importance of spaceports, supporting their future, and enabling a new era of innovation, security and economic growth in the space industry,” said Roosevelt “Ted” Mercer, head of the Virginia Spaceport Authority, which operates t...

Our solar system was built on impacts — some big, some small — some fast, some slow. This week, in honor of a possible newly-discovered large crater here on Earth, here’s a quick run through of some of the more intriguing impacts across our solar system.1. Mercury: A Basin Bigger Than TexasMercury does not have a thick atmosphere to protect it from space debris. The small planet is riddled with craters, but none as spectacular as the Caloris Basin. “Basin” is what geologists call craters larger than about 186 miles (300 kilometers) in diameter. Caloris is about 950 miles (1,525 kilometers) across and is ringed by mile-high mountains.For scale, the state of Texas is 773 miles (1,244 kilometers) wide from east to west.2. Venus: Tough on Space RocksVenus’ ultra-thick atmosphere finishes off m...

WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration will allow SpaceX to resume Falcon 9 flights after an upper stage anomaly nearly two weeks ago as the company awaits approval for its next Starship launch. In a statement late Oct. 11, the FAA said it cleared launches of the Falcon 9 that, with one exception, had been on hold after a Falcon 9 upper stage suffered a problem with a final deorbit burn on the Sept. 28 launch of the Crew-9 mission for NASA. “The FAA notified SpaceX on Oct. 11 that the Falcon 9 vehicle is authorized to return to regular flight operations,” the agency stated. “The FAA reviewed and accepted the SpaceX-led investigation findings and corrective actions for the mishap that occurred with the Crew-9 mission.” Neither the FAA nor SpaceX elaborated on the finding...

Our Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is coming together at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida this summer. Our mighty SLS rocket is set to power the Artemis I mission to send our Orion spacecraft around the Moon. But, before it heads to the Moon, NASA puts it together right here on Earth.Read on for more on how our Moon rocket for Artemis I will come together this summer:How do crews assemble a rocket and spacecraft as tall as a skyscraper? The process all starts inside the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy with the mobile launcher. Recognized as a Florida Space Coast landmark, the Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB, houses special cranes, lifts, and equipment to move and connect the spaceflight hardware together. Orion and all five of the major parts of the Artemis I ro...

WASHINGTON — The first satellites of a Chinese broadband constellation are significantly brighter than those of Western systems, posing a new challenge for astronomers. In a paper posted on the arXiv preprint server Sept. 30, a group of observational astronomers reported on observations of a set of 18 Qianfan, or “Thousand Sails,” satellites launched in August. The satellites are the first of a constellation that may ultimately consist of more than 14,000 satellites. The study found that the brightness of the satellites ranges from magnitude 8 when low in the sky to magnitude 4 when nearly overhead. That makes the satellites, at those higher elevations, bright enough to be seen by the naked eye — which can see objects down to magnitude 6 in dark skies — and well above the threshol...