The commercial Blue Ghost moonbound lander has just over a week left in Earth orbit. What comes next is performing the critical Trans Lunar Injection, a propulsive nudge that gives the craft a “transit ticket” to the Moon for about four days of coast period. That engine burn will last for about 16 seconds, […]

This video makes use of ethereal images recently taken on the International Space Station (ISS). Don Pettit, NASA astronaut, is a talented photographer of Earth. Currently on orbit (his 4th mission to the ISS) he took a series of long-duration photos, revealing tracks of urban night lights as the ISS passed over. The stars show […]

Autonomous access to the Moon by Europe is getting a boost by development of the Argonaut Lunar lander – a cargo delivery project. The European Space Agency (ESA) and Thales Alenia Space in Italy have inked a new contract to have that aerospace firm develop Argonaut to deliver cargo, infrastructure and scientific instruments to the […]

Uncontrolled space debris reentries are of growing concern. The prospect of leftovers from space hotfooting into the Earth’s atmosphere can create a collision risk with aircraft in flight. While the probability of a strike is low, the consequences could be catastrophic. Mishap investigation Recently, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) required SpaceX to perform a mishap […]

The Athena Moon lander is now at Cape Canaveral, Florida, targeted for a four-day launch window that opens no earlier than February 26. Built by Houston, Texas-based Intuitive Machines, the spacecraft is the second of four manifested lunar missions as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Payload customers The factory-equipped Athena is […]

  Be it on Earth’s Moon or distant Mars, the elixir for long-term space exploration is the critical role of water. That topic is captured in a new issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). “The inclination to explore across vast expanses has been a continual part of human history. In […]

Exploration of Earth’s Moon beckons – not solely as a time capsule, indeed a witness plate, to help piece together the puzzling history of our solar system. The Moon is also a rocky, airless world of energy, mineral, and water resources to help fuel a projected cis-lunar economy. Enter Interlune, a Seattle-based group founded in […]

What Are UFOs? – Can science reveal the secrets of mysterious objects seen in our skies? That’s the central theme of a new NOVA program premiering tonight, January 22, at 9 pm on PBS television stations. “For decades UFOs have captivated the public, even as many scientists saw them as too taboo to investigate. Now, […]

The European Space Agency is sparking a new initiative, one that aims at small-scale missions to explore the Red Planet. An element of the ESA LightShip propulsion tug concept is engaging select groups to independently scope out what a small, low-cost Mars satellite platform looks like as a LightShip passenger. ESA’s LightShip is a propulsive […]

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 […]