South Korea’s first moon mission is beaming back images of home from its position in low lunar orbit. Danuri, also known as the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in early August last year and arrived in lunar orbit four months later, in mid-December. The milestone adds South Korea to the exclusive club of nations with successful moon missions, which also includes Japan, China and India, among others. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) has now released images from the $180 million Danuri showing…
Read MoreMonth: January 2023
Crew Recovers SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance
Support teams work around the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft shortly after it landed on Friday, May 6, 2022 with Crew-3 NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Kayla Barron, Tom Marshburn, and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer aboard.
Read MoreThe sky isn’t just blue — airglow makes it green, yellow and red too
This article was originally published at The Conversation. (opens in new tab) The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Michael J. I. Brown (opens in new tab), Associate Professor in Astronomy, Monash UniversityMatthew Kenworthy (opens in new tab), Associate professor in Astronomy, Leiden University Look up on a clear sunny day and you will see a blue sky. But is this the true color of the sky? Or is it the only color of the sky? The answers are a little complicated, but they involve the nature of…
Read MoreNASA’s Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft arrives in Florida (photos)
NASA’s Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft is finally home. Orion arrived at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on Dec. 30, wrapping up a nine-day trek across the country on the back of a truck. KSC was the jumping-off point for Orion’s epic Artemis 1 moon mission, which sent the uncrewed capsule on a shakeout cruise to lunar orbit and back. Artemis 1 launched from KSC on Nov. 16 atop a Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket and ended with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of…
Read MoreAstronaut Walt Cunningham, who test-flew Apollo 7 command module, dies at 90
Former NASA astronaut Walter Cunningham, who flew on the first test of the Apollo command module in Earth orbit, has died at the age of 90. Cunningham’s death on Tuesday (opens in new tab) (Jan. 3) was confirmed by his family. “We would like to express our immense pride in the life that he lived, and our deep gratitude for the man that he was — a patriot, an explorer, pilot, astronaut, husband, brother and father. The world has lost another true hero, and we will miss him dearly,” his…
Read MoreNASA asks SpaceX about International Space Station rescue options
NASA has inquired about using a SpaceX Dragon capsule to bring astronauts home from the International Space Station (ISS) following a recent leak aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule, a NASA blog post has stated. On Dec. 15, 2022, the Soyuz spacecraft MS-22 suffered a significant coolant leak while docked at the ISS just prior to a planned Russian spacewalk. While the leaky Soyuz poses no immediate danger to the space station or its crew, it remains unknown if the Soyuz craft is flightworthy; as such, the MS-22 crew no longer…
Read MoreNASA Awards Space and Earth Sciences Data Analysis-V Contract
NASA has awarded the Space and Earth Sciences Data Analysis-V (SESDA-V) contract to ADNET Systems, Inc. of Bethesda, Maryland, to provide Earth and Space Science research and development at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Read MoreApollo Astronaut Walter Cunningham Dies at 90
Former astronaut Walter Cunningham, who flew into space on Apollo 7, the first flight with crew in NASA’s Apollo Program, died early Tuesday morning in Houston. He was 90 years old.
Read MoreBird, Rocket Prepare for Flight at Kennedy Space Center
An osprey is seen in front of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop a mobile launcher at Launch Pad 39B as launch preparations continued Friday, Sept. 2, 2022, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Read MoreFeeding black hole blows ‘cosmic bubbles’ amid high-energy burps
Astronomers have observed the effect of a distant feeding black hole that is burping out tremendous amounts of energy and blowing huge cosmic bubbles in its surrounding material. The observations of the galactic cluster MS0735 located 2.6 billion light-years away could reveal new information about mysterious cavities or “radio bubbles” that surround the black hole and why they don’t simply collapse like a deflated balloon under pressure from their surroundings. “We’re looking at one of the most energetic outbursts ever seen from a supermassive black hole,” research lead author and…
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