Powerful GOES-T satellite launches to eye Earth's weather, climate | Europe's Mars rover will likely miss 2022 launch on Russian rocket due to Ukraine invasion sanctions | NASA works to maintain Russian cooperation in space while eyeing 'operational flexibility'
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Scientists will soon have a powerful new set of eyes in the sky to study Earth's weather and climate. The GOES-T satellite lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today (March 1) at 4:38 p.m. EST (2138 GMT), riding a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket into the final frontier. If all goes according to plan, GOES-T will deploy from the Atlas V's upper stage about 3.5 hours after liftoff.
Europe's ExoMars rover, built to search for traces of life on the Red Planet, is unlikely to launch as planned in September aboard a Russian rocket as a result of sanctions rolled out by European countries in response to Russian aggression in Ukraine.
NASA is continuing to operate the International Space Station (ISS) as usual alongside Russia and the agency's other partners, but is weighing its options for the future amid Russia's ongoing invasion in Ukraine, the agency's top space operations official said Monday (Feb. 28). "We understand this the global situation where it is, but as a joint team, these teams are operating together," NASA's associate administrator for space operations Kathy Lueders said of Russia's space agency Roscosmos in a call with reporters on Monday.
Traditionally, astronauts have been subject to rigorous training and medical scrutiny before going to space, and the risk of death from natural causes was considered remote. But in this new era of space tourism, it appears medical screening may not be carried out, and only minimal pre-flight training is provided.
The Orion capsule that will return humans to the moon's orbit went through a final power-up ahead of a wet dress rehearsal that will pave the way for an unmanned test launch later this year. NASA shared the image of the capsule on its Twitter account saying: "The crew module internal access platforms were removed and the hatch was closed. Teams are one step closer to the roll out of the #Artemis I vehicle from the VAB [the iconic Apollo-era Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center] to Pad 39B for the first time."
On March 1, 2016, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly came back to Earth after almost an entire year in space. See how it happened in our "On This Day In Space" video series.
The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) is starting its first operational science work as it embarks on a mission to better understand our sun. DKIST is a nearly $300 million science observatory perched atop the 10,062-foot (3,067 meters) Mount Haleakalā in Maui, Hawaii. One of its main functions will be to study the corona, the incredibly hot outer atmosphere of the sun that is millions of degrees hotter than the surface.
The James Webb Space Telescope will zero in on a portion of the famous Orion Nebula, the closest region of mass star-formation to Earth, to learn more about how massive young stars shape their environments. The Orion Nebula, some 1,350 light-years away from Earth, is known as a stellar nursery. Dense clouds of gas and dust in this region collapse into stellar embryos that gradually grow bigger until the pressure and heat in their cores increases enough to trigger nuclear fusion.
The Hunga Tonga volcanic eruption that shook the South Pacific Ocean in January will not affect Earth's climate despite sending clouds of ash dozens of miles high into the atmosphere, a new study confirmed.
Private Earth observation companies have been sharing satellite images of Ukraine and its bordering countries amid Russia's military invasion, but these efforts are not actually helping resistance fighters on the ground, Ukrainian entrepreneur Max Polyakov said in a call with reporters on Monday (Feb. 28). "Right now, we need to have intelligence," Polyakov said. Specifically, Ukrainian resistance forces need more data and images from synthetic aperture radar satellites, he stressed.
Satellites have captured images of a massive convoy of Russian military vehicles 40 miles long (65 kilometers) nearing the besieged Ukrainian capital Kyiv as the country continued its resistance against Russia on the sixth day of that country's invasion.
See what's up in the night sky for March 2022, including stargazing events and the moon's phases, in this Space.com gallery courtesy of Starry Night Software.
