Lego commercialise un tableau à l'effigie de la Voie lactée. Objet de collection à accrocher au mur, il se distingue par son inventaire de pièces assez improbables. Il souligne une fois encore l'ingéniosité de l'entreprise danoise.

La conquête spatiale a plus de soixante ans. Une histoire dans laquelle le nucléaire n'est jamais bien loin. C'est ce que rappelle cet article de The Conversation, en montrant les différentes pistes étudiées ou envisagées.... pour le meilleur et pour le pire.

Dans le cadre d’un partenariat avec l’agence spatiale américaine, la société Boeing va mener un vol d’essai habité avec la capsule Starliner. À bord, deux astronautes, qui doivent rejoindre la Station spatiale internationale. La mission Boe-CFT peut être suivie en direct.

On June 3, a "planet parade" of six planets -- Jupiter, Mercury, Uranus, Mars, Neptune and Saturn -- will form a straight line through the pre-dawn sky. Astronomy.com reports: Some 20 minutes before sunrise, all six planets should be visible, though note that Uranus (magnitude 5.9) and Neptune (magnitude 7.8) will be too faint for naked-eye observing and, although they're present in the lineup, will need binoculars or a telescope to spot. But Jupiter (magnitude -2), Mercury (magnitude -1), Mars (magnitude 1), and Saturn (magnitude 1) will all stand out clearly to the naked eye in a line spanning some 73 degrees on the sky. What's more, a delicate waning crescent Moon is crashing the party as well, standing just to the lower left of Mars. Note, however, that our Moon is not perfectly in line -- that's because Luna's orbit is tilted some 5 degrees with respect to the ecliptic. The next morning, June 4, the crescent Moon does a little better, falling more closely in line a bit farther from Mars. But now Mercury has stepped out of place and stands to Jupiter's lower right (south) as the two planets reach a close conjunction just 7 degrees apart -- not to be missed, especially in binoculars or telescopes! By June 5, Mercury lies to Jupiter's lower left, replacing the gas giant as the easternmost point in the planetary lineup. And the nearly New Moon (just 2 percent lit) stands above the pair. As June progresses, Mercury quickly ducks out of view, passing close to the Sun before reappearing in the evening sky and leaving us with only five planets in the pre-dawn sky. But those planets continue to form a nice, clean line, stretching nearly 80 degrees from Jupiter to Saturn (with Uranus, Mars, and Neptune in between) by June 30. On this morning, the Moon as rejoined the line, once again a delicate waning crescent about 33 percent lit, hanging perfectly in place to Mars' upper right.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

L'agence spatiale américaine (Nasa) approuve le décollage de la mission Boe-CFT de Boeing en direction de l'ISS, le 1er juin 2024. Cela, alors qu'une fuite d'hélium a été repérée dans le véhicule qui transporte deux astronautes.

L'année 2024 doit être l'année d'une capacité spatiale retrouvée pour l'Europe. Ariane 6 doit faire ses débuts au cours de l'été, tandis que Vega-C doit redevenir opérationnelle en fin d'année.

L'Agence spatiale européenne, en association avec son homologue japonaise, va envoyer une satellite d'observation de la Terre dans la nuit du 28 au 29 mai. C'est une fusée Falcon 9 de SpaceX qui sera utilisée. Selon l'ESA, c'est sa mission la plus complexe dans ce domaine.

SpaceX prévoit deux grandes manœuvres lors du 4e vol du Starship, dont une rentrée délicate du vaisseau spatial dans l'atmosphère terrestre.

Witnessing the blood-red fires of a volcanic eruption on Earth is memorable. But to see molten rock bleed out of a volcano on a different planet would be extraordinary. That is close to what scientists have spotted on Venus: two vast, sinuous lava flows oozing from two different corners of Earth's planetary neighbor. From a report: "After you see something like this, the first reaction is 'wow,'" said Davide Sulcanese, a doctoral student at the Universita d'Annunzio in Pescara, Italy, and an author of a study reporting the discovery in the journal Nature Astronomy, published on Monday. Earth and Venus were forged at the same time. Both are made of the same primeval matter, and both are the same age and size. So why is Earth a paradise overflowing with water and life, while Venus is a scorched hellscape with acidic skies? Volcanic eruptions tinker with planetary atmospheres. One theory holds that, eons ago, several apocalyptic eruptions set off a runaway greenhouse effect on Venus, turning it from a temperate, waterlogged world into an arid desert of burned glass. To better understand its volcanism, scientists hoped to catch a Venusian eruption in the act. But although the planet is known to be smothered in volcanoes, an opaque atmosphere has prevented anyone from seeing an eruption the way spacecraft have spotted them on Io, the hypervolcanic moon of Jupiter. In the 1990s, NASA's spacecraft Magellan used cloud-penetrating radar to survey most of the planet. But back then, the relatively low-resolution images made spotting fresh molten rock a troublesome task.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A North Korean rocket carrying its second spy satellite exploded midair on Monday, state media reported, after its neighbors strongly rebuked its planned launch. From a report: The North's official Korean Central News Agency said it launched a spy satellite aboard a new rocket at its main northwestern space center. But KCNA said the rocket blew up during a first-stage flight soon after liftoff due to a suspected engine problem. Earlier Monday, North Korea had notified Japan's coast guard about its plans to launch "a satellite rocket," with a warning to exercise caution in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and China and east of the main Philippine island of Luzon during a launch window from Monday through June 3. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff later said it detected a launch trajectory believed to be of a spy satellite fired from the North's main space center at 10:44 p.m. on Monday. Four minutes later, many fragments were spotted in the waters, it said. Japanese Prime Minister's Office earlier issued a missile alert for the island of Okinawa following North Korea's launch. The alert was lifted soon after. Japan's NHK public television earlier reported that an image captured by a camera in northeastern China showed an orange light in the sky and then an apparent explosion a moment later.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Une avancée technique de taille

