Stunning pink moon sets behind Artemis 1 just before it rolls off the pad

The pink moon sets behind NASA’s Artemis 1 Space Launch System rocket on Saturday, April 16, 2022. (Image credit: Michael Seeley/We Report Space) A powerful new photo shows NASA’s Artemis 1 rocket on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, backdropped by its destination: the moon, shining in pink. Photographer Michael Seeley captured the image of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket (with the Orion spacecraft on top) on Saturday (April 16) from a boat off the coast of Florida in the Atlantic Ocean, several miles offshore…

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Watch 2 Russian cosmonauts spacewalk outside the International Space Station today

Two Russian cosmonauts will take a spacewalk outside the International Space Station today (April 18) and you’ll be able to watch it live online. Cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev, both of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, will spend seven hours working outside the International Space Station in their bulky Orlan spacesuits. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 10:25 a.m. EDT (1425 GMT), with NASA’s live webcast starting at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT).  The spacewalk is the first of two excursions by the cosmonauts to activate systems on…

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China launched 2 rockets back-to-back just ahead of astronauts’ landing

China launched two rockets from different spaceports in just six hours on Friday during a busy day that also included the successful landing of its longest astronaut mission yet.  The China National Space Administration launched the two missions starting on Friday (April 15), when a Long March 3B rocket lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center carrying the Zhongxing 6D communications satellites. Liftoff occurred at 8 p.m. Beijing time (8 a.m. EDT or 1200 GMT) from the launch site, which is based in China’s southwestern Sichuan province.  “The Zhongxing…

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Amazing photos of Full Pink Moon of April 2022 (gallery)

(Image credit: Izzeddin Kasim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) The full moon of April 2022 lit up the night skies of Earth on April 16 with a stunning lunar display that came amid a rare convergence of holidays for Easter, Passover and Ramadan.  Photographers around the world were ready to capture the Full Pink Moon, the first full moon of northern spring, and you can see their amazing images in our gallery here. Click the arrows to the upper right of each image to see the next of the April full…

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SpaceX launches US spy satellite, lands rocket in flawless Easter flight

SpaceX launched a clandestine spy satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and landed the returning rocket back on Earth today (April 17), acing a spaceflight twofer on Easter. A two-stage Falcon 9 rocket carrying the NROL-85 spacecraft lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California today at 9:13 a.m. EDT (1313 GMT; 6:13 a.m. local California time) The SpaceX rocket’s two stages separated about 2.5 minutes later. The first stage headed back to Earth, making a vertical touchdown at Vandenberg’s Landing Zone 4 roughly eight minutes after…

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5 failed alternatives to the Big Bang theory and why they didn’t work

Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute, host of “Ask a Spaceman“ and “Space Radio,” and author of “How to Die in Space.” First developed around a century ago, the Big Bang theory reigns supreme as the sole surviving explanation for the history of the cosmos. It fits all the available evidence: the expansion of the universe, the formation of the light elements, the existence of the cosmic microwave background, the evolution of the cosmic web and more.  In a nutshell, the universe began…

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NASA to Discuss Status of Artemis I Moon Mission

NASA will hold a media teleconference at 3 p.m. EDT on Monday, April 18, to discuss the status of the next wet dress rehearsal test of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft at Launch Complex 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of the uncrewed Artemis I lunar mission.

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