If he’d tried for a hundred years, Academy Award-winning director Jordan Peele could not have timed the box office release of his new sci-fi horror film, “Nope,” more perfectly. With senate hearings, NASA panels, and special committees being formed to investigate the proliferation of Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP) sightings, and public interest in UFOs spiking like gasoline prices around the world, a scary summer movie wrapped around the enigma of flying saucers and extraterrestrials seems appropriately ripe for the times. Peele has often been cited as the modern Alfred Hitchcock,…
Read MoreMonth: June 2022
NASA to Discuss, Conduct Test to Prepare for Artemis I Moon Mission
NASA is targeting Saturday, June 18, for the beginning of the next wet dress rehearsal test of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with tanking operations on Monday, June 20.
Read MoreSpace Center Houston celebrates Artemis with new exhibit, Moon2Mars festival
NASA’s Artemis program has inspired a new exhibit and annual festival at the agency’s Texas visitor center. Space Center Houston debuted its aptly titled “Artemis” exhibit (opens in new tab) on Thursday (June 9), the same day that it launched “Moon2Mars,” a one-day business conference and three-day public celebration highlighting emerging ideas and technologies that will transport humans to the moon, Mars and beyond. “We are excited to provide people of all ages with access to the latest in space tech and to celebrate together as we look ahead at…
Read MoreMomentus troubleshooting problems with newly launched space tug
Momentus’ newly launched space tug has been experiencing some issues in orbit. The Vigoride spacecraft, built by California-based company Momentus, launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on May 25, riding to Earth orbit along with dozens of other payloads on a mission called Transporter 5. It’s the first spaceflight for Vigoride and serves primarily as a demonstration mission, though the tug is carrying nine small satellites to deploy for three different customers, according to SpaceNews (opens in new tab). (Vigoride’s main envisioned job is to ferry customer payloads to…
Read MoreCrash as Trash
When should we start thinking about cleaning up our space junk on Mars? The post Crash as Trash appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
Read MoreStratolaunch ends 6th test flight of Roc, the world’s largest airplane, early after unexpected results
Roc, the massive bi-fuselage carrier plane operated by hypersonic vehicle manufacturer Stratolaunch, took off from California’s Mojave Desert for its sixth test flight on Thursday (June 9) but ended the sortie earlier than expected. “During the test program, the team encountered results that determined they would not complete the full set of test objectives,” the company said in a press release (opens in new tab) Thursday evening. “We made the decision to land, review the data and prepare for our next flight,” Stratolaunch representatives added in a tweet (opens in…
Read MoreSpace Station Science Highlights: Week of June 6, 2022
Crew members aboard the International Space Station conducted scientific investigations during the week of June 6 that included demonstrating technology for real-time measurement of particles in space, testing a radiation protection garment, and examining solidification of alloys.
Read MoreNASA Student Business Competition Gets Boost by White House Initiative
NASA’s Minority University Education and Research Program (MUREP) Innovation and Tech Transfer Idea Competition (MITTIC), a Shark Tank-style competition for students at minority-serving institutions, is officially included in the 2022 historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) Scholar Recognition Program.
Read MoreHubble Investigates an Enigmatic Star Cluster
Unlike most globular clusters, Ruprecht 106 may be what astronomers call a single population globular cluster.
Read MoreThis Week’s Sky at a Glance, June 10 – 18
The waxing gibbous Moon shines with Spica, then occults Delta Scorpii. Meanwhile, all seven planets other than Earth are forming into a diagonal line across the east to southeast at dawn. The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, June 10 – 18 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
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