File photo of Starlink V2 Mini satellites being prepared for launch in a payload processing facility at Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX is preparing to launch its biggest batch of second generation Starlink satellites to date on Saturday. The company loaded 24 Starlink V2 Minis onto its Falcon 9 rocket, which is preparing for flight at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
SpaceX plans to launch 24 of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida today (Feb. 24), on the company's 18th mission of 2024 already.
Life on our planet appeared early in Earth’s history. Surprisingly early, since in its early youth our planet didn’t have much of the chemical ingredients necessary for life to evolve. Since prebiotic chemicals such as sugars and amino acids are known to appear in asteroids and comets, one idea is that Earth was seeded with the building blocks of life by early cometary and asteroid impacts. While this likely played a role, a new study shows that cosmic dust also seeded young Earth, and it may have made all the difference.
NASA is seeking applicants for its year-long CHAPEA 2 mock Mars mission, which is expected to kick off in spring 2025. Applications are open to the public through April 2, 2024.
India's next Mars mission may include a helicopter that follows in the footsteps of NASA's pioneering Ingenuity drone.
On Episode 99 of This Week In Space, Tariq and Rod discuss the top headlines for 2024.
The full moon will appear a bit smaller in the sky tonight as the smallest full moon of 2024 rises with February's Full Snow Moon.
Moon landings will continue to speckle humanity's future, and scientists are urging discussions of lunar ethics and policy.
The bad news is that Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander is tipped on its side after getting tripped up during its touchdown near the south pole of the moon. The good news? The plucky robotic spacecraft is nevertheless able to send back data.
I can remember seeing images of SN1987A as it developed back in 1987. It was the explosion of a star, a supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Over the decades that followed, it was closely monitored in particular the expanding debris cloud. Predictions suggested there may be a neutron star or even a black hole at the core but the resolution of the telescopes was insufficient to pick anything up. Now we have the James Webb Space Telescope and using its more powerful technology, signs of a neutron star have been detected.
On Wednesday, February 21st, at 01:40 p.m. PST (04:40 p.m. EST), an interesting package returned to Earth from space. This was the capsule from the W-1 mission, an orbital platform manufactured by California-based Varda Space Industries, which landed at the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR). Even more interesting was the payload, which consisted of antiviral drugs grown in the microgravity environment of Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The mission is part of the company’s goal to develop the infrastructure to make LEO more accessible to commercial industries.
Intuitive Machines' Odysseus moon lander apparently settled on its side during its historic Feb. 22 touchdown, but the spacecraft remains operational on the lunar surface.
The Sun is heading toward solar maximum (which is likely to be about a year away) and as it does, there will be more sunspots, solar flares and coronal mass ejections. Over the last 24 hours there has been three, yes three X-class flares, the first peaking at X1.9, the second 1.7 and the final one a mighty 6.3. Flares of this magnitude caused radio blackouts, disruption to mobile phones and radio transmissions.
As stars in the Milky Way move through space, some of them have an unexpected effect on the Solar System. Over time, one comes closer to the Sun during its orbit in the galaxy. Some of them actually get within a light-year of our star and pass through the Oort Cloud. Such close flybys can affect the orbits of the outer planets and send cometary nuclei on a long inward rush to the Sun.
Spaceflight simulation Kerbal Space Program (KSP) paired up with United Launch Alliance to challenge the internet to recreate the new Vulcan Centaur rocket in the game, and the results are in!
Blue Origin's first New Glenn rocket has gone vertical at its Florida launch pad ahead of a planned debut liftoff later this year.
Two will be named after sea gods and nymphs and the other will be named for a Shakespearean character.
Sorry, space fans: We won't be getting ground-level views of the first American moon landing since the Apollo era.
Researchers have measured the gravitational pull exhibited by the smallest mass yet, a breakthrough that could lead to a quantum theory of gravity at last.
Can we secure our place in the Solar System? Not in any absolute sense because nature can be very unpredictable. But we can make the effort to safeguard our civilization by cataloguing potentially dangerous asteroids. An upcoming space telescope will help.
Intuitive Machines became the first private company to land a spacecraft on the moon on Feb. 22. The lander appears to be alive and well, the company has confirmed.
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