Space tourism has unlocked a new brand of luxury travel, one which promises expensive meals and designer flight suits with views of Earth’s curvature as a backdrop. A Florida-based startup is offering six passengers the chance to ride on board its balloon-propelled capsule while chowing down on what it claims to be the first Michelin-starred … Read more
After eight years of experimenting with flames in space, NASA lit a fire inside a cargo spacecraft for the last time and sent its Saffire experiment toward a burning reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. Former NASA Astronaut Leland Melvin on the “Overview Effect” NASA’s Spacecraft Fire Safety Experiments, also known as Saffire, came to a fitting … Read more
The saga of Peregrine is coming to a tragic end, with the lunar lander scheduled for reentry through Earth’s atmosphere after failing to touch down on the Moon. China’s Plan to Land Astronauts on the Moon After 10 days of journeying through space, Astrobotic has positioned its lunar lander on a trajectory towards Earth to … Read more
China’s Shenlong robotic spaceplane, on its third mission, has added a new layer of intrigue to its space activities by deploying six unidentified objects into Earth’s orbit. Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their View Shenlong, meaning “Divine Dragon,” embarked on its third mission on December 14, successfully deploying six objects into … Read more
Space is hard, as the cliché reminds us, and that was plenty clear this week, as several groups ran into trouble: NASA with its aging Voyager 1 spacecraft, AstroForge with a struggling debut mission to prove asteroid mining can work, and a few missing-in-action satellites from a recent SpaceX launch. Back on Earth, doctors issued … Read more
In mid-July, viewers hoping to catch a glimpse of a SpaceX rocket launch were stunned to see it followed by a bright aurora-like phenomenon over Arizona. The rocket had formed a hole in the upper atmosphere, evinced by a red glow captured by photographers on the ground. “Even AI Rappers are Harassed by Police” | … Read more
After landing back to Earth from Virgin Galactic’s latest suborbital flight, planetary scientist Alan Stern and science communicator Kellie Gerardi received a ton of text messages from other researchers asking, “How do I get to do that?” The M3 MacBook Pro: Made Dark for Halloween The pair were part of the Galactic 05 mission, which … Read more
Dream Chaser, built by Sierra Space, is being prepped for transport to a NASA facility in Ohio, where it will undergo a series of tests to make sure the spaceplane can survive its heated reentry through Earth’s atmosphere. Starting these tests is crucial, demonstrating Dream Chaser’s readiness for flights and potentially transforming commercial space travel. … Read more
A new way to view the Sun A new way to view the Sun Scientists adapted a camera on the Solar Orbiter probe to investigate seldom-seen areas of the Sun’s atmosphere. By modifying the Solar Orbiter’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) with a clever hack, they managed to block the overpowering light from the Sun, highlighting … Read more