The International Space Station is a problem child. The orbital outpost is plagued by cracks, coolant and air leaks, even a surprising smell that recently wafting into the station from a just-arrived Russian Progress cargo ship. Toss into the mix a number of high-speed, close encounters with space clutter from time to time that […]

China on Saturday scored a successful maiden launch of its Long March-12. Also, the booster lifted off from the Hainan commercial spacecraft launch site in the southern island province of Hainan. It marked the inaugural mission from the country’s first commercial launch facility. The Long March-12 departed the site’s No. 2 launch pad, hurling two […]

First the book…then the movie! Just coming off that post-Thanksgiving spin? Think about off-Earth alcohol consumption in space. Yes, even in space you can hear the sound of a swizzle stick! On October 11th, the Alcohol in Space movie had its premiere at the Explorers Club in New York City to a standing-room-only audience. Based […]

In his last public performance, Maestro Seiji Ozawa conducts Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, as broadcast directly to the International Space Station (ISS). Maestro Ozawa passed away Feb 6, 2024.  In this emotional production, Ozawa conducts the Saito Kinen Orchestra which he co-founded in 1984 as an annual gathering of musicians from around the world. This performance […]

Returning Mars samples is on China’s agenda, returning them to Earth around 2031. According to a newly published research paper, the Tianwen-3 spacecraft involves two launches around 2028, retrieving Red Planet specimens for lab looks here on Earth around 2031. According to the paper appearing in the National Science Review journal – “The search for […]

  How to build houses on the Moon? China specialists are tackling three core challenges: materials, structure, and technology.  Now in test and validation stages, building a lunar research base by applying 3D printing robot to print houses directly using lunar soil is underway.  According to China Central Television (CCTV), a Chinese team on lunar […]

A Moon-bound lunar lander is being shipped to Cape Canaveral, Florida next month under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Firefly Aerospace of Cedar Park, Texas announced it has wrapped up the Blue Ghost’s rigid environmental testing for a projected launch in January of next year. “While we know there will be more challenges […]

Put yourself in forget me not and space time travel retro-mode: it is now four decades ago that astronaut Owen Garriott, callsign W5LFL, pioneered amateur radio communication from space. He was a crewmember on the space shuttle program’s STS-9 mission. During that shuttle flight in 1983, Garriott conducted the first-ever person from space to communicate with […]

  Boeing has issued a video detailing the company’s secretive spaceplane, the X-37B. “Boeing-built X-37B Innovates and Breaks New Records” is the name of the video.         “The Boeing-built X37B will perform ground-breaking aerobraking maneuvers to take the dynamic spaceplane from one Earth orbit to another while conserving fuel. Partnered with the […]

Blue Origin has completed its 28th New Shepard suborbital mission and its ninth human spaceflight. The November 22 NS-28 flight means that the company has now flown 47 people to space (three people have flown twice).  The NS-28 Crew (left to right): Sharon Hagle, Marc Hagle, Emily Calandrelli, J.D. Russell, Hank Wolfond, and Austin Litteral. […]