SpaceX continued its rich tradition of destroying Starship prototypes with SN11 succumbing to an explosive end during a high-altitude flight test. Originally planned for 29 March, the test flight from the company’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas, had been postponed until this morning because a Federal Aviation Administrator (FAA) had been unable reach the site Read more about Another successful flight for SpaceX’s Starship apart from the landing-in-one-piece thing[…]

[…] Whereas Earth has always been a terrestrial, rocky world, GJ 1132 b began its life as a gaseous, Neptune-like planet. But as new research shows, a nearby red dwarf obliterated its original hydrogen- and helium-rich atmosphere with powerful radiation, so GJ 1132 b, having been stripped down to its rocky core, is now technically Read more about Having Lost Its Original Atmosphere, This Planet Is Now Growing a New One[…]

SpaceX rocket prototype, known as SN10, soared over South Texas during test flight Wednesday before swooping down to a pinpoint landing near its launch site. Approximately three minutes after landing, however, multiple independent video feeds showed the rocket exploding on its landing pad. SpaceX’s SN10, an early prototype of the company’s Starship Mars rocket, took Read more about SpaceX Mars prototype rocket nails landing for the first time – then explodes[…]

Swarm, developer of the world’s lowest-cost live satellite communications network, today announced that the Swarm network is now commercially live and available for customers to begin using. Swarm is the first low-cost satellite provider to offer commercial services to every point in the world, and companies in markets ranging from agriculture, to logistics to maritime Read more about Swarm Announces Commercial Availability of Industry’s Lowest-Cost Global Satellite Data Service[…]

The latest prototype of SpaceX’s Starship rocket, the SN9, burst into flames as the vehicle attempted to land on Earth on Tuesday. All eyes were on the craft after its predecessor, the SN8, exploded during touchdown in December in Boca Chica, Texas. You can watch today’s detonation in the video below. The accident occurs after Read more about Musk see: Watch SpaceX’s latest Starship rocket explode while trying to touch down • The Register[…]

A 70-foot rocket, riding beneath the wing of a retrofitted Boeing 747 aircraft, detached from the plane and fired itself into Earth’s orbit on Sunday — marking the first successful launch for the California-based rocket startup Virgin Orbit. Virgin Orbit’s 747, nicknamed Cosmic Girl, took off from California around 10:30 am PT with the rocket, Read more about Virgin Orbit launches rocket off a 747 aircraft, puts satellites into orbit[…]

You might think metal satellites burn up on re-entry, but as it turns out, it’s not that simple. “We are very concerned with the fact that all the satellites which re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere burn and create tiny alumina particles which will float in the upper atmosphere for many years,” Takao Doi, an astronaut and Read more about Japanese Researchers Are Working to Create Wooden Satellites[…]

There’s a giant asteroid somewhere out in the solar system, and it hurled a big rock at Earth. The evidence for this mystery space rock comes from a diamond-studded meteor that exploded over Sudan in 2008. NASA had spotted the 9-ton (8,200 kilograms), 13-foot (4 meters) meteor heading toward the planet well before impact, and Read more about Mysterious water rich asteroid the size of a dwarf planet is lurking in our solar system[…]

he fledgling U.S. Space Force has announced the name by which its members will be called: Guardians. This is one of the last remaining organizational changes for America’s newest branch to make to give it a distinct from its parent, the U.S. Air Force. The service already has its own unique unit designations, insignias and Read more about Space Force Troops Finally Have A Name: Guardians[…]

For the first time in 44 years, a spacecraft has brought lunar samples to Earth. With the Chang’e 5 mission complete, China now joins a very exclusive club, reinforcing the country’s role as a major player in space exploration. China is now only the third country to collect samples from the Moon and bring them Read more about Lunar Samples Land on Earth, Completing China’s Most Challenging ‘Space Adventure’[…]

Invisible structures generated by gravitational interactions in the Solar System have created a “space superhighway” network, astronomers have discovered. These channels enable the fast travel of objects through space, and could be harnessed for our own space exploration purposes, as well as the study of comets and asteroids. By applying analyses to both observational and Read more about Astronomers Just Found Cosmic ‘Superhighways’ For Fast Travel Through The Solar System[…]

SpaceX has conducted a test of the Starship it plans to use for flights to Mars, and while the experiment ended badly the flight was judged a success. Wednesday’s flight used just the Starship – the second stage of SpaceX’s planned heavy lifter. Previous flights had seen the craft ascend to around 500 feet. This Read more about SpaceX Starship blows up on landing, but Elon Musk says it’s the data that matters and that landed just fine[…]

