On September 8th, 2016, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) mission launched from Earth. Its primary mission was to rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu, a carbonaceous Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA), obtain samples from its surface, and return them to Earth for analysis. On December 3rd, 2018, the mission reached Bennu and spent …
Spaceflight Now will provide live coverage of the Starlink 6-18 launch from Cape Canaveral, with commentary, starting about an hour before launch. A SpaceX Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Saturday night with a booster making its 17th flight. It will be only the second to reach this milestone and the 200th …
Live Coverage: Another Falcon 9 gets ready to hit 17-flight milestone Read More »
The face of astronomy is changing. Though narrow-field point-and-shoot astronomy still matters (JWST anyone?), large wide-field surveys promise to be the powerhouses of discovery in the coming decades, especially with the advent of machine learning. A recently developed machine learning program, called ASTRONOMALY, scanned nearly four million galaxy images from the Dark Energy Camera Legacy …
Machine Learning Algorithms Can Find Anomalous Needles in Cosmic Haystacks Read More »
Taken on Oct. 27, this image shows NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully placing its sample collector head into the Sample Return Capsule (SRC). The sequence begins with the collector head hovering over the SRC after the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) arm and moving it into the proper position for capture. At the end of …
NASA is bringing an asteroid sample back to Earth – here’s when, how and why Read More »
The JWST has surprised astronomers again. Contrary to our existing understanding, the JWST showed us that the early Universe was full of fully-formed galaxies similar to the ones we see today. The widely-held belief is that the early Universe was too chaotic in its early years, and frequent mergers would’ve disrupted galaxies’ graceful shapes. Galaxy …
The JWST is Forcing Astronomers to Rethink Early Galaxies Read More »
Ahead of launching the Artemis 2 mission no earlier than November 2024, the four astronauts donned test flight suits to go through a pre-launch simulation. They rode to launch pad 39B in Canoo electric vehicles and climbed the Mobile Launcher tower. The launch day demonstration was the first in a series of seven milestones that …
Artemis 2 astronauts go to the launch pad for launch day practice Read More »
Most planets and moons in the Solar System are clearly dead and totally unsuitable for life. Earth is the only exception. But there are a few worlds where there are intriguing possibilities of life. Chief among them is Jupiter’s moon Europa, and the JWST just discovered carbon there. That makes the moon and its subsurface …
The JWST Just Found Carbon on Europa, Boosting the Moon’s Potential Habitability Read More »
Frank Rubio inside the International Space Station’s Destiny laboratory module. Image: NASA. If NASA had asked astronaut Frank Rubio, well in advance, if he would like to spend a full year aboard the International Space Station, he likely would have turned it down. But that’s how it turned out anyway, when trouble with his crew’s …
NASA astronaut looks forward to family hugs, peace and quiet, after yearlong flight Read More »
Imagine if you could see gravitational waves. Of course, humans are too small to sense all but the strongest gravitational waves, so imagine you were a great creature of deep space, with tendrils that could extend a million kilometers. As gravitational waves rippled across your vast body, you would sense them squeezing and tugging ever …
If You Could See Gravitational Waves, the Universe Would Look Like This Read More »
A recent study submitted to Acta Astronautica explores the potential for using aerographite solar sails for traveling to Mars and interstellar space, which could dramatically reduce both the time and fuel required for such missions. This study comes while ongoing research into the use of solar sails is being conducted by a plethora of organizations …
