Orion Approaches Moon

On Nov. 20, the fifth day of the 25.5-day Artemis I mission, a camera mounted on the tip of one of Orion’s solar array wings captured this footage of the spacecraft and the Moon as it continued to grow nearer to our lunar neighbor.

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Boom!’s shiny ‘Firefly: Keep Flying’ one-shot comic is an early holiday treat

Christmastime is known as the bright and shiny season and what better sci-fi franchise to celebrate with than those rogue space cowboys from the “Firefly” ‘Verse.  Boom! Studios has partnered with 20th Television for “Firefly: Keep Flying #1 (opens in new tab),” a rollicking new mission written by Jeff Jensen (HBO’s “Watchmen,” “Better Angels”) and accented with stylish artwork from Italian illustrator Nicola Izzo.  This special issue aimed at Browncoats of all persuasions just landed in comic shops this past week and delivers a robust outer space adventure to relish.…

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Something is wrong with Einstein’s theory of gravity

Everything in the universe has gravity – and feels it too. Yet this most common of all fundamental forces is also the one that presents the biggest challenges to physicists. Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity has been remarkably successful in describing the gravity of stars and planets, but it doesn’t seem to apply perfectly on all scales. General relativity has passed many years of observational tests, from Eddington’s measurement (opens in new tab) of the deflection of starlight by the Sun in 1919 to the recent detection of gravitational waves (opens in new tab).…

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What was the US military’s secret space plane doing on its record-breaking mission?

A secret space plane operated by the United States Space Force (USSF) has landed back on Earth after spending a record 908 days in orbit. But what it was doing above our heads remains shrouded in mystery.  The uncrewed X-37B space plane touched down at NASA’s Kennedy Space Station on Nov. 12 at 5:22 a.m. ET, concluding the sixth mission that it and another identical vehicle have completed since the first flight in 2010. Details on its activities during the record-smashing trip are sparse, but officials claim it was conducting…

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Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft sees the moon for 1st time in stunning video

NASA’s Orion spacecraft has spotted the destination of its Artemis 1 test flight the moon and captured a stunning video to mark the moment.  In a video released Friday (Nov. 18), the half-lit moon is visible in the distance with the Orion spacecraft in the foreground, complete with NASA’s “worm” logo, as seen from a camera on the tip of one of the capsule’s four solar wings. At the time, Orion was about halfway to the moon, NASA said in a statement.  “On the third day of the Artemis I…

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‘The Art of Star Wars: The High Republic’ unveils the magic of Lucasfilm’s book crossover event (exclusive)

Heralding from the fine folks at Abrams Books, “The Art of Star Wars: The High Republic (Volume 1) (opens in new tab)” recently arrived on Earth to expose the genesis of the charismatic new heroes, villains, and environments in Lucasfilm Publishing and its worldwide partners’ ongoing “The High Republic” campaign. Inside this 224-page hardcover written by Kristin Baver (“Skywalker: A Family at War (opens in new tab)‘) is an exclusive look at rare concept art, detailed character and costume sketches, spaceships, vehicles, weapons, and creature designs used to flesh out…

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SpaceX to launch Japanese moon lander, UAE rover on Nov. 28

A Japanese private moon lander is in a race to make history. On Nov. 28, Tokyo-based ispace’s Hakuto-R lander is scheduled to launch for the moon‘s Atlas Crater to ready for a soft touchdown, which may be the first ever by a private company on the lunar surface.  Hakuto-R will lift off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and arrive at the moon no earlier than April 2023. Following landing, Hakuto-R will deploy a small United Arab Emirates rover, called Rashid. The four-wheeled…

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It’s official: NASA won’t rename James Webb Space Telescope

The most powerful space telescope currently in operation will retain its controversial name. The James Webb Space Telescope launched in December 2021 amid calls for the observatory to be renamed. The observatory was named in 2002 after government bureaucrat James Webb, who served as the second administrator of NASA during the 1960s. But opponents of the name argue that Webb persecuted people known or suspected to belong to the LGBTQ+ community. Now, NASA has concluded an investigation into Webb’s role in what’s been dubbed the Lavender Scare, and the agency…

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