From activities in low-Earth orbit to NASA’s Artemis program, the commercial space industry has emerged as an innovator in areas of space access, commerce, and exploration.
Read MoreMonth: March 2021
How Focal Ratio Affects Your Astro Images
Understand focal ratio to improve your astrophotography. The post How Focal Ratio Affects Your Astro Images appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
Read MoreNASA TV to Air Second Rocket Test for Artemis Moon Missions
NASA is targeting a two-hour test window that opens at 3 p.m. EDT Thursday, March 18, for the second hot fire test of the core stage for the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
Read MoreCurious Kids: We have been trying to contact aliens – but do they want to contact us?
This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Jacco van Loon, Astrophysicist and Director of Keele Observatory, Keele University This is a great question – and the truth is that we don’t know the answer. For starters, we haven’t found any aliens yet, so we haven’t been able to ask them and receive a reply. When we try to answer the question “do they want to contact us”, we have to put ourselves in their shoes – that is, if they…
Read MoreThe Force will be strong with the ‘Star Wars: The Bad Batch’ animated series launching May 4
[embedded content] Featuring the vocal talents of Ming-Na Wen from Marvel’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” (and “The Mandalorian”) along with Dee Bradley Baker (“Star Wars Rebels”), the baddest of the bad from Clone Force 99 will attack in Executive Producer Dave Filoni’s spinoff show for Star Wars Day on May the 4th exclusively on Disney Plus. Lucasfilm and The Walt Disney Company have provided premiere details on the bold new animated series “Star Wars: The Bad Batch,” which will officially debut its first episode on May 4, that most gloriously geeky…
Read MoreHappy Pi Day! Here’s how the famed math concept helped NASA’s Perseverance rover land on Mars
If you’re not properly appreciative of pi, NASA is here to help. Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, a mathematical constant that rounds off to 3.14. The actual number goes on forever, but two decimal places will suffice for most of us. Pi is famous and important enough to be celebrated by nerds around the world — on March 14 (3/14) in the United States and on July 22 in Europe and other places that write dates in the month-day-year format. (22 July in such systems…
Read MoreSpacewalking astronauts wrap up maintenance work on space station
Two astronauts tackled a list of leftover maintenance tasks outside of the International Space Station Saturday (March 13), completing work that was originally scheduled to be done on previous spacewalks. Expedition 64 crewmates Victor “Ike” Glover and Mike “Hopper” Hopkins, both with NASA, ventured out of the space station’s Quest airlock on Sunday (March 13) for the 6 hour and 47 minute extravehicular activity (EVA). The spacewalk, which began at 8:14 a.m. EST (1314 GMT), marked their third outing together since arriving at the station in November on SpaceX’s Dragon…
Read MoreSpaceX to attempt record 9th flight of a Falcon 9 rocket with Starlink launch on Sunday
[embedded content] CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX is gearing up to launch a third batch of Starlink satellites in as many weeks on Sunday (March 14) and you can watch the action live online. The Hawthorne, California-based company is planning to fly one of its veteran Falcon 9 rockets for a record nine times with the mission, which comes just days after SpaceX’s last launch. The two-stage launcher will blast off from the historic Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center here in Florida at 6:01 a.m. EDT (1101 GMT). …
Read MoreIn the Space.com forums this week: Debating Mars, imagining wormholes, and last call for a giveaway!
This week, we highlight a fascinating debate concerning some Mars skepticism. We also take on wormholes — and, hypothetically, passing through them. But first, sound the alarms! Our Space Force giveaway ends in two days! Space Force coin giveaway! The Space Store is giving away an authentic official U.S. Space Force silver coin! (Image credit: The Space Store) We are nearing the end of the entry period for our Space Force Silver Coin giveaway on the Space.com forums. You’ve got just two more days to enter over at this thread.…
Read MoreChina’s Long March 7A rocket launches on 1st successful flight
China’s new Long March 7A rocket successfully launched its first orbital mission after its first attempt one year ago ended with a failure. The rocket lifted off from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on China’s Hainan Island on Thursday (March 11) at 12:51 p.m. EST (1751 GMT, or 1:51 a.m. local time March 12), according to the Chinese state-run media outlet Xinhua. It lofted into orbit a classified experimental satellite called Shiyan-9 (meaning “experiment-9”), which was developed by the China Academy of Space Technology, according to a report from SpaceNews.…
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