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For the first time ever, May the 4th coincides with Free Comic Book Day. So in perfect synchronicity, Marvel is offering up "Free Comic Book Day 2024: Star Wars #1."
On Episode 109 of This Week In Space, Rod and Tariq talk with Chris Carberry, CEO of Explore Mars, about the long history of music influencing how we think about spaceflight.
Astronauts will board a Boeing Starliner spacecraft for the 1st ISS test flight no earlier than May 6. Boeing says it's already working on first operational mission Starliner-1 for 2025.
Boeing is ready to launch its first-ever Starliner astronaut mission for NASA on May 6. Here's what to know on when it will launch.
When Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams lift off for the ISS on May 6, they will become the first astronauts to fly on Boeing's CST-100 Starliner. But that's not their only new ride.
NASA has given the go-ahead for SpaceX to work out a plan to adapt its Starlink broadband internet satellites for use in a Martian communication network.
The idea is one of a dozen proposals that have won NASA funding for concept studies that could end up supporting the space agency’s strategy for bringing samples from Mars back to Earth for lab analysis. The proposals were submitted by nine companies — also including Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, United Launch Alliance, Astrobotic, Firefly Aerospace, Impulse Space, Albedo Space and Redwire Space.
Awardees will be paid $200,000 to $300,000 for their reports, which are due in August. NASA says the studies could lead to future requests for proposals, but it’s not yet making any commitment to follow up.
“We’re in an exciting new era of space exploration, with rapid growth of commercial interest and capabilities,” Eric Ianson, director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, said in a news release. “Now is the right time for NASA to begin looking at how public-private partnerships could support science at Mars in the coming decades.”
For years, SpaceX executives have been talking about using Starlink satellites in Martian orbit as part of billionaire founder Elon Musk’s vision of making humanity a multiplanetary species. In 2020, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told Time magazine that connectivity will be an essential part of the company’s Mars settlement plan.
In this week’s edition of News from the Press Site, Spaceflight Now’s Will Robinson-Smith is joined by Rachel Jewett, Senior Managing Editor for Via Satellite, and Joey Roulette, U.S. Business of Space Correspondent for Reuters.
The panel discusses the pending launch of Boeing’s first crewed Starliner mission to the International Space Station, NASA’s Office of Inspector General Report on the Artemis 2 mission, the launch of China’s Chang’e 6 mission to the far side of the Moon and more.
Rachel Jewett, Via Satellite:
L3Harris to Supply Payloads for Millennium Space Systems FOO Fighter Satellites https://www.satellitetoday.com/government-military/2024/05/03/l3harris-to-supply-payloads-for-millennium-space-systems-foo-fighter-satellites/ Lockheed Martin Withdraws its Bid to Acquire Terran Orbital https://www.satellitetoday.com/finance/2024/05/03/lockheed-martin-withdraws-its-bid-to-acquire-terran-orbital/ SES Explains the Strategy Behind its Long-Anticipated Acquisition of Intelsat https://www.satellitetoday.com/finance/2024/04/30/ses-explains-the-strategy-behind-its-long-anticipated-acquisition-of-intelsat/Joey Roulette, Reuters:
Boeing sending first astronaut crew to space after years of delay https://www.reuters.com/science/boeing-sending-first-astronaut-crew-space-after-years-delay-2024-05-03/ US, Russia set for a showdown at UN over nuclear weapons in space https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/us-russia-set-showdown-un-over-nuclear-weapons-space-2024-04-23/ Exclusive: Northrop Grumman working with Musk’s SpaceX on U.S. spy satellite system https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/northrop-grumman-working-with-musks-spacex-us-spy-satellite-system-2024-04-18/
Virgin Galactic is targeting June 8 for its seventh commercial spaceflight, a suborbital jaunt called, fittingly enough, Galactic 07.
The JWST is astronomers’ best tool for probing exoplanet atmospheres. Its capable instruments can dissect the light passing through a distant world’s atmosphere and determine its chemical components. Scientists are interested in everything the JWST finds, but when it finds something indicating the possibility of life it seizes everyone’s attention.
That’s what happened in September 2023, when the JWST found dimethyl sulphide (DMS) in the atmosphere of the exoplanet K2-18b.
K2-18b orbits a red dwarf star about 124 light-years away. It’s a sub-Neptune with about 2.5 times Earth’s radius and 8.6 Earth masses. The exoplanet may be a Hycean world, a temperate ocean-covered world with a large hydrogen atmosphere.
In October 2023, researchers announced the tentative detection of dimethyl sulphide in K2-18b’s atmosphere. They found it in JWST observations of the planet’s atmospheric spectrum. “The spectrum also suggests potential signs of dimethyl sulphide (DMS), which has been predicted to be an observable biomarker in Hycean worlds, motivating considerations of possible biological activity on the planet,” the researchers wrote.
The DMS caught people’s attention because it’s produced by living organisms here on Earth, mostly by marine microbes. So, finding it on an ocean world is cause for a deeper look. A team of researchers from the USA, Germany, and the UK examined the detection to see how it fits with atmospheric models.
Scientists think they've uncovered a cosmic "glitch" in gravity that could require a revision in Einstein's theory of general relativity.
Two NASA astronauts, their spacecraft and rocket have been cleared for a historic 1st flight aboard Boeing's Starliner. Launch will take place no earlier than May 6.
The presence of manganese oxide on Mars has positive implications in the search for life beyond Earth.
The 1351-piece Lego Millennium Falcon is now 20% off on Amazon and it can be delivered on Star Wars Day, so you can celebrate in style.
The annual Humans to Mars Summit takes place next week, with talks focusing on establishing a sustainable and permanent human presence on the Red Planet by the mid-2030s.
Despite excitement last year, the James Webb Space Telescope probably hasn't detected life on a distant super-Earth exoplanet with life signs detected on potential ocean world K2-18 b likely premature.
The Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks on May 5, and this year looks favorable for a good light show put on by bits of Halley's Comet as they burn up in Earth's atmosphere.
First light for the Vera Rubin Observatory (VRO) is quickly approaching and the telescope is reaching milestone after milestone. A few weeks ago, the observatory announced that its digital camera, the largest one ever made, is complete.
Now the observatory has announced that its unique primary/tertiary mirror has its first reflective coating.
The Rubin’s massive digital camera has an important job and garners a lot of attention. But it’s powerless without the telescope’s innovative primary/tertiary mirror. Primary mirrors are always the most critical and time-consuming part of modern observatories. The VRO’s primary/tertiary mirror took seven years to make.
The mirror is called a primary/tertiary mirror because it comprises two optical surfaces with different curvatures. The primary mirror is 8.4 meters, while the tertiary mirror is 5 meters in diameter. The pair of surfaces are combined into one large structure. The unique design reduces the telescope’s engineering complexity without reducing its impressive light-gathering capability. It can be rotated quickly and also settles quickly.
The VRO’s unique primary/tertiary mirror is two mirrors in one. It’s mounted on lightweight honeycomb material for strength. Image Credit: VROThe outer surface forms the primary mirror. It captures light from space first, then that light reflects upwards to the 3.4-meter secondary mirror. After that, it’s reflected back down to the inner 5.0-meter surface that forms the tertiary mirror. Then, the light is sent to the camera.
