NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 astronauts ready for historic mission

SpaceX’s next Crew Dragon astronaut launch for NASA will see a new country represented in one of the sleek white spacesuits. Russia’s Anna Kikina will take a seat on SpaceX with two American astronauts and a Japanese astronaut on the mission. The foursome will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) no earlier than Oct. 3, 2022 at 12:45 p.m. EDT (1645 GMT) on SpaceX’s Dragon Endurance spacecraft. The SpaceX craft will be lifted to the ISS atop the company’s Falcon 9 rocket after launching from Launch Complex 39A at…

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China launches Yunhai-1 03 Earth-observing satellite into orbit

China has sent a new Earth-observing satellite into space. A Long March 2D rocket carrying the Yunhai-1 03 satellite lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert on Tuesday (Sept. 20) at 7:15 p.m. EDT (2315 GMT; 7:15 a.m. local time on Wednesday, Sept. 21). Chinese state media said the satellite will be used (opens in new tab) for “detecting the atmospheric, marine and space environments, disaster prevention and mitigation, and scientific experiments.” Not much else is known about the Yunhai-1 series of spacecraft. Related: China National…

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An asteroid and volcano ‘double punch’ doomed the dinosaurs, study suggests

Major volcanic eruptions could have caused mass extinctions throughout Earth’s history, including the one that wiped out the dinosaurs around 66 million years ago.  Currently, the leading theory to explain the mass extinction that saw the end of the dinosaurs suggests that it was triggered when a massive asteroid impacted Earth in what is now the Chicxulub region of the Gulf of Mexico. However, new research suggests that the asteroid may have had an ‘accomplice’ in this extinction event in the form of volcanic activity. This new research, which re-examined…

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NASA’s Mars lander hears the ‘bloop’ of meteorites hitting the Red Planet

The Mars InSight lander has detected seismic and acoustic waves created when four space rocks impacted the surface of the Red Planet. InSight‘s seismometer felt the vibrations from the impacts in 2020 and 2021, marking the first detections of meteoroids hitting the planet since the lander began gathering data after touching down in 2018. The meteoroid impacts occurred between 53 miles (85 kilometers) and 180 miles (290 km) from InSight’s location in the Elysium Planitia region of Mars, a broad plain that stretches across the Martian equator. One of the…

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Save $1000 on the Unistellar eQuinox computerized telescope

Now is definitely the time to save big on a highly sophisticated computerized telescope as the Unistellar eQuinox is now $1000 (opens in new tab) off at B&H Photo Video.  The $1000 discount (opens in new tab) comes at a time when discount sales events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday are looming, but we don’t think you’ll see anything like this discount on any other telescope. We like this telescope a lot, almost as much as this deal, and it even gets a mention in our best telescopes guide.…

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China Mars mission data offers evidence for ancient ocean

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has revealed new data from its Tianwen 1 Mars orbiter and Zhurong Mars rover, according to a report from state-run media network CGTN.  Launched on July 23, 2020, Tianwen 1 and Zhurong, along with a lander, reached Martian orbit on Feb. 10, 2021; the orbiter has been operating for nearly 800 days. The rover and the lander reached the surface of Mars three months later, on May 14, and the rover has so far traversed 6,302 feet (1,921 meters).  Now, CGTN reports that CNSA…

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