The existence of lunar lava tube caves, cozy conduits for expeditionary crews below the Moon’s surface has been reported. Thanks to analysis of NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) radar data, what lies below the Apollo 11 landing site…
What happens when you mix an architect with material, electrical, mechanical, aerospace and software specialists – but then blend in a glass blower? “We are a pioneering space architecture and engineering company at the forefront of…
The yet-to-fly Sierra Space Dream Chaser commercial spaceplane is already listing landing sites around the globe. Spaceport Oita in Kunisaki, Oita, Japan, is a possible landing spot, according to a recent Sierra Space statement. Meanwhile,…
Sent moonward over two years ago, NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment — mercifully shortened to CAPSTONE – is trial-running techniques to enhance spacecraft operations in cis-lunar…
The largest stratospheric balloon ever to be launched from Sweden’s Esrange Space Center is on its way to its destination in North America. Its mission is to study X-rays in the polar atmosphere. Toted skyward by the huge balloon on July…
In charting the actions of future foot soldiers on Mars, the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) has been busily addressing knowledge gaps for planetary protection of the Red Planet. Established in 1958, COSPAR is a prestigious scientific…
Wait-a-minute: A misbehaving SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage has led to Starlink satellites each taking destructive dives, willy-nilly style, into the Earth’s atmosphere. The July 11 liftoff of the SpaceX Starlink Group 9-3 from Vandenberg…
Inspiration4 was the world’s first all-civilian mission to climb into orbit, a four-person crew transported skyward atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The privately-funded commercial mission took place September 16-18, 2021. The SpaceX Crew…
The Moon needs power! That’s the on-switch approach suggested in the House NASA Reauthorization Act of 2024. A “Lunar Power Purchase Agreement Program” is in the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee language just released.…
“Above us in the heavens, an intergalactic land grab is unfolding,” explains an upcoming HBO documentary Wild Wild Space, premiering on HBO and Max next Wednesday, July 17. “It’s a fast-paced and high-stakes race in which rockets and…
Details regarding China’s plan to return samples from Mars spotlights the country’s work on planetary protection – not only to protect the Red Planet from hitchhiking Earth microbes but also guard our biosphere and we Earthlings from the…
A general schedule for the creation of the Russian orbital station has been approved. Along with Roscosmos chief, Yuri Borisov, 19 general directors of the main cooperation enterprises recently inked the document. The deployment of the…
In outer space can you hear the sound from ballooning expectations? That “Noise of Summer” liftoff of Firefly’s launcher on July 3 from Vandenberg Space Force Base was loaded with eight CubeSats under NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI…
The call from the Moon is clear – try and find my water ice. There is the prospect that oodles of water ice could be lurking in the bottom of south polar craters on the Moon. Forgive the cosmic colloquialism but these super-chilly features…
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing a number of duties. Abigail Fraeman, a planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, reports that researchers received data from the robot’s Sample Analysis at Mars …
China’s Shenzhou-18 space station crew has completed its second spacewalk. The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) stated on Wednesday that Ye Guangfu, Li Cong and Li Guangsu worked together for about 6.5 hours to complete multiple tasks. Co…
BOULDER, Colorado – As I get older by the day, you do wonder about the term “shelf life.” Meanwhile, this year, Astronaut Foods is celebrating five decades when they soft-landed Astronaut Ice Cream into freeze-dried fandom. No…
Earth’s neighboring Moon is far from being a “been there, done that” world even taking into account a dozen Apollo moonwalking visitors between 1969 and 1972. There is now a convergence of reasons to return to the Moon, not only for…
Initial analyses of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission is rippling through the scientific community. In the early morning hours of September 24, 2023, NASA’s first sample return mission of bits and pieces of asteroid Bennu…
Wait-a-Minute! It turns out – one group’s space junk is another person’s viewing hot spot. The Glamping Collective in North Carolina was on the receiving end last May of leftovers from the SpaceX Dragon Crew-7 mission to the International…
Coming to full-stop after a 53-day space sojourn to the Moon and back, China’s Chang’e-6 return capsule stuffed with its cache of lunar specimens parachuted into a pre-selected site within Siziwang Banner in north China’s Inner Mongolia…
More information has come to light regarding that hitchhiking mini-rover on China’s Chang’e-6 Moon sampling mission. The little Chang’e-6 rover is named “Jinchan” and weighs roughly 11 pounds (5 kilograms) reports the China ‘N Asia…
New research points to Mars being on the receiving end of basketball-size meteorites – on a near daily basis. An international research group, co-lead by ETH Zurich and Imperial College London, have derived the first estimate of global…
China’s Chang’e-6 lunar mission to the Moon’s far side netted over 4.3 pounds (1,935.3 grams) of samples. A ceremony was held on Friday by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) to hand over the samples to the National Astronomical…
A container carrying China’s far side lunar samples has been extracted from the returner capsule of the Chang’e-6 lunar probe mission during a June 26 ceremony at the China Academy of Space Technology in Beijing. The Chang’e-6 probe…
China lunar scientists have begun their inspection of China’s Chang’e-6 returner capsule and its cache of far side lunar samples. Parachuting into the Siziwang Banner of north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region shortly after 2 p.m.…
China’s just landed specimens from the far side of the moon signals not only technological achievement and plows new territory for the country’s space exploration capacity, it is also sparking a chain-reaction in scientific, policy, and…
China’s Chang’e-6 lunar mission has ended, successfully bringing to Earth its celestial bounty – the world’s first sample from the Moon’s far side — after a 53-day journey in space. The Chang’e-6 probe was launched on May 3 with the return…
China’s Chang’e-6 mission is coming to full stop within a planned landing area at Siziwang Banner in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The multi-tasking Earth-to-Moon and return mission is hauling a stash of lunar samples…
In 1974, Princeton University professor and space visionary, the late Gerard O’Neill, proposed use of an electromagnetic rail gun to lob payloads from the moon. “Mass drivers” based on a coil gun design were adapted to accelerate a non…