September 9th, 2024
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The European Space Agency’s Salsa spacecraft took the plunge into Earth’s atmosphere on September 8. That fiery finale yielded the first recorded observation of a satellite reentry from a high-speed orbit, taken from a plane in bright daylight. Bright dot A newly issued photo captures the craft burning up further out and to the left […]
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In a wait-a-minute moment, U.S. lawmakers are probing NASA leadership regarding the space agency’s cancellation of the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) project. On July 17, 2024, NASA announced its decision to cancel the VIPER lunar craft. In a September 6 letter to NASA chief, Bill Nelson, science committee leaders have requested the space […]
China continues to blueprint its future exploration plans for the Red Planet – hauling back samples from Mars. According to several reports from state-run sources, China is marching ahead on lofting a Mars land, grab, snag, save sample-return mission around 2028. China’s Tianwen-3 mission is on the books with two launches to Mars, aiming […]
A study has used advanced genetic technologies to examine changes in the gut microbiome, colons and livers of mice aboard the International Space Station over three months. This research suggests that human spaceflight might suppress the immune system and alter metabolism. According to study research team, the work marks a breakthrough in understanding how space […]
BOULDER, Colorado – The United Arab Emirates Space Agency is moving forward on a one-after-another main-belt asteroid undertaking. Consider this: high speed flybys of six asteroids, completing the spectacular sojourn with a rendezvous and orbiting of a seventh mini-world – and then deploy a small lander at that final space rock destination. Emirates […]
There continues to be guesswork regarding resources available on the moon. Clearly, a leading hot topic is whether or not super-chilly water ice at the lunar south pole is truly ripe for the picking and processing into oxygen, hydrogen and other essentials needed for life support, even rocket fuel. Indeed, exploitable water ice is on […]
The belief that aliens are making a bee-line to Earth is a prevalent societal problem. That assertion is espoused by Anthony Milligan, a research fellow in theology and religious studies at King’s College London. He argues that believing extraterrestrials are trekking to our world is no longer a quirk, but a widespread societal problem. In […]
Old hardware discarded in Earth orbit is haunting our future hopes for space sustainability. That’s the word from space debris guru, Darren McKnight, senior technical fellow at LeoLabs, an organization that persistently monitors activity in space to reveal threats to safety and security. In a September 1 communiqué on near hits of space hardware, […]
The flight of the Inspiration4 crew back in 2021 marked a milestone as the first privately chartered spaceflight by civilian astronauts. Inspiration4 crew members flew aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule Resilience that was lofted on September 16, 2021 and landed on September 18, 2021. That four-person crew collected a wealth of biological measurements yielding […]
The impact on the human body from lengthy stints of space travel has put researchers in a spin for decades. Remaining largely unknown are the effects of deep space radiation and reduced gravity on biological systems. It’s high-time for “SpinSat” – an innovative platform to rev up some answers and fill in knowledge gaps. […]