Vids’n’pics Japanese and Australian astroboffins have successfully recovered samples taken from Asteroid Ryugu by the Hayabusa2 probe. Hayabusa2 has had quite a ride and has more adventures ahead of it. The probe launched in 2014 and spent three-and-a-half years travelling to near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu, which has a diameter of about 1km and occasionally passes Read more about Japan sticks the landing: Asteroid sample recovered from Hayabusa2 probe[…]

Look up at the night sky and, if you’re away from city lights, you’ll see stars. The space between those bright points of light is, of course, filled with inky blackness. Some astronomers have wondered about that all that dark space–about how dark it really is. “Is space truly black?” says Tod Lauer, an astronomer Read more about Scientists Discover Outer Space has as much light between galaxies as inside galaxies – it’s not black after all[…]

AST & Science, a Texas-based company, has applied for approval to build SpaceMobile, which claims to be the “first and only space-based cellular broadband network to be accessible by standard smartphones.” Its proposed network is under review by the FCC. However, NASA reckons it will heighten the risk of contact between spacecraft within a region Read more about AST & Science wants to launch 243 mobile broadband satellites into space used by the A Train – and NASA’s quite worried about crashes into scientific craft[…]

Supermarket chain Iceland has launched a chicken nugget into space to celebrate its 50th anniversary of trading. The breaded snack was launched into the stratosphere from a location close to the company’s head office in Deeside, North Wales, as part a joint venture with Sent Into Space, a team of experts in the field of Read more about Supermarket giant Iceland sends chicken nugget into space to mark 50th anniversary[…]

Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is the only moon in our solar system that has a thick atmosphere. It’s four times denser than Earth’s. And now, scientists have discovered a molecule in it that has never been found in any other atmosphere. The particle is called cyclopropenylidene, or C3H2, and it’s made of carbon and hydrogen. Read more about Unusual molecule found in atmosphere on Saturn’s moon Titan, precursor to life[…]

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a rare, heavy and immensely valuable asteroid called “16 Psyche” in the Solar System’s main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Asteroid Psyche is located at roughly 230 million miles (370 million kilometers) from Earth and measures 140 miles (226 kilometers) across, about the size of West Virginia. What Read more about NASA Discovers a Rare Metal Asteroid Worth $10,000 Quadrillion[…]

“Water” has since been detected inside the minerals in lunar rocks. Water ice has also been discovered to be mixed in with lunar dust grains in cold, permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles. But scientists haven’t been sure how much of this water is present as “molecular water”—made up of two parts hydrogen and Read more about Water on the Moon: Research unveils its type and abundance – boosting exploration plans[…]

To date, the company has launched over 800 satellites and (as of this summer) is producing them at a rate of about 120 a month. There are even plans to have a constellation of 42,000 satellites in orbit before the decade is out. However, there have been some problems along the way, as well. Aside Read more about About 3% of Starlink satellites have failed so far – that’s 360 potential collisions now and 1,260 once SL is up[…]

A team of astronomers from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Institute for Astronomy (IfA) has produced the most comprehensive astronomical imaging catalog of stars, galaxies, and quasars ever created with help from an artificially intelligent neural network. The group of astronomers from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Institute for Astronomy (IfA) released a catalog Read more about AI Created a Detailed 3D Map of Stars, Galaxies, and Quasars. Largest universe map so far.[…]

. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which launched in 2018, has snapped hundreds of thousands images of the night sky using its four cameras in the hopes of finding exoplanets. That’s too much data for professional astronomers to pore over, and NASA doesn’t trust computer-vision algorithms to do all the work, so they’ve decided Read more about Help spot planets for NASA or Oxford[…]

A study of comet motions indicates that the solar system has a second alignment plane. Analytical investigation of the orbits of long-period comets shows that the aphelia of the comets, the point where they are farthest from the Sun, tend to fall close to either the well-known ecliptic plane where the planets reside or a Read more about Second alignment plane of solar system discovered[…]

Future moon explorers will be bombarded with two to three times more radiation than astronauts aboard the International Space Station, a health hazard that will require thick-walled shelters for protection, scientists reported Friday. China’s lander on the far side of the moon is providing the first full measurements of radiation exposure from the lunar surface, Read more about New measurements show moon has hazardous radiation levels[…]

Yesterday, NASA and Russian flight controllers performed an “avoidance maneuver” to protect the International Space Station from a wayward chunk of space debris. This episode—already the third of its kind this year—highlights a growing problem and the importance of mitigating potential collisions in space. Low Earth orbit (LEO) is vast and mostly empty, but when Read more about ISS Maneuvers to Avoid Space Debris, in What’s Becoming the New Normal[…]