Virtus Solis, fondée par John Bucknell, ancien ingénieur de SpaceX, envisage d’utiliser l’orbite Molniya pour maintenir ses satellites constamment en vue des stations au sol. Leur objectif est de construire une vaste ferme solaire en orbite, exploitant ainsi l’énergie solaire sans l’intermittence qui affecte les installations terrestres. La technologie des rectennas permettra de convertir l’énergie reçue en courant électrique utilisable, promettant une couverture énergétique de 50 % de la surface terrestre à tout moment.

Une fois en orbite, des robots autonomes prendront en charge l’assemblage de cette infrastructure complexe. Chaque satellite de la constellation, mesurant environ 1,65 m de diamètre, aura la capacité de produire 1 kilowatt. Ce système automatisé et compact est conçu pour optimiser l’efficacité et réduire les coûts à long terme.

Quels défis pour ce projet ?

L’initiative de Virtus Solis soulève cependant des questions importantes. Le premier satellite test ne sera lancé qu’en 2027, et il faudra probablement des décennies avant que le projet ne devienne pleinement opérationnel. En plus des défis techniques et financiers, la question de la pollution spatiale est également préoccupante. L’espace autour de notre planète est déjà encombré de débris, et chaque nouvelle infrastructure contribue à ce problème.

Bien que l’idée soit prometteuse, la transition du concept à la réalité est semée d’embûches. Les coûts initiaux, les délais de développement et les obstacles réglementaires pourraient ralentir ou même compromettre la progression du projet. La viabilité à long terme et l’impact environnemental de telles installations seront également clés  pour leur acceptation et leur succès.

L’article Energie Solaire Spatiale : une source d’énergie continue est apparu en premier sur L'EnerGeek.

Les étoiles massives ne sont pas censées disparaître du jour au lendemain : leur mort s'accompagne d'un phénomène observable, les supernovas.

La fenêtre de tir du lanceur Starship se rapproche. Tout indique que le 4e vol de la fusée aura lieu au tout début du mois de juin. Objectif principal de SpaceX ? Survivre à la rentrée atmosphérique.

Using the Euclid space telescope, astronomers have discovered dozens of rogue planets drifting without stars in the Orion nebula. The Guardian reports: The European Space Agency (Esa) launched the $1 billion observatory last summer on a six-year mission to create a 3D map of the cosmos. Armed with its images, scientists hope to understand more about the mysterious 95% of the universe that is unexplained. The first wave of scientific results come from only 24 hours of observations, which revealed 11m objects in visible light and 5m in infrared. Along with the rogue planets, the researchers describe new star clusters, dwarf galaxies and very distant, bright galaxies from the first billion years of the universe. A flurry of new images from the same observations are the largest ever taken in space and demonstrate the stunning wide-field views that astronomers can expect from Euclid in the coming years. Among those released on Thursday is a breathtaking image of Messier 78, a vibrant star nursery shrouded in interstellar dust, that reveals complex filaments of gas and dust in unprecedented detail. One of the newly released images shows Abell 2390, a giant conglomeration of more than 50,000 Milky Way-like galaxies. Such galaxy clusters contain up to 10 trillion times as much mass as the sun, much of which is believed to be elusive dark matter. Another image of the Abell 2764 galaxy cluster reveals hundreds of galaxies orbiting within a halo of dark matter. Other images capture NGC 6744, one of the largest spiral galaxies in the nearby universe, and the Dorado group of galaxies, where evolving and merging galaxies produce shell-like structures and vast, curving tidal tails. The rogue planets spotted by Euclid are about 3m years old, making them youngsters on the cosmic scale. They are at least four times as big as Jupiter and were detected thanks to the warmth they emit. Astronomers know they are free-floating because they are so far away from the nearest stars. The celestial strays are destined to drift through the galaxy unless they encounter a star that pulls them into orbit.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The United States has assessed that Russia launched what is likely a counter space weapon last week that's now in the same orbit as a U.S. government satellite, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder confirmed Tuesday. From a report: "What I'm tracking here is on May 16, as you highlighted, Russia launched a satellite into low Earth orbit that we that we assess is likely a counter space weapon presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low Earth orbit," Ryder said when questioned by ABC News about the information, which was made public earlier Tuesday by Robert Wood, deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. "Russia deployed this new counter space weapon into the same orbit as a U.S. government satellite," Ryder continued. "And so assessments further indicate characteristics resembling previously deployed counter space payloads from 2019 and 2022." Ryder added: "Obviously, that's something that we'll continue to monitor. Certainly, we would say that we have a responsibility to be ready to protect and defend the space domain and ensure continuous and uninterrupted support to the joint and combined force. And we'll continue to balance the need to protect our interests in space with our desire to preserve a stable and sustainable space environment." When asked if the Russian counter space weapon posed a threat to the U.S. satellite, Ryder responded: "Well, it's a counter space weapon in the same orbit as a U.S. government satellite."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Washington a accusé la Russie d'avoir déployé une nouvelle arme dans l'espace, capable de s'en prendre aux satellites. Elle aurait été envoyée à la mi-mai.

