SpaceX rolled the two stages of its latest Starship rocket to the launch pad over the weekend, then stacked them to prep for a coming test flight.
Space News & Blog Articles
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The Vera Rubin’s Keen Eye On Our Solar System Will Inspire Future Missions
When the interstellar object (ISO) Oumuamua appeared in our Solar System in 2017, it generated a ton of interest. The urge to learn more about it was fierce, but unfortunately, there was no way to really do so. It came and went, and we were left to ponder what it was made of and where it came from. Then, in 2019, the ISO comet Borisov came for a brief visit, and again, we were left to wonder about it.
How NASA's moon landing with Intuitive Machines will help pave the way for Artemis astronaut missions
SpaceX will launch Intuitive Machines' robotic lander toward the moon on Feb. 14. Here's how the mission will help NASA prep for crewed moon missions later in the decade.
Watch China launch Smart Dragon-3 rocket from the sea (video)
China just aced its 10th sea launch, using a specially converted floating barge and a solid rocket called Smart Dragon-3.
Greece signs Artemis Accords for responsible moon exploration
Greece just became the 35th country to sign the Artemis Accords, a U.S.-led framework for peaceful and responsible moon exploration.
See new trailer for NatGeo's 'The Space Race' documentary saluting Black astronauts (video)
A new trailer for National Geographic's celebration of Black astronauts in 'The Space Race.'
Canadian astronaut reveals Indigenous art patch for Artemis 2 moon mission
The first Canadian who will fly to the moon, Jeremy Hansen, now has a patch to represent his own mission, as well as the knowledge passed on by his country's original explorers.
Orbital resonance — the striking gravitational dance done by planets with aligning orbits
I’m an astronomer who studies and writes about cosmology. Researchers have discovered over 5,600 exoplanets in the past 30 years, and their extraordinary diversity continues to surprise astronomers.
What Happened to All Those Boulders Blasted into Space by DART?
It was a $325 million dollar project that was intentionally smashed to smithereens in the interest of one day, saving humanity. The DART mission (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) launched in November 2021 on route to asteroid Dimorphos. Its mission was simple, to smash into Dimorphos to see if it may be possible to redirect it from its path. On impact, it created a trail of debris from micron to meter sized objects. A new paper analyses the debris field to predict where they might end up.
Measuring Distances in the Universe With Fast Radio Bursts
Now and then there is a bright radio flash somewhere in the sky. It can last anywhere from a few milliseconds to a few seconds. They appear somewhat at random, and we still aren’t sure what they are. We call them fast radio bursts (FRBs). Right now the leading theory is that they are caused by highly magnetic neutron stars known as magnetars. With observatories such as CHIME we are now able to see lots of them, which could give astronomers a new way to measure the rate of cosmic expansion.
Solar eclipse on Mars! Perseverance rover sees Martian moon Phobos cross the sun in epic video
The NASA Perseverance rover recently turned its gaze to the sky to spot a solar eclipse. The asteroid-sized Phobos passed in front of the sun on Feb. 8, from the perspective of Mars.
Life on Mars could have thrived near active volcanoes and an ancient mile-deep lake
New evidence that Mars was volcanically active around 4 billion years ago could provide researchers with more places to hunt for signs of ancient life on the Red Planet.
‘Cleanest first flight,’ ULA president reflects on inaugural Vulcan launch and future of program
The inaugural Vulcan rocket, powered by two Blue Origin-built BE-4 engines, lifts off from SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Jan. 8, 2024. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now
United Launch Alliance entered an important new era for the company with the debut of its Vulcan rocket in early January. The flight was one that was highly anticipated by those both inside and outside ULA and, by all metrics, it was a highly successful mission for ULA.
Using Ancient Ultraviolet Light to Probe Theories of Cosmology
By studying the formation and evolution of galaxies in the early universe, researchers seek to test the predictions of our leading theory of cosmology.
CERN Wants to Build an Enormous New Atom Smasher: the Future Circular Collider
One of my favourite science and engineering facts is that an underground river was frozen to enable the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to be built! On its completion, it helped to complete the proverbial jigsaw of the Standard Model with is last piece, the Higgs Boson. But that’s about as far as it has got with no other exciting leaps forward in uniting gravity and quantum physics. Plans are now afoot to build a new collider that will be three times longer than the LHC and it will be capable of smashing particles together with significantly more energy.
Webb Can Directly Test One Theory for Dark Matter
What is it about galaxies and dark matter? Most, if not all galaxies are surrounded by halos of this mysterious, unknown, but ubiquitous material. And, it also played a role in galaxy formation. The nature of that role is something astronomers are still figuring out. Today, they’re searching the infant Universe, looking for the tiniest, brightest galaxies. That’s because they could help tell the tale of dark matter’s role in galactic creation.
“Seeing” the Dark Matter Web That Surrounds the Coma Cluster
According to our predominant cosmological models, Dark Matter makes up the majority of mass in the Universe (roughly 85%). While it is not detectable in visible light, its influence can be seen based on how it causes matter to form large-scale structures in our Universe. Based on ongoing observations, astronomers have determined that Dark Matter structures are filamentary, consisting of long, thin strands. For the first time, using the Subaru Telescope, a team of astronomers directly detected Dark Matter filaments in a massive galaxy cluster, providing new evidence to test theories about the evolution of the Universe.
NASA Launches a New Mission to Study the Effects of Climate Change
NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Climate, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite successfully launched and reached on Thursday, February 10th. The mission took off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, at 1:33 am EST 10:33 pm (PST) atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. About five minutes after launch, NASA confirmed that ground stations on Earth had acquired a signal from the satellite and were receiving data on its operational status and capabilities post-launch. For the next three years, the mission will monitor Earth’s ocean and atmosphere and study the effects of climate change.
Muninn Mission completed: Interview with Marcus Wandt
Video: 00:04:36
ESA project astronaut Marcus Wandt from Sweden is back to Europe less than 24 hours after his return to Earth. Marcus is back to Cologne, Germany, after spending 20 days in space. He underwent initial medical checks aboard the boat before being flown by helicopter to shore and boarding a plane to Europe.
The Event Horizon Telescope Zooms in on a Black Hole's Jet
Although supermassive black holes are common throughout the Universe, we don’t have many direct images of them. The problem is that while they can have a mass of millions or billions of stars, even the nearest supermassive black holes have tiny apparent sizes. The only direct images we have are those of M87* and Sag A*, and it took a virtual telescope the size of Earth to capture them. But we are still in the early days of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), and improvements are being made to the virtual telescope all the time. Which means we are starting to look at more supermassive black holes.
