A SpaceX Dragon will launch fresh NASA supplies to space station today. How to watch live.

Update for 2 p.m. EDT: SpaceX has successfully launched its CRS-22 Dragon cargo mission for NASA on a new Falcon 9 rocket. See video and a wrap up of the launch here. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX will launch a Dragon spacecraft packed with NASA cargo to the International Space Station today (June 3) and you can watch the resupply mission live online. A shiny new SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will take to the skies here from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 1:29 p.m. EDT (1729 GMT). The two-stage launcher…

Read More

Change to SpaceX’s Starlink internet constellation faces legal challenge

SpaceX’s burgeoning satellite-internet business is getting a legal challenge. In late April, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved a modification that SpaceX had made to the design of its Starlink megaconstellation, which beams broadband service down using satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). That modification, which SpaceX proposed in April 2020, applies to a license that the FCC has already granted. It moves the operating altitude for more than 2,800 future Starlink satellites much lower, from between 680 miles and 810 miles (1,100 to 1,300 kilometers) to around 340…

Read More

SpaceX to fly 3 more private astronaut missions to space station for Axiom Space

SpaceX just added some more private crewed flights to its docket. Houston-based Axiom Space will fly three additional crewed missions to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, the two companies announced today (June 2).  Axiom had already booked one confirmed Crew Dragon flight to the orbiting lab; that mission will launch no earlier than January 2022. And last month, the company revealed that record-setting former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson would command the proposed Ax-2 flight to the station. Photos: The first space tourists We now know…

Read More

Google Doodle honors Frank Kameny, astronomer-turned-activist, for Pride Month

Google Doodle marked the second day of Pride Month (June 2) by celebrating an astronomer, Frank Kameny, who lost his job due to homophobia and spent the rest of his life fighting discrimination. Born in Queens, New York, Kameny began studying physics in college at just 15, according to Google. After joining the Army during World War II when he was 17, he returned to the U.S. in 1946 and finished undergraduate coursework in physics, then earned master’s and doctoral degrees in astronomy at Harvard. His research there focused on…

Read More

A Sunrise Annular Solar Eclipse

Even if you’re not in the path of annularity during the June 10th solar eclipse, get ready for a sunrise spectacle. The post A Sunrise Annular Solar Eclipse appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Read More

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope launch may slip to November

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope may not launch on Halloween (Oct. 31) after all.  Despite previous delays, progress on the highly anticipated Webb — billed as the successor to the iconic Hubble Space Telescope — has been steadily ongoing. For example, in May, the mission team recently unfolded Webb’s giant, golden mirror for the last time on Earth in the last major prelaunch test for the telescope’s mirror system. The telescope is set to be shipped in August to Kourou, French Guiana, where Webb will launch to space atop an Arianespace Ariane…

Read More