Category: Space

The partnership will see Australian experiments conducted aboard Novespace’s Airbus A310 Zero-G alongside the French space agency CNES, on the world’s largest civilian microgravity research platform.

Delivered five weeks ahead of schedule in partnership with aviation services provider Yulista, the aircraft, a converted Boeing 777, will serve as NASA’s most capable airborne research platform to date. It is set to play a central role in supporting global climate and Earth system science.

The Airborne Science and Cosmology Enabling Telescope (ASCENT) program was formally introduced by Space Centre Australia LLC at NASA Wallops Flight Facility, where it will be based. At the heart of the program is a fleet of C-130J Super Hercules aircraft, modified to carry interchangeable telescopes and sensor payloads.

After a journey of more than a week, the Orion spacecraft splashed down safely off the coast of California on Saturday, carrying its four-person crew back from a historic lunar flyby. It was the first time astronauts have travelled beyond low Earth orbit since the Apollo era.