Tag Archives: space program

The New York Times reports: SpaceX’s Starship rocket exploded above the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, minutes after lifting off from a launchpad in South Texas. The spacecraft failed to reach orbit. The Starship launch on Thursday at least avoided a worst-case outcome of exploding on the launchpad, which would have required extensive repairs. Once engineers determine what went wrong, …

The BBC reports: British billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s rocket company Virgin Orbit has filed for bankruptcy in the US after failing to secure new investment. The satellite launch company halted operations weeks ago but it hopes to find a buyer for the business. The company, based in California, announced last week that it would cut 85% of its 750-strong workforce. …

CBS News reports: A Canadian astronaut and three NASA veterans, including one of the world’s most experienced female spacewalkers, will fly around the moon next year in the first piloted voyage beyond Earth orbit since the Apollo program ended 50 years ago, the space agency announced Monday. NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover will join Canadian rookie Jeremy …

Via press release from NASA: NASA’s InSight mission has ended after more than four years of collecting unique science on Mars. Mission controllers at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California were unable to contact the lander after two consecutive attempts, leading them to conclude the spacecraft’s solar-powered batteries have run out of energy – a state engineers …

Space.com reports: NASA’s Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft returned to Earth on Sunday after nearly a month in space. Artemis 1’s uncrewed Orion capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California Sunday around 12:40 p.m. Orion launched atop a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on Nov. 16, kicking off the highly anticipated Artemis 1 mission. The …

The New York Times reports: NASA’s majestic new rocket soared into space for the first time in the early hours of Wednesday, lighting up the night sky and accelerating on a journey that will take an astronaut-less capsule around the moon and back. This flight, evoking the bygone Apollo era, is a crucial test for NASA’s Artemis program that aims …

The Associated Press reports: A spacecraft that plowed into a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles away succeeded in shifting its orbit, NASA said Tuesday in announcing the results of its save-the-world test. The Dart spacecraft carved a crater into the asteroid Dimorphos on Sept. 26, hurling debris out into space and creating a cometlike trail of dust and rubble …

The New York Times reports: NASA officials express optimism that DART is not going to miss. “I’m highly confident that we are going to hit on Monday,” Lindley Johnson, NASA’s planetary defense officer said during a news conference last week, “and it will be a complete success.” NASA has succeeded at intentionally crashing spacecraft into celestial bodies before. For instance, …

Space.com report: NASA is just days away from slamming a spacecraft into an asteroid 7 million miles (11 million kilometers) from Earth. The agency’s long-awaited Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission will impact with the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos on Monday (Sept. 26), if all goes according to plan. The DART mission launched on Nov. 23, 2021 on top of a …

Via press release from the United States Space Force: Every branch of the armed forces has an official song, from “The Army Goes Rolling Along” to “The Marines’ Hymn.” Each song is part of the services’ foundation and represents its values, traditions and culture. The U.S. Space Force, the newest military branch established in 2019, has officially adopted its own …

Orlando’s ABC affiliate reports: The second attempt to launch NASA’s Artemis I mission from Kennedy Space Center has been scrubbed for Saturday. The Artemis I mission management team tried to launch the new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft Saturday afternoon. Artemis I will launch the SLS rocket – also called the mega moon rocket – and send …

CBS News reports: After months of tests, troubleshooting and repairs, engineers fueled the Space Launch System moon rocket for blastoff early Monday on NASA’s long-overdue Artemis 1 test flight, a critical mission to send an unpiloted Orion crew capsule on a 42-day mission beyond the moon and back. Running late because of stormy weather and troubleshooting to resolve an apparent …

The Associated Press reports: Russia will opt out of the International Space Station after 2024 and focus on building its own orbiting outpost, the country’s newly appointed space chief said Tuesday. Yuri Borisov, who was appointed earlier this month to lead the state-controlled space corporation Roscosmos, said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia will fulfill its …

The Washington Post reports: Two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut landed in a remote area of Kazakhstan Wednesday after undocking from the International Space Station and flying back to Earth in a historic mission that came amid mounting tensions over the war in Ukraine. The Soyuz spacecraft touched down under a parachute right on time, at 7:28 a.m. Eastern, …

Changing America reports: As the U.S. experiences more and more severe weather events, a special satellite was launched into space today that aims to help scientists on Earth predict when hurricanes will hit, lightning might strike and fires break out. NASA successfully launched a third satellite in a series of next-generation weather satellites for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration …

The Guardian reports: The International Space Station (ISS) will continue its operations until 2030 before heading for a watery grave at the most remote point in the Pacific, Nasa confirmed in a new transition plan this week. More than 30 years after its 1998 launch, the ISS will be “de-orbited” in January 2031, according to the space agency’s budget estimates. …

Space.com reports: After traveling almost a million miles, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reached its final destination today (Jan. 24). The most powerful observatory ever to launch to space, the James Webb Space Telescope lifted off on Dec. 25, 2021 to explore the cosmos and our universe’s earliest milestones. Since its successful takeoff, the $10 billion telescope has been busy …

Space.com reports: Three days after launch, the pallet holding Webb’s huge sunshield — a five-layer structure designed to keep the infrared telescope and its instruments cool — will be lowered. Each of the shield’s five sheets is about the size of a tennis court when fully extended, far too wide to fit inside the payload fairing of any currently operational …

The Washington Post reports: NASA’s revolutionary James Webb Space Telescope is finally in space. The Webb, charged with seeing deeper into the universe than any telescope ever built, blasted off right on time at 7:20 a.m. Saturday from the European Space Agency’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on South America’s northeast coast. At launch, the $10 billion telescope, NASA’s long-delayed …

National Geographic reports: After more than a quarter-century of planning, designing, building, waiting—and of obsessively testing the most complex space observatory ever assembled—the mammoth James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to launch at 7:20 a.m. eastern time on December 25. For JWST’s mission to succeed, the telescope must execute an intricate series of carefully choreographed maneuvers during its first month …