May 16th, 2025
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The upcoming test flight of the Starship-Super Heavy Flight 9 is subject to a Federal Aviation Administration go-ahead due to a still open mishap investigation of the Starship’s last flight on March 6. Prior to the end of the ascent burn, an “energetic event” in the aft portion of Starship resulted in the loss of […]
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Protecting Earth from threatening asteroids and comets must be a top priority for NASA. That topic was addressed today in a Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics hearing titled: From Detection to Deflection: Evaluating NASA’s Planetary Defense Strategy. The hearing also evaluated NASA’s progress towards completing the survey of Near Earth Objects (NEOs) greater than 140 […]
Years in the making, NASA in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA) have been intently plotting out plans to send future spacecraft to Mars and bring bits and pieces and a whiff of atmosphere to Earth for rigorous inspection by state-of-the-art equipment. Those collectibles may well hold signs of past life on that […]
Call it an SOSS message – a Save Our Solar System planetary science community communiqué. It is unquestionably a “wait-a-minute” concern running through the space science research groups. Given the considerable uncertainty about the future NASA Science budget given projected Trump Administration funding considerations, the chairs of analysis/assessment groups (AGs), linked to the space […]
Spaceport America is the first purpose-built commercial spaceport in the world – but its executive director has a portfolio of ideas to further grow the launch complex. Scott McLaughlin is an engineer, drawing upon a past of design and business marketing. How best to grow Spaceport America, an inland spot in southern New Mexico desert […]
The news is down and out…Kosmos 482 is back on Earth! In a communiqué from Russia’s Roscosmos: The Kosmos-482 spacecraft deorbited and fell into the ocean. The Kosmos-482 spacecraft, launched in 1972, ceased to exist, deorbiting and falling into the Indian Ocean. The descent of the spacecraft was monitored by the Automated Warning System for […]
For over four years, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has been on the prowl within Jezero Crater. Since its touchdown in February 2021, the car-sized robot has been dutifully gathering rock samples across the exploratory landscape. Some of those sealed specimens may well contain signs of past life on the dusty, foreboding Red Planet. NASA in […]
The fall to Earth of that old Soviet Kosmos 482 hardware is now forecast for a predicted reentry time of May 10 at 05:54 UTC ± 9 hours. That’s the word from The Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies (CORDS). This incoming hardware is the lander module from a 1972 failed Soviet […]
NASA has been investigating how to get the VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Explorer Rover) to the Moon after the project was canceled in July 2024. Following an evaluation of partnership proposals to land the water-seeking robot on the lunar surface, NASA announced Wednesday that it is now opting to explore “alternative approaches” to plop that […]
The visionary Interlune company, based in Seattle, Washington, announced today that the U.S. Department of Energy Isotope Program (DOE IP) has agreed to purchase three liters of helium-3 harvested from the Moon for delivery on Earth at approximately today’s commercial market price. The delivery date is no later than April 2029. The agreement marks the […]
