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Smile is the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer, a brand-new space mission currently in the making. It will study space weather and the interaction between the solar wind and Earth’s environment.
Space News & Blog Articles
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Getting Proba-3 fit for flight
Image: Getting Proba-3 fit for flight
NASA dealing with aging ISS and spacewalk hardware: 'None of our spacesuits are spring chickens'
Crew-8 commander Matthew Dominick says NASA is carefully making decisions for astronaut safety while the ISS deals with a leak, and spacesuit issues, related to aging hardware.
Expanding satellite broadband access to underserved areas across Europe
ESA is taking a significant step towards creating a more digitally inclusive Europe through a new partnership that will bring internet access to the hardest-to-reach areas. Reliable connectivity has become essential in today's digital age, yet for many Europeans in rural villages, mountainous regions, and small islands, dependable internet access remains out of reach.
Extreme heat weakens land’s power to absorb carbon
A new European Space Agency-backed study shows that the extreme heatwaves of 2023, which fuelled huge wildfires and severe droughts, also undermined the land’s capacity to soak up atmospheric carbon. This diminished carbon uptake drove atmospheric carbon dioxide levels to new highs, intensifying concerns about accelerating climate change.
Trump appoints SpaceX's Elon Musk to help head regulation-slashing 'Department of Government Efficiency'
President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency, which aims to 'dismantle government bureaucracy.'
Live coverage: SpaceX to launch 20 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from California
File: A stack of SpaceX Starlink satellites, which included the first six featuring Direct to Cell capabilities. The batch launched on the Starlink 7-9 mission, which lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Jan. 2, 2024. Image: SpaceX
SpaceX is set to launch a Falcon 9 rocket with another 20 Starlink satellites from California Wednesday night.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab laying off 5% of its workforce
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA's chief center for planetary exploration, is conducting its second round of layoffs in 2024, reducing its workforce by another 5%.
An Otherworldly Cloud Over New Zealand
Filmmakers love New Zealand. Its landscapes evoke other worlds, which explains why so much of The Lord of the Rings was filmed there. The country has everything from long, subtropical sandy beaches to active volcanoes.
Early Black Holes Fed 40x Faster than Should Be Possible
The theory goes that black holes accrete material, often from nearby stars. However the theory also suggests there is a limit to how big a black hole can grow due to accretion and certainly shouldn’t be as large as they are seen to be in the early Universe. Black holes it seems, are fighting back and don’t care about those limits! A recent study shows that supermassive black holes are growing at rates that defy the limits of current theory. Astronomers just need to figure out how they’re doing it!
'I weigh the same': NASA astronaut Suni Williams refutes tabloid health claims (video)
NASA astronaut Suni Williams says her weight is stable aboard the International Space Station, rebutting tabloid claims that her orbital stay has made her emaciated.
A Spider Stellar Engine Could Move Binary Stars Halfway Across a Galaxy
Eventually, every stellar civilization will have to migrate to a different star. The habitable zone around all stars changes as they age. If long-lived technological civilizations are even plausible in our Universe, migration will be necessary, eventually.
China's Mars rover Zhurong finds possible shoreline of ancient Red Planet ocean
Data from China's Zhurong rover has revealed what appears to be an ancient shoreline streaking through Mars' northern hemisphere.
Long ago, Voyager 2 might have caught Uranus at a bad time
A new analysis of Voyager 2 data reveals a fresh theory about Uranus's unique magnetosphere.
SabersPro Vader lightsaber review: "An elegant replica that doesn't come cheap"
Is this ode to the Dark Lord of the Sith most impressive or does it choke on its own aspirations?
'Crumb trails' of meteoroids could reveal potential 'planet-killer' comets years before they reach Earth
Potentially deadly comets could be spotted many years in advance by following the meteoroid trails they leave near Earth, new research shows.
Marvel superheroes explore strange timelines in new trailer for 'What If…?' Season 3 (video)
A new trailer for Marvel Animation's animated anthology "What If…?" Season 3 has landed
Open Gateway: Step into mock lunar orbit habitat at Space Center Houston
The public can now step into the future of lunar exploration at Space Center Houston by entering an early mockup for Northrop Grumman's Gateway astronaut accommodations around the moon.
Disney+ announces official 'Andor' Season 2 premiere date and teases TIE fighter heist
Disney+ announced an official premiere date for "Andor" Season 2, which will return to the streaming service on April 22, 2025.
James Webb Space Telescope finds galaxies pointing toward a dark matter alternative
A new study suggests galaxies in the early universe appear much larger and brighter than expected, precisely as predicted by modified Newtonian dynamics, or MOND.
Scaling Propellant Production on Mars is Hard
Putting humans on Mars has been one of NASA’s driving missions for years, but they are still in the early stages of deciding what exactly that mission architecture will look like. One major factor is where to get the propellant to send the astronauts back to Earth. Advocates of space exploration often suggest harvesting the necessary propellant from Mars itself – some materials can be used to create liquid oxygen and methane, two commonly used propellants. To support this effort, a group from NASA’s COMPASS team detailed several scenarios of the infrastructure and technologies it would take to make an in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) system that could provide enough propellant to get astronauts back to a Mars orbit where they could meet up with an Earth return vehicle. However, there are significant challenges to implementing such a system, and they must be addressed before the 8-9-year process of getting the system up and running can begin.