SpaceX prévoit de procéder à son quatrième vol d'essai du Starship au tout début du mois de juin, sauf coup de théâtre. L'ultime phase du vol, qui consiste à revenir dans l'atmosphère, sera particulièrement critique.

"Blue Origin's tourism rocket has launched passengers to the edge of space for the first time in nearly two years," reports CNN, "ending a hiatus prompted by a failed uncrewed test flight." The New Shepard rocket and capsule lifted off at 9:36 a.m. CT (10:36 a.m. ET) from Blue Origin's facilities on a private ranch in West Texas. NS-25, Blue Origin's seventh crewed flight to date, carried six customers aboard the capsule: venture capitalist Mason Angel; Sylvain Chiron, founder of the French craft brewery Brasserie Mont-Blanc; software engineer and entrepreneur Kenneth L. Hess; retired accountant Carol Schaller; aviator Gopi Thotakura; and Ed Dwight, a retired US Air Force captain selected by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to be the nation's first Black astronaut candidate... Dwight completed that challenge and reached the edge of space at the age of 90, making him the oldest person to venture to such heights, according to a spokesperson from Blue Origin... "It's a life-changing experience," he said. "Everybody needs to do this." The rocket booster landed safely a couple minutes prior to the capsule. During the mission, the crew soared to more than three times the speed of sound, or more than 2,000 miles per hour. The rocket vaulted the capsule past the Kármán line, an area 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth's surface that is widely recognized as the altitude at which outer space begins... "And at the peak of the flight, passengers experienced a few minutes of weightlessness and striking views of Earth through the cabin windows."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Earlier this week the Washington Post reported that America's Defense department "is growing concerned that the United Launch Alliance, one of its key partners in launching national security satellites to space, will not be able to meet its needs to counter China and build its arsenal in orbit with a new rocket that ULA has been developing for years." In a letter sent Friday to the heads of Boeing's and Lockheed Martin's space divisions, Air Force Assistant Secretary Frank Calvelli used unusually blunt terms to say he was growing "concerned" with the development of the Vulcan rocket, which the Pentagon intends to use to launch critical national security payloads but which has been delayed for years. ULA, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, was formed nearly 20 years ago to provide the Defense Department with "assured access" to space. "I am growing concerned with ULA's ability to scale manufacturing of its Vulcan rocket and scale its launch cadence to meet our needs," he wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. "Currently there is military satellite capability sitting on the ground due to Vulcan delays...." ULA originally won 60 percent of the Pentagon's national security payloads under the current contract, known as Phase 2. SpaceX won an award for the remaining 40 percent, but it has been flying its reusable Falcon 9 rocket at a much higher rate. ULA launched only three rockets last year, as it transitions to Vulcan; SpaceX launched nearly 100, mostly to put up its Starlink internet satellite constellation. Both are now competing for the next round of Pentagon contracts, a highly competitive procurement worth billions of dollars over several years. ULA is reportedly up for sale; Blue Origin is said to be one of the suitors... In a statement to The Post, ULA said that its "factory and launch site expansions have been completed or are on track to support our customers' needs with nearly 30 launch vehicles in flow at the rocket factory in Decatur, Alabama." Last year, ULA CEO Tory Bruno said in an interview that the deal with Amazon would allow the company to increase its flight rate to 20 to 25 a year and that to meet that cadence it was hiring "several hundred" more employees. The more often Vulcan flies, he said, the more efficient the company would become. "Vulcan is much less expensive" than the Atlas V rocket that the ULA currently flies, Bruno said, adding that ULA intends to eventually reuse the engines. "As the flight rate goes up, there's economies of scale, so it gets cheaper over time. And of course, you're introducing reusability, so it's cheaper. It's just getting more and more competitive." The article also notes that years ago ULA "decided to eventually retire its workhorse Atlas V rocket after concerns within the Pentagon and Congress that it relied on a Russian-made engine, the RD-180. In 2014, the company entered into a partnership with Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin to provide its BE-4 engines for use on Vulcan. However, the delivery of those engines was delayed for years — one of the reasons Vulcan's first flight didn't take place until earlier this year." The article says Cavelli's letter cited the Pentagon's need to move quickly as adversaries build capabilities in space, noting "counterspace threats" and adding that "our adversaries would seek to deny us the advantage we get from space during a potential conflict." "The United States continues to face an unprecedented strategic competitor in China, and our space environment continues to become more contested, congested and competitive."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.