Tag: Dark Matter
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NASA to consider WFIRST launch options after mission passes key review
Artist’s illustration of the WFIRST spacecraft. Credit: NASA NASA expects to select a launch vehicle next year to carry the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope — a multibillion-dollar flagship astrophysics observatory targeted for cancellation by the Trump administration — into space in 2025 after the mission passed a key review last month, agency officials said.…
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Astronauts finish repairs to space station cosmic ray detector
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 1:40 p.m. EST (1840 GMT) after end of spacewalk. STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION This view was captured by a helmet camera on one of the astronauts on Saturday’s spacewalk. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now During a fourth spacewalk Saturday to wrap up repairs of the coolant system in a $2…
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Astronauts complete bonus objectives in first in series of AMS repair spacewalks
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan is perched on the end of the space station’s robotic arm during Friday’s spacewalk. Credit: NASA Two astronauts ventured outside the International Space Station Friday for the first of four spacewalks to repair a $2 billion cosmic ray detector, breezing through work to prep…
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Complex spacewalk repair work begins Friday
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano are gearing up for a spacewalk Friday to begin repairing the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer instrument outside the International Space Station. Credit: NASA After four years of brainstorming, custom tool development and training, two astronauts plan to venture…
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Detector trouble expected to delay ESA’s Euclid dark energy mission
Artist’s concept of the Euclid spacecraft. Credit: ESA/C. Carreau Technical problems discovered during ground testing of U.S.-built detectors for the European Space Agency’s Euclid astronomy mission will delay the completion of the telescope’s scientific payload, jeopardizing the observatory’s 2020 launch target, the head of NASA’s astrophysics division said last week. Officials expect the problem, traced…
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NASA moves forward with mission using spy satellite telescope
Artist’s concept of the WFIRST spacecraft. Credit: NASA NASA has formally approved plans — a year ahead of schedule — for an infrared space telescope launching around 2024 to record unique wide-angle views of the cosmos, seeking answers to questions about mysterious dark energy and searching for habitable worlds around other stars, the space agency…
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NASA’s next flagship space telescope to get formal start
Artist’s concept of WFIRST. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center NASA officials expect to officially kick off development in February of a multibillion-dollar observatory recycling a grounded top secret spy satellite telescope capable of studying dark energy and directly resolving planets around other stars. The WFIRST mission will launch in the 2020s as NASA’s next flagship-class…
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NASA’s next flagship space telescope to get formal start
Artist’s concept of WFIRST. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center NASA officials expect to officially kick off development in February of a multibillion-dollar observatory recycling a grounded top secret spy satellite telescope capable of studying dark energy and directly resolving planets around other stars. The WFIRST mission will launch in the 2020s as NASA’s next flagship-class…
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China sends dark matter probe into orbit
China launched the first in a series of planned space science probes Thursday, putting a satellite into orbit to study high-energy cosmic rays for signals hinting at hypothesized clumps of dark matter that have eluded detection for decades. The Dark Matter Particle Explorer, or DAMPE, mission is the first dedicated astrophysics observatory put into orbit…