[ad_1] Hayabusa2 has left the asteroid on November 13th 10:05AM Japan time (November 12th 8:05PM EST). It has captured photos of Ryugu as it moved away and will continue taking pictures of the asteroid over the next five days. The spacecraft will be flying away slowly, so the asteroid will be gradually getting smaller in […]
Category: Space
How to safely watch Mercury pass in front of the Sun today
[ad_1] While Mercury travels around the Sun every 88 days, it’s tilted orbit means it only passes between the Earth and Sun about 13 times a century. This time, the transit will be visible in a lot of regions (including Euope and Africa), but folks in North and South America will have the best view. […]
Boeing’s lunar lander pitch promises ‘fastest path’ to the moon
[ad_1] NASA intends to send humans to the moon in an Orion capsule atop an SLS rocket. After the capsule docks with the Lunar Gateway, a space station the agency will place in the lunar orbit, the astronauts would transfer to a lander that would take them to the moon itself. Boeing says the HLS […]
SpaceX completes crucial tests of its Crew Dragon parachutes
[ad_1] That’s a pretty big milestone, as it beats a goal that CEO Elon Musk had set last month. “We certainly want to get … at least on the order of 10 successful tests in a row before, before launching astronauts,” he said. “So that seems like where the behavior of the parachutes is consistent, […]
Russia is making more Soyuz spacecraft to help NASA’s ISS missions
[ad_1] The other Soyuz vessel would be used for a space tourist flight due in late 2021, although this would help free resources for other missions. Not surprisingly, Russia used the order as a chance to criticize American planning. The country reportedly warned the US that it should have asked for more seats in advance […]
Study casts doubt on the chances of life on watery alien planets
[ad_1] The most hostile environment even included bogus evidence in the form of biomorphs, or nano-sized silica grains that resemble small cells. There’s a concern that rovers landing on distant worlds might inadvertently fool researchers into believing the grains are proof of life. This doesn’t mean exobiologists should give up their hunt for life beyond […]
Watch Boeing’s Starliner capsule launch abort test at 9AM ET
[ad_1] There’s a three-hour window in case weather or other complications delay the test. Don’t expect this particular vehicle to carry forward — it’s not poised to survive. If all goes well, Starliner will join SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and other vehicles as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew program, which aims to have American vehicles once […]
Scientists find a hidden black hole using new detection method
[ad_1] Black holes swallow light, which makes them impossible to observe directly. The easiest black holes to spot are those which form a binary system with a star, such as the Cygnus X-1 black hole which is paired with a blue supergiant. As the black hole and the star orbit around each other, the black […]
Samsung’s ‘SpaceSelfie’ balloon crashed in someone’s yard
[ad_1] The balloon wasn’t small or simple. The entire apparatus spanned half the size of a basketball court and was meant to float about 65,000 feet above the Earth (not technically in space, we’d add), collecting selfies from the ground, superimposing them on live photos of the planet and returning them to the sender. It […]
Air Force’s X-37B space plane lands after record 780 days in orbit
[ad_1] The spacecraft completed “all mission objectives,” according to USAF Rapid Capabilities Office director Randy Walden. Just what those are isn’t clear, though. X-37B payloads are still classified, and officials have typically provided only vague hints of what was aboard. One was a thermal spreader that helped test “experimental electronics” and heat pipe cooling in […]