October 18th, 2024
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There’s been a research boost to locate life that may have found a comfy niche on the Red Planet. The potential for photosynthesis on Mars within snow and ice is the subject of a just-released paper appearing in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment. As for implications for life on Mars, the analysis indicates […]
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Air balloon, space tourist and “uppity up” business mogul, Sir Richard Branson, is co-piloting the first crewed test flight of Space Perspective’s sojourn into near-space. “I’m passionate about adventure and helping fellow entrepreneurs reach their business dreams. I look forward to dusting off my old ballooning license ahead of some magnificent test flights,” said Branson […]
The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO), a federal watchdog organization, has issued another look at the NASA Artemis, back to the Moon, program. This GAO report – “Exploration Ground Systems Program Could Strengthen Schedule Decisions” – found that the program has made progress, but the Artemis schedule poses challenges. Schedule driver The Exploration Ground […]
What happens when you blend Earth + music + movies created by astronauts? The outcome is EarthMusicTheater.org, “for the good of Earth…and joy of music.” There’s a featured movie every Friday, explains Dan Barstow, Education Mission Specialist for the Association of Space Explorers (ASE). He is managing their archive of stunning photos and movies of […]
China has rolled out a roadmap of space research goals for the period 2024 to 2050. The agenda is reportedly the first of its kind at a national level and was unveiled Tuesday by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the China Manned Space Agency. Details were revealed […]
Starship’s fifth flight test launched on Sunday, October 13. The fifth flight test of Starship took another step towards full and rapid reusability. The primary objectives of the test flight were met: the first ever return to launch site and catch of the Super Heavy booster; another Starship reentry and landing burn, and an on-target, […]
The Elon Musk/SpaceX Starship’s fifth flight test from Texas could launch as soon as October 13, pending regulatory, FAA approval. That approval has just been issued: “The FAA has issued a license modification authorizing SpaceX to launch multiple missions of the Starship/Super Heavy vehicle on the Flight 5 mission profile.” According to the FAA in […]
China’s first “reusable, returnable” test satellite returned to Earth, landing in the Dongfeng landing site in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The capsule of the Shijian-19 mission came to full stop on October 11. The craft was launched on September 27 by a Long March-2D rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest […]
The Air Force has announced that the classified X-37B robo-plane is soon to start a series of “novel maneuvers” prior to reentry to a designated landing site – likely Kennedy Space Center. This U.S. space plane was launched to a highly elliptical high Earth orbit aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket back on December 28, 2023. […]
NASA is faced with safely deorbiting, in one fell swoop, over 400 tons of space hardware in a few years – and ocean specialists are not keen on the move. Sustaining operations of the International Space Station through 2030 is touch-and-go, prior to its now planned slam-dunk reentry in early 2031 into isolated ocean […]
