China’s National Space Administration (CNSA) has been hoping to reestablish communications with the Zhurong Mars rover, but so far, their efforts have been unsuccessful. Zhurong was put into hibernation over six months ago as it hunkered down in attempts to survive the Martian winter.
Space News & Blog Articles
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Watch SpaceX launch 51 Starlink satellites Monday night
SpaceX plans to launch another big batch of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit on Monday night (Jan. 9), and you can watch the action live.
Astronomy photographer of the year competition opens for submissions
The institution's annual photography competition seeks to find "the most striking images of our cosmos."
This Serpent’s Tail is Made of Starry Nebulae
The ancients didn’t have the scientific understanding of nature that we have now. All they could do was look up at the night sky and wonder, which isn’t a bad way to spend time. Part of understanding something is naming it, and when the ancients looked up at the patterns in the stars, they gave them simple names based entirely on their appearances. That’s likely how the Greeks named the constellation Serpens: it looks like a snake, so they called it that.
Weather favorable for SpaceX’s late-night launch for OneWeb
File photo of two OneWeb satellites at the company’s factory in Merritt Island, Florida. Credit: Airbus OneWeb Satellites
SpaceX is set to deliver 40 more internet satellites into orbit for OneWeb with a late-night blastoff Monday from Cape Canaveral aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, followed by landing of the first stage booster back at the Florida spaceport less than 10 minutes later.
James Webb Space Telescope spies massive shockwave and baby dwarf galaxy in Stephan's Quintet
A tremendous shockwave several times the size of the Milky Way, launched by a "galactic intruder" forcing its way into the collection of galaxies has kickstarted several mysterious processes.
A dead NASA satellite from the 1980s just fell to Earth to meet its fiery demise
A vintage NASA satellite launched in the 1980s and long-since turned to space junk met a fiery fate late Sunday as it fell back to Earth, NASA says.
Half-Life games ranked, worst to best
Rise and shine, dear readers. Rise and shine with our up-to-date list of all the Half-Life games ranked, including the HL1 expansion packs and its remake.
China's 1st Mars rover and Tianwen 1 orbiter may have gone silent: report
China's space agency appears to have lost contact with the Tianwen 1 orbiter and Zhurong rover from the nation's 1st Mars mission.
2 tiny space weather satellites deployed from space station
Two small satellites released from the space station will study how solar radiation affects communication signals and technology on Earth.
Best space games on Xbox Game Pass
Here’s our list with the top 10 space games you can play right now on Xbox Game Pass.
Astronauts Memorial Foundation notes NASA's return to the moon with new collectible
The Astronauts Memorial Foundation has taken note of NASA's recent return to the moon with a new collectible note highlighting the Artemis 1 mission.
Sentinel-1 and AI uncover glacier crevasses
Scientists have developed a new Artificial Intelligence, or AI, technique using radar images from Europe’s Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite mission, to reveal how the Thwaites Glacier Ice Tongue in West Antarctica is being damaged by squeezing and stretching as it flows from the middle of the continent to the coast. Being able to track fractures and crevasses in the ice beneath the overlying snow is key to better predicting the fate of floating ice tongues under climate change.
All systems go for Virgin Orbit's first UK launch, a historic 1st for Europe
A giant leap for the U.K. space sector is set to take place tonight as Virgin Orbit readies for its first-ever launch from Britain, and from Europe.
'One of the greatest damn mysteries of physics': We studied distant suns in the most precise astronomical test of electromagnetism yet
There's an awkward, irksome problem with our understanding of nature's laws that physicists have been trying to explain for decades.
Solar and Lunar Eclipses in 2023
Although no total lunar eclipses occur this year, skywatchers can look forward to two “central” solar eclipses — including an annular event in October whose path runs from Oregon through Texas.
See a naked-eye comet at its closest to the sun on Thursday (Jan. 12)
Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), which could be visible with the naked eye, will pass the sun on Thursday (Jan. 12) before approaching the Earth for the first time since the last ice age.
Watch SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule leave space station on Jan. 9
A robotic SpaceX cargo craft is scheduled to depart the International Space Station Monday afternoon (Jan. 9), and you can watch the action live.
Comet E3 ZTF Brightens as the First Good Comet of 2023
The first good comet of the year, Comet E3 ZTF is a fine object for northern hemisphere observers in January.
Is Space Power a Good Idea? A new Spacecraft is Going to Find Out!
Solar power, long considered the leading contender among renewable energy sources, has advanced significantly over the past few decades. The cost of manufacturing and installing solar panels has dropped considerably, and efficiency has increased, making it price competitive with coal, oil, and fossil fuels. However, some barriers, like distribution and storage, still prevent solar power from being adopted more aggressively. In addition, there’s the ever-present issue of intermittency, where arrays cannot collect power in bad weather and during evenings.
Are Chemical Rockets or Solar Sails Better to Return Resources from Asteroids?
If and when we ever get an asteroid mining industry off the ground, one of the most important decisions to be made in the structure of any asteroid mining mission would be how to get the resources back to where all of our other infrastructure is – somewhere around the Earth. That decision typically will focus on one of two propulsion methodologies – chemical rockets, such as those we already use to get us into space in the first place, or solar sails, which, while slower and unable to get us into orbit, don’t require any fuel. So, which propulsion methodology is better for these future missions? A study by researchers at the University of Glasgow looked at those two scenarios and came out with a clear-cut answer – solar sails.
