Tag Archives: space travel

CNBC reports: Virgin Galactic announced Friday that the Federal Aviation Administration granted the company the license it needs to fly passengers on future spaceflights, a key hurdle as the venture completes development testing. “The commercial license that we have had in place since 2016 remains in place, but is now cleared to allow us to carry commercial passengers when we’re …

NBC News reports: Jeff Bezos announced on Monday that he and his brother will join the first crewed spaceflight from his private rocket company on July 20 — just 15 days after he is set to step down as chief executive of Amazon. “Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of traveling to space,” he wrote in an …

NBC News reports: Japan’s space agency said an explosive dropped Friday from its Hayabusa 2 spacecraft successfully blasted the surface of an asteroid for the first time to form a crater and pave the way for the collection of underground samples for possible clues to the origin of the solar system. Friday’s mission was the riskiest for Hayabusa 2 because …

Engadget reports: Virgin Galactic sent its first test passenger into sub-space today. The company’s chief astronaut instructor Beth Moses accompanied two pilots on a flight 55.85 miles above the Earth, just a few miles below the internationally recognized space boundary, 62 miles. This will likely come as good news to the more than 600 people from 58 countries who have …

Gizmodo reports: Well, here’s a bit of space news we weren’t expecting: Today, future Martian overlord and SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced that in 2018, the company will fly two private citizens around the Moon in its Dragon 2 spacecraft, carried by its extremely powerful Falcon Heavy rocket. While the voyagers’ names have not been disclosed, according to SpaceX, a …

The Huffington Post reports: Now there’s a new reason to seriously start investigating the possibility of civilian space travel: one of our favorite non-profit organizations just declared the universe LGBT-friendly. Planting Peace’s latest display of solidarity with the queer community involves a Pride flag, a high altitude balloon and a GoPro camera. The group, which regularly launches social activism campaigns …

Really cool stuff for science nerds! CNN reports: A spinning, solar-powered spacecraft as wide as a basketball court will arrive at Jupiter on July 4 to study the giant planet and to take the highest-resolution images of Jupiter in history. NASA’s robotic Juno probe is carrying seven science instruments designed to help scientists figure out how Jupiter formed and evolved. …

The International Astronomical Union has announced the names of a slew of exoplanets and stars as chosen by worldwide public ballot. Enter exoplanet Poltergeist, as nominated by an Italian group. Also new to the nomenclature galaxy is the star Cervantes (Spain) and the exoplanet Galileo (Netherlands).  The IAU writes: The votes are in — the names of 19 ExoWorlds (14 …

As he does nearly every day, Donald Trump has reacted to a negative news report by declaring that the source is biased and unprofitable. Yesterday he accused Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos of running a tax dodge to benefit Amazon, which Bezos founded. Bezos, conveniently enough, is also owner of the Blue Origin rocket.

NASA’s Cassini–Huygens probe launched back in October 1997 and 18 years later it continues to provide fascinating discoveries. Via Science Daily: A global ocean lies beneath the icy crust of Saturn’s geologically active moon Enceladus, according to new research using data from NASA’s Cassini mission. Researchers found the magnitude of the moon’s very slight wobble, as it orbits Saturn, can …

From NASA: “Astronaut Terry Virts captured this photo from the International Space Station flying over Boston, where Leonard Nimoy was born. #RIPLeonardNimoy”

The Mars One mission has named the 100 finalists for its proposed one-way trip to colonize the red planet. More than 200,000 people applied to Mars One in 2013, hoping to be chosen to colonize Mars. Applicants had to be at least 18 years old, healthy and between 5’2″ and 6’3″ tall, as well as fulfilling various personality requirements such …

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield became an internet sensation last year when he posted his performance of David Bowie’s Space Oddity from the International Space Station. Today Hadfield posts an optimistic view of the coming year in a clip that appears to have been produced with some help from the Gates Foundation.

Clip recap: “All About That Space” is a volunteer outreach video project created by the Pathways Interns of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. It was created as a parody (to raise interest and excitement for Orion’s first flight) of Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass”. The lyrics and scenes in the video have been re-imagined in order to inform the public …

It’s been a horrible week for the space industry.

New version.

The Grapes Of Wrath in space.

From the Winklevoss twins’ blog: Humans have a long tradition of exploring and forging new frontiers, both physically and metaphorically. In the Middle Ages, Marco Polo’s writings – which recounted his 24 years of travel and trade on the Silk Road – built a new and lasting level of economic and cultural awareness between Europe and Asia. 200 years later, …