Tag Archives: space program

Wired reports: The Italian Space Agency announced Wednesday that researchers have detected signs of a large, stable body of liquid water locked away beneath a mile of ice near Mars’ south pole. The observations were recorded by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding instrument—Marsis for short. “Marsis was born to make this kind of discovery, and now …

This is certainly unexpected: Dear NASA Workforce, NASA has a unique ability to recruit and retain the finest workforce in the country. If we are to accomplish the awesome and sometimes daunting tasks ahead of us, we must maintain this unique ability. In June, we recognize that part of this amazing workforce includes members of the LGBT community. You have …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump is set to sign a space policy directive Monday to make it easier for commercial companies to operate in space and mitigate the creation of more trash in orbit. Space Policy Directive-3 “seeks to address the challenges of a congested space environment,” said Scott Pace, executive secretary of the National Space Council. The document directs …

USA Today reports: With the orange flames of its engine lighting up the foggy sky for miles around, a car-sized Mars lander rocketed into space early Saturday in a first-of-its-kind launch from California on a mission to probe beneath the surface of the Red Planet. The nearly $1 billion Mars InSight probe blasted off shortly after 4 a.m. local time, …

The Guardian reports: A Houston-based company said this week it plans to open the “first luxury hotel in space” by late 2021. Orion Span’s compact Aurora Station – at 35ft-by-14ft its interior will be comparable to that of a Gulfstream jet, the company said – is projected to accommodate four travelers and two crew members for 12-day stays 200 miles …

The Associated Press reports: China’s defunct Tiangong 1 space station mostly burned up on re-entry into the atmosphere over the central South Pacific on Monday, Chinese space authorities said. The experimental space laboratory re-entered around 8:15 a.m. Beijing time, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said. Launched in 2011, Tiangong 1 was China’s first space station, serving as an experimental …

Space.com reports: The falling Chinese space station Tiangong-1 is tumbling in orbit and may crash back to Earth early Easter Sunday (April 1), experts say. Estimates for the crash of Tiangong-1 range sometime between March 31 and April 1, with a focus of 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) on April 1, according to Aerospace Corp., which is tracking the space …

The New York Daily News reports: President Trump doesn’t think the U.S. military is large enough — so he announced during a bizarre press conference Tuesday that it will expand beyond planet Earth. “My new national strategy for space recognizes that space is a war-fighting domain, just like the land, air and sea,” Trump told a crowd of Marines at …

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration wants to turn the International Space Station into a kind of orbiting real estate venture run not by the government, but by private industry. The White House plans to stop funding the station after 2024, ending direct federal support of the orbiting laboratory. But it does not intend to abandon the orbiting laboratory …

CNET reports: The revolution is being televised, live from space. The below live video feed is coming direct from Elon Musk’s 2008 Tesla Roadster, which is currently somewhere high, high above us. On Tuesday afternoon, Musk’s rocket company SpaceX successfully launched Falcon Heavy, the new most powerful rocket currently in use worldwide, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The payload …

Space.com reports: SpaceX’s giant new rocket, the Falcon Heavy, is set for its risky first test launch today (Feb. 6) from the historic Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch window stretches from 1:30 to 4 p.m. EDT (1830 to 2100 GMT). SpaceX’s current Falcon 9 rocket launches cargo to the International Space Station and lofts …

CBS News reports: Legendary astronaut John Young — who twice ventured into space in pioneering two-man Gemini capsules, orbited the moon and then walked on its cratered surface before commanding two space shuttle missions, including the program’s maiden flight — has died, ending one of the most storied careers in space history. NASA said he died Friday night following complications …

The New York Post reports: A space satellite launch sparked a brief UFO scare in Los Angeles Friday night after startled viewers gawked at an unidentifiable streak of light soaring across the night sky. Observers flooded Twitter with pictures and videos of the strange vessel and they speculated that aliens were finally making their long-awaited debut. “Anyone else see that …

Reuters reports: At a time when China is working on an ambitious lunar program, President Donald Trump vowed on Monday that the United States will remain the leader in space exploration as he began a process to return Americans to the moon. “We are the leader and we’re going to stay the leader, and we’re going to increase it many …

The Associated Press reports: NASA’s Cassini spacecraft disintegrated in the skies above Saturn early Friday in a final, fateful blaze of cosmic glory, following a remarkable journey of 20 years. Confirmation of Cassini’s expected demise came about 7:55 a.m. EDT. That’s when radio signals from the spacecraft — its last scientific gifts to Earth — came to an abrupt halt. …

NPR reports: Scientists are about to get an up-close and personal look at the planet Jupiter’s most famous landmark, the Great Red Spot. NASA’s Juno spacecraft will be directly over the spot shortly after 10 p.m. ET Monday, July 10, about 5,600 miles above the gas giant’s cloud tops. That’s closer than any spacecraft has been before. The spot is …

The Associated Press reports: Representatives of China and the European Space Agency are discussing potential collaboration on a human outpost on the moon and other possible joint endeavors, according to a spokesman for the European agency and Chinese media reports. The secretary general for China’s space agency, Tian Yulong, first disclosed the talks about the envisioned lunar base in Chinese …

Scientific American reports: Running low on fuel, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has begun the final — and most daring — phase of its epic mission to Saturn. After using a final flyby of the moon Titan on Friday to boost its speed, Cassini was flung by the moon’s gravity to a trajectory that sent it diving through the 1,200-mile (1,930 kilometers) …

The jokes are too easy. The New York Daily News reports: Urine for a big surprise, President Trump. The commander-in-chief, in a surreal Earth-to-space call from the Oval Office Monday to congratulate astronaut Peggy Whitson on surpassing a record 534 days in space, received a flood of knowledge on life in zero gravity — including how pee gets repurposed. “Water …

The Guardian reports: Humans are woefully unprepared for a surprise asteroid or comet, a Nasa scientist warned on Monday, at a presentation with nuclear scientists into how humans might deflect cosmic dangers hurtling toward Earth. “The biggest problem, basically, is there’s not a hell of a lot we can do about it at the moment,” said Dr Joseph Nuth, a …