No, Russia hasn’t claimed it will abandon an American astronaut on the space station

A Russian-made video posted on Telegram a week ago is causing some anxiety about the status of a NASA astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS). As shared by NASA Watch on Saturday (March 5), the video by Russian state news outlet RIA Novosti shows NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei being left behind on the ISS rather than departing on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft as planned. Making things worse are recent comments by Dmitry Rogozin, director-general of the Russian federal space agency Roscosmos. Rogozin has posted many fiery tweets lately…

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Space station telescope sees X-ray hot spots merge on supermagnetic star corpse

For the first time, a powerful NASA telescope aboard the International Space Station observed merging “hot spots” on a weird star, known as a magnetar. The telescope is called the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), and seeks to understand more about the extreme conditions present in super-dense, city-sized neutron stars and their variants. (Magnetars, for example, are a type of neutron star with a strong magnetic field.) “NICER tracked how three bright, X-ray-emitting hot spots slowly wandered across the object’s surface while also decreasing in size, providing the best…

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Edward Ashton discusses his new sci-fi novel headed for Hollywood, ‘Mickey7’ (exclusive)

Existential themes of identity and immortality are carefully explored in Edward Ashton’s engaging new sci-fi novel “Mickey7” (St. Martin’s Press, 2022), a witty book filled with a refreshing dose of clever humor and old-fashioned planetary adventure. Billed as “The Martian” meets “Multiplicity” (with a touch of Duncan Jones’ “Moon“), “Mickey7” introduces readers to an Expendable human worker drone named Mickey who is tasked with carrying out dangerous tasks on the frozen world of Niflheim. These disposable employees are subject to a variety of ignoble deaths before they’re regenerated as clones,…

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How Apollo 17 Is Preparing Artemis for a Return to the Moon

Researchers gear up for Artemis and a new generation of lunar exploration, with a look at samples from the final crewed mission to the Moon. The post How Apollo 17 Is Preparing Artemis for a Return to the Moon appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

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Virgin Orbit targeting this summer for 1st-ever orbital launch from UK soil

On the heels of a third straight successful launch from California earlier this year, Virgin Orbit plans to extend its liftoffs to the United Kingdom. The company aims to launch for the first time this summer from Spaceport Cornwall, in the western United Kingdom, Virgin Orbit announced on Wednesday (March 9). The mission will loft a satellite for Space Forge, an in-space manufacturing startup based in Wales. The coming flight will be the first orbital mission ever to launch from the UK and the first to carry a satellite developed…

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