A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will fly for a record-tying 13th time on Thursday morning (July 7), and you can watch the action live.
Space News & Blog Articles
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NASA sounding rockets blasting off to assess Alpha Centauri habitability
Two sounding rockets are launching with experiments to assess the habitability of Alpha Centauri while also teaching us about how normal the sun is.
SpaceX to continue Starlink network deployment with Thursday launch
File photo from April of a Falcon 9 rocket standing on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now
Fifty-three more Starlink internet satellites are fastened to the top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for liftoff Thursday from Cape Canaveral, the first of five Falcon 9 flights scheduled for July.
One Star Flies Past the Milky Way’s Black Hole at 3% the Speed of Light
There’s a population of stars in the heart of our galaxy whipping around Sagittarius A* (the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole). Astronomers just found the closest, fastest one (so far). It’s called S4716 and it orbits Sag A* once every four years. That makes it officially the fastest star moving at the heart of our galaxy. To give you some perspective, the Sun moves around the center of the galaxy at a much more leisurely pace once every 230 million years.
How cold is space? Physics behind the temperature of the universe
Space is filled with a variety of objects, some blisteringly hot, some tremendously cold, but areas with little to nothing at all never drop to absolute zero thanks to a fossil relic left over from its earliest moments.
World’s rockets on pace for record year of launch activity
From left to right: A Chinese Long March 2F rocket launches June 4 with the Shenzhou 14 astronaut mission; A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches Feb. 3 with a batch of Starlink internet satellites on Feb. 3; A Soyuz rocket launches Feb. 10 with a cluster of OneWeb internet satellites. Credit: Xinhua/SpaceX/Arianespace
If it feels like there are more rockets launching into orbit than ever before, it’s not just you. The world’s launch operators, led by SpaceX and China’s state-run enterprises, launched 72 missions into orbit in the first half of 2022, on pace to break last year’s record of 135 orbital deliveries.
Record-breaking Tonga volcano generated the fastest atmospheric waves ever seen
The massive eruption from the underwater Tonga volcano earlier this year generated a blast so powerful, it sent the fastest pressure waves ever observed in our atmosphere rippling around the globe.
It Would Take About 100 Billion Years for Another Star to Pass Close Enough to Make the Solar System Unstable
In 1687, Sir Isaac Newton published his magnum opus, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, which effectively synthesized his theories on motion, velocity, and universal gravitation. In terms of the latter, Newton offered a means for calculating the force of gravity and predicting the orbits of the planets. Since then, astronomers have discovered that the Solar System is merely one small point of light that orbits the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. On occasion, other stars will pass close to the Solar System, which can cause a dramatic shakeup that can kick objects out of their orbits.
SpaceX rolls Starship prototype to launch pad ahead of orbital test flight (photos)
We may not have to wait too much longer for the first-ever orbital test flight of SpaceX's Starship deep-space transportation system.
Fastest known star speeds around Milky Way's black hole at 18 million mph
Astrophysicists are puzzled by the discovery of a star whipping around the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way in close proximity and faster than any star previously found.
Phew! NASA's CAPSTONE moon probe phones home again
NASA's tiny CAPSTONE moon probe is back in touch with its handlers, ending a short but spooky silent period.
A bus-sized asteroid is passing safely by Earth today and you can watch for free
A space rock at least the size of a bus will safely whiz by our planet today, and you can watch the event on a free livestream.
Mars sailplane prototype soars during early-stage tethered flight test in Arizona
An early-stage Martian sailplane soared aloft, tethered to a balloon, as engineers ponder the possibilities to expand Red Planet flight.
Asteroid Bennu sports landslide and massive crater from tiny space rock
When a tiny space rock hit the asteroid Bennu, it caused a landslide across the space rock and a massive crater.
Titan Occults a Bright Star, Mira Awakens, and Comet PanSTARRS Shines
Pick one or see them all. July offers a potpourri of celestial events for both naked-eye observers and telescope users that include a rare occultation by Saturn's moon Titan, a bright comet, and Mira at maximum.
Earth's magnetic field: Explained
Earth's magnetic field originates in the outer core and extends out into the magnetosphere — a region of space that helps protect Earth from space weather.
NASA's tiny CAPSTONE mission continuing to moon as team works communications glitch
Operators lost contact with the moon-bound CAPSTONE satellite yesterday (July 5) after initially completing a set of tasks following its separation from the rocket upper stage.
Celestron StarSense Explorer 8-inch Dobsonian telescope review
This impressive 'push to' light bucket with smartphone app alignment is an easy way to explore both deep-sky and solar system targets.
Autel EVO Nano+ review
The palm-sized Autel EVO Nano+ offers advanced features while keeping its weight below 250g.
City heat extremes
With air temperatures in excess of 10°C above the average for the time of year in parts of Europe, the United States and Asia, June 2022 has gone down as a record breaker. The fear is that these extreme early-season heatwaves are a taste of what could soon be the norm as climate change continues to take hold. For those in cities, the heat dissipates slower creating ‘urban heat islands’, which make everyday life even more of a struggle.
How NASA will launch Mars samples off the Red Planet
The 10-foot-tall (3 meters) Mars Ascent Vehicle will blast rock, sediment and atmospheric samples off Mars in the early 2030s, in the first-ever rocket launch from the surface of another planet.
