This Week In Space podcast: Episode 225 — Get a Grip!

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Get a Grip! – New Technologies for Orbital Salvage – YouTube Watch On On Episode 225 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik are joined by Adam Kall of KMI to discuss their work on the ISS, the goals of the company, and how nature — via the humble octopus and gecko lizards — may provide answers for orbital debris mitigation. The mitigation of orbital debris is an increasingly serious problem that has not gotten enough attention, but this is changing. Commercial companies are addressing orbital debris,…

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When is the next lunar eclipse?

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August’s “almost Blood Moon” partial lunar eclipse has come and gone, delighting stargazers with a gorgeous natural light show as light filtered by our planet’s atmosphere turned it a deep crimson around the point of maximum eclipse. But when is the next lunar eclipse? Earth won’t darken the moon again until Feb. 20, 2027, when a penumbral eclipse will cast our planet’s soft outer shadow across February’s full “Snow Moon”, so named for the freezing weather that occurs around the time it rises. Fujinon Techno-Stabi 1640 (Image credit: Fujifilm) With…

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What time will SpaceX launch NASA’s Roman Space Telscope on Aug. 30? (Full mission timeline)

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A huge SpaceX rocket is just days away from launching NASA’s next great observatory into space: the Roman Space Telescope. But if you’re hoping to watch it live online, you’ll have to get up pretty early on Sunday (Aug. 30) or you’ll miss it. NASA’s Roman Space Telescope, named after the late NASA astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, will launch no earlier than Sunday on a mission to map the galaxy like never before. Liftoff is set for 7:26 a.m. EDT (1126 GMT) from a NASA pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida.…

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NASA’s Artemis II Crew Receives Congressional Space Medal of Honor

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President Donald J. Trump awarded NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Christina Koch, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor on Aug. 28, 2026, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA/John Kraus From left to right: NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Christina Koch, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor from President Donald J. Trump on Aug. 28, 2026, for their service during the Artemis II…

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NASA Awards First Prize in Phase 2 of Agency’s LunaRecycle Challenge 

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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology team won NASA’s LunaRecycle Challenge competition for their project, Composites for Extraterrestrial Recycling By Engineering the Reuse and Upcycling of Zotek (CERBERUZ). Credit: NASA/Savannah Bullard NASA named a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as the first prize winner for Phase 2 of the agency’s LunaRecycle Challenge, which focused on developing solutions for reducing waste during missions to the Moon or deep space by recycling common materials, like fabrics, plastics, foam, and metals.  The Composites for Extraterrestrial Recycling By Engineering the Reuse and Upcycling of Zotek (CERBERUZ) team, comprised of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students at MIT, received a total of $775,000 in awards.   The technology grinds mixed trash into a fine powder, repurposing materials such as Zotek foam as reinforcement rather than treating it…

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Our choice as one of the best budget telescopes now has 17% off — this telescope deal is worth grabbing fast

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The Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ is one of the best telescopes for beginner-to-intermediate stargazers who want to view deep-sky objects and appreciate assistance in manually locating the targets. Right now, the Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ is 17% off, down to just $414.99, its cheapest since Prime Day in June. In our Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ review, our expert tester Damian Peach awarded it an impressive 4 out of 5-star. Damian noted that it was an exquisite telescope for the beginner and added that the StarSense Explorer telescope…

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The night we nearly saw a ‘blood moon’ (and why I love near-misses in astronomy)

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Stargazers have trigger words — total, bright, peak, maximum, best. But observing the sky is often more interesting when something seems neither one thing nor the other. A case in point was the almost-total partial lunar eclipse we just witnessed. From where I watched, early on Aug. 28, Earth’s shadow reached its maximum across the lunar surface, covering 96.2% of it, as the moon began to sink in the west. A thin part of the lunar surface remained outside the darkest part of Earth’s shadow, and the surface never did…

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President Honors NASA’s Artemis II Crew with Highest US Space Award

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President Donald J. Trump awarded NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor on Aug. 28, 2026, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Credit: NASA President Donald J. Trump awarded NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor Friday for their service during the Artemis II mission. He presented the awards during a ceremony at NASA’s Johnson…

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President Trump Signs Executive Order to Create US Space Academy  

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President Donald Trump presents an executive order establishing the United States Space Academy during an event to award the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the Artemis II crew as Michael Kratsios, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, left; Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, third from left; and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, right, applaud, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Credit: NASA/John Kraus To strengthen the nation’s space workforce and develop the next generation of space leaders, President Donald…

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