January 20th, 2025
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The trio of crewmembers onboard China’s Tiangong space station will soon begin spacewalking tasks. According to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), the Shenzhou-19 crew is moving forward on preparations for their second set of extravehicular activities (EVAs). According to the CMSA, the three astronauts — Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze — are […]
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In the beginning…there was a thud. It was an unwanted sound and one that resonated around the world. Think back over 20 years ago to September 8, 2004. That’s when NASA’s Genesis return sample capsule slammed into an isolated part of the U.S. Army’s Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. It was an unintended, full-stop, smashing […]
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is requiring SpaceX to perform a mishap investigation into the loss of the Starship vehicle during launch operations on January 16. “There are no reports of public injury, and the FAA is working with SpaceX and appropriate authorities to confirm reports of public property damage on Turks and Caicos.” During […]
The seventh flight test of the SpaceX Starship took place on Thursday, January 16. Departing from the SpaceX Starbase site in Texas, the Elon Musk “MAGA rocket” mission ended with the destruction of the Starship 7 test vehicle, with debris arcing into the Atlantic near the Turks and Caicos Islands. The Super Heavy booster/Starship did […]
Earth’s Moon has been selected as a site to preserve artifacts from robotic and human exploration, such as the Apollo 11 lunar landing site within the Sea of Tranquility – home of the first off-Earth footprints by humans planted there in 1969. The World Monuments Fund announced today 25 new sites on their 2025 World […]
China’s Shenzhou-19 crew — Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong, and Wang Haoze – have been carrying out an array of space station assignments, including an in-orbit test for a pipe inspection robot. The three-person crew was rocketed to the country’s space station on October 30 for a six-month mission. As reported by China Central Television (CCTV), […]
Want to build glasshouses on the Moon? Consider this idea: a large-scale, monolithic lunar glass habitat in a low-gravity environment. This approach involves on-the-spot melting of lunar glass compounds to fabricate a large spherical shell structure. The concept is considered a “significant departure” from current habitat construction methods. This novel approach is just one of […]
Glad to be on the January 10th episode of This Week In Space podcast: Episode 143 — King Starship – Will 2025 be SpaceX’s Game-Changing Year? This episode comes fully-equipped with details on the upcoming flight of the SpaceX Starship on its 7th test flight…and what next? I join made-in-space colleagues, Rod Pyle and […]
This year, the Sierra Space Dream Chaser spaceplane is to make its way to the International Space Station. A multiple-hour simulation on December 5 matched up both Sierra Space and NASA Johnson Space Center controllers to ring out procedures, even simulating a number of flight controller problems. In addition to thousands of hours of cumulative […]
Research work on building China’s Chang’e-7 lunar exploration mission includes sending a flag that can flutter in the Moon’s thin and tenuous atmosphere. “We know that the Moon is vacuum with no air, so it is difficult to make a flag flutter by wind like on Earth,” said Zhang Tianzhu, deputy head of the institute […]
