NASA"s monstrous moon rocket is an overpriced, political beast
As Russian military forces bombarded Ukraine, a congressional committee huddled to discuss progress on Artemis, the ambitious U.S. effort to put astronauts on the moon and Mars. They didn't discuss the raging war, but global tensions of the hour were.....»»
Earth will have a temporary "mini moon" for two months
Earth's moon will soon have some company—a "mini moon.".....»»
SpaceX launches rescue mission to return stranded astronauts
A SpaceX rocket soared into the sky Saturday with two passengers on board, leaving two seats empty to return American astronauts who have been stranded for months on the International Space Station, NASA said......»»
SpaceX set to launch mission to bring Starliner astronauts back to Earth
SpaceX is bringing back propulsive landings with its Dragon capsule, but only in emergencies. Enlarge / SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft is ready for launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Spa.....»»
Europe en route for moon with new simulator, says astronaut Pesquet
Europe has embarked on the mission to put humans back on the moon with a new lunar simulator launched in Germany, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet told AFP......»»
Black hole jet appears to boost rate of nova explosions
There's a 2.5x boost in nova frequency, and all reasonable explanations fail. Enlarge / One of the jets emitted by galaxy M87's central black hole. (credit: NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)) The intense ele.....»»
Green and digital transitions are putting environmental problems on the back burner, says study
The European Green Deal is a package of political initiatives to ensure that the EU reaches climate neutrality by 2050. Faced with this challenge, the parallel goals of the green and digital transitions are at the center of the European Commission's.....»»
NASA confirms space station cracking a “highest” risk and consequence problem
NASA and Roscosmos have not agreed on the point at which the leak rate is untenable. Enlarge / A high-resolution commercial Earth-imaging satellite owned by Maxar captured this view of the International Space Station on June 7 wi.....»»
Study suggests moon may have been captured from space rather than formed from collision particles
Over six missions to the moon, from 1969 to 1972, Apollo astronauts collected more than 800 pounds of lunar rock and soil. Chemical and isotopic analysis of that material showed that it was similar to the rock and soil on Earth: calcium-rich, basalti.....»»
Rocket Report: SpaceX salvages Starship wreckage; pessimism for Virgin Galactic
The penultimate flight of Japan's workhorse H-IIA rocket deploys a spy satellite. Enlarge / A salvage ship raises a portion of SpaceX's Super Heavy booster from the Gulf of Mexico. This booster was used on the most recent Starshi.....»»
Hubble finds that a black hole beam promotes stellar eruptions
In a surprise finding, astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the blowtorch-like jet from a supermassive black hole at the core of a huge galaxy seems to cause stars to erupt along its trajectory. The stars, called.....»»
NASA"s Artemis science instrument gets tested in moon-like sandbox
On Sept. 9 and 10, scientists and engineers tested NASA's LEMS (Lunar Environment Monitoring Station) instrument suite in a "sandbox" of simulated moon regolith at the Florida Space Institute's Exolith Lab at the University of Central Florida in Orla.....»»
Completed experiments on International Space Station to help answer how boiling and condensation work in space
After a decade of preparation and two years of active experiments in space, a facility that Purdue University and NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland designed, built and tested has completed its test campaign on the International Space Station......»»
Balloon mission tests quantum sensor technology
A WashU team launched the Dilution Refrigerator Transition Edge Sensor (DR-TES) mission on Sept. 24 from NASA's scientific balloon facility in Fort Sumner, N.M. The mission is testing a sophisticated cooling system and a novel gamma-ray detector arra.....»»
NASA analysis shows irreversible sea level rise for Pacific islands
In the next 30 years, Pacific Island nations such as Tuvalu, Kiribati, and Fiji will experience at least 8 inches (15 centimeters) of sea level rise, according to an analysis by NASA's sea level change science team. This amount of rise will occur reg.....»»
Record-breaking laser demonstration completes mission
NASA's TBIRD (TeraByte InfraRed Delivery) demonstration and its host spacecraft—the PTD-3 (Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator-3)—have completed their technology demonstration. The TBIRD payload spent the past two years breaking world records for.....»»
Robotic moving "crew" preps for work on moon
As NASA moves forward with efforts to establish a long-term presence on the moon as part of the Artemis campaign, safely moving cargo from landers to the lunar surface is a crucial capability......»»
Are tougher political sanctions better? A statistical model compares political and economic relationships to success
Before beginning its war of aggression against Ukraine in 2022, Russia had already conducted an aerial bombardment of Georgia in 2008 and invaded Crimea as well as the Donbas region in 2014. This has left politicians and researchers puzzling over the.....»»
What America"s history can teach us about debates on religious freedom and its importance for democracy
Supporters of both major U.S. political parties tend to claim their presidential candidate is the "real" Christian or the "better" Christian or just the "true" Christian......»»
NASA pilots use specialty suits to validate data
Welcome to NASA's Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem Postlaunch Airborne eXperiment (PACE-PAX). We've been talking about this validation campaign and now are finally here. "Here" being one of three main locations where PACE-PAX validation effo.....»»
Arctic sea ice near historic low; Antarctic ice continues decline
Arctic sea ice retreated to near-historic lows in the Northern Hemisphere this summer, likely melting to its minimum extent for the year on Sept.11, 2024, according to researchers at NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). The decline.....»»