“Who wants a Skittle?” With those four words delivered from high above Earth, Jeff Bezos not only launched a handful of the fruit-flavored candies floating about his Blue Origin New Shepard space capsule, but also inspired a new, limited-edition variety of the popular colorful treats. Mars, Incorporated, the confectioner behind the “Taste the Rainbow” brand, announced on Thursday (July 22) that it has created “Zero-G Skittles,” celebrating its candies’ high-profile trip two days earlier aboard the first suborbital spacecraft to take a paying passenger into space. Related: Jeff Bezos says…
Read MoreMonth: July 2021
Boeing’s Starliner capsule is ‘go’ for July 30 test launch for NASA
Boeing’s astronaut taxi has cleared a big hurdle on the road to its July 30 launch to the International Space Station. The CST-100 Starliner capsule has passed its flight readiness review (FRR) for the upcoming liftoff, which will kick off the uncrewed Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2) mission to the station, NASA and Boeing representatives announced Thursday (July 22). “After reviewing the teams’ data and the readiness of all the parties, everybody said ‘go’ for the launch today and moving out for the mission,” Kathy Lueders, associate administrator of NASA’s…
Read MoreAstronomers Detect Potential Moon-forming Disk around an Exoplanet
Astronomers have made the first clear detection of a dusty disk surrounding an exoplanet, which could eventually go on to form moons. The post Astronomers Detect Potential Moon-forming Disk around an Exoplanet appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
Read MoreNASA’s Insight Reveals First Look Inside Mars
The Insight mission science team has used about 10 deep marsquakes to take stock of the planet’s anatomy. The post NASA's Insight Reveals First Look Inside Mars appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
Read MoreThe Little (Mars) Helicopter That Could
Ingenuity, the helicopter that arrived on the Red Planet on the Mars Perseverance rover, has made nine flights on Mars.
Read MoreNASA’s Perseverance to Collect First Sample from Mars
Perseverance will soon collect the first of many samples from the Martian surface in a quest to answer whether the planet once hosted life. The post NASA's Perseverance to Collect First Sample from Mars appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
Read MoreNighttime weather on Venus revealed for the 1st time
What’s the weather like at night on Venus? Scientists are finally finding out. Just one planet away, Venus is relatively close to Earth and we have been studying it for a long time, with the first Venusian probe reaching the planet in 1978. However, scientists have known very little about what the weather is like at night on Venus. That is, until now. In a new study, researchers have devised a new way to use infrared sensors on the Japanese Venus climate orbiter Akatsuki, a probe that arrived in orbit…
Read MoreEarth’s clouds are likely to increase global heating, scientists find
While we see Earth getting warmer as the effects of climate change continue to escalate, our planet’s clouds make our planet hotter than ever, scientists worry. By using a new approach to analyzing data from satellites, scientists in a new study suggest that Earth’s clouds could exacerbate global warming over time. This work, conducted by researchers at Imperial College London and the University of East Anglia in the U.K., provides evidence that suggests that it is very likely — with an approximately 97.5% probability — that clouds will amplify global…
Read MoreNASA Perseverance Mars Rover to Acquire First Sample
NASA is making final preparations for its Perseverance Mars rover to collect its first-ever sample of Martian rock, which future planned missions will transport to Earth.
Read MoreRussia launches huge Nauka science module to space station after years of delays
Russia’s largest space laboratory yet launched into orbit Wednesday (July 21) on a mission to expand the International Space Station after 14 years of delays. The Russian Multipurpose Research Module (MLM), also known as Nauka, blasted off toward the International Space Station at 10:58 EDT (14:58 UTC) atop a Proton-M rocket from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The launch was a longtime coming for Nauka, which was originally slated to launch in 2007. “Engine start and lift-off. A module named Science takes flight to the International Space Station!” NASA commentator…
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