Month: February 2024

NASA to Provide Coverage of Progress 87 Launch, Space Station Docking

NeRD

The Progress 84 cargo craft is pictured shortly after undocking from the International Space Station’s Poisk Module at 2:55 a.m. EST. NASA NASA will provide live coverage of the launch and docking of a Roscosmos cargo spacecraft carrying about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the crew aboard the International Space Station. The unpiloted Progress 87 resupply spacecraft is scheduled to launch at 10:25 p.m. EST Wednesday, Feb. 14 (8:25 a.m. Baikonur time Thursday, Feb. 15), on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Live coverage…

Read More

Everything we know about Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2

NeRD

Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40K is the most popular miniature wargame in the world, and its gothic science fiction setting is greatly responsible for that. Unsurprisingly, it’s also nurtured tons of video games over the decades, including the recent Doom-inspired shooter Boltgun. One of the most famous ones is 2011’s Space Marine, and more than a decade later, we’re finally getting a big blockbuster sequel. Here’s everything we know about Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2. In the distant future of Warhammer 40K, a dogmatic human civilization is under siege from all…

Read More

NASA Marshall Invites Media to Meet New Center Director

NeRD

2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Joseph Pelfrey, director, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center will host a media day at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 15, in the first-floor lobby of Building 4221 on Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, to introduce new Center Director Joseph Pelfrey. Media are invited to meet and speak with Pelfrey about his role. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson named Pelfrey director of Marshall on Feb. 5. Pelfrey had served as acting center…

Read More

NASA Administrator Names New Head of Small Business Programs

NeRD

Assistant Administrator for NASA’s Office of Small Business Programs, Dwight Deneal, poses for portrait, Monday, Feb. 12, 2024, at the NASA Headquarters Mary W. Jackson Building in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls) NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced Monday Dwight Deneal will serve as the new assistant administrator for the Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP) at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, effective immediately. In this role, Deneal provides executive leadership, policy direction, and management for programs that help ensure all small businesses are given a fair chance to work with…

Read More

How to watch SpaceX launch the private Intuitive Machines moon lander IM-1 on Feb. 14 live online

NeRD

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch a new private lunar lander to the moon for the company Intuitive Machines and NASA this week, and you can watch it live online in a series of free webcasts.  Intuitive Machines‘ first Nova-C lander mission, called IM-1, will to launch to the moon on a Falcon 9 rocket Feb. 14 with payloads for NASA and other customers. Liftoff is scheduled for 12:57 a.m. EST (0557 GMT) from NASA’s Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. If all goes well, IM-1…

Read More

It’s good! Space station astronauts toss football in zero-g for Super Bowl 2024 (video)

NeRD

It’s official, Super Bowl LVIII has reached outer space.  Two NASA astronauts apparently geared up for the big showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas today (Feb. 11) by tossing the old pigskin around the International Space Station.  Getting some reps in before #SuperBowl Sunday 🏈 pic.twitter.com/ATM6hJXW8aFebruary 10, 2024 See more “Getting some reps in before Super Bowl Sunday,” NASA wrote on X (formerly Twitter) while sharing a short video of the Expedition 70 astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara tossing the football on…

Read More

World’s 1st fault-tolerant quantum computer launching this year ahead of a 10,000-qubit machine in 2026

NeRD

The world’s first commercial fault-tolerant quantum computer with “logical qubits” may be running before the year’s end. Logical qubits — physical quantum bits, or qubits, connected through quantum entanglement — reduce errors in quantum computers by storing the same data in different places. This diversifies the points of failure when running calculations.  The new machine, which has 256 physical and 10 logical qubits, will launch in late 2024, representatives from QuEra, the startup that is building it, said in a statement.  The announcement follows a new study, published Dec. 6,…

Read More

New ‘Judas’ game trailer teases a dystopian sci-fi romp in outer space

NeRD

It’s a great time to be into science fiction video games That’s especially true if you’re into games set in outer space such as the upcoming “Judas,” Ken Levine’s long-anticipated return after wowing most players and causing lots of discourse with BioShock Infinite in 2013 is looking stunning.  This new look at the first-person shooter was presented during the State of Play stream that aired on Jan. 31, 2024, and while most of the marketing campaign appears to be backed by Sony, the game actually is a third-party release coming…

Read More

NASA is ‘learning to listen to the X-59’ by simulating sonic thumps with fighter jets (photos)

NeRD

Before NASA’s new X-59 supersonic jet can break the sound barrier, scientists had to record equivalent sonic booms to use for reference. Test pilots with NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center took to the skies high above the Southern California desert near the U.S. Air Force’s Edwards Air Force Base in order to generate “thumps” the X-59 “Quesst” supersonic jet is expected to produce. Unlike a typical thunderous sonic boom, the sound of the X-59 breaking the sound barrier is projected to be similar to a car door slamming as heard…

Read More

This Week In Space podcast: Episode 97 — Europa Clipper – Attempt No Landing There?

NeRD

On Episode 97 of This Week In Space, Tariq and Rod discuss the Europa Clipper mission with project scientist Erin Leonard. The moons of the outer solar system have become one of the primary targets of robotic exploration. Previous probes have detected what might be warm, salty oceans below the ice crusts of Saturn’s moon Enceladus and Jupiter’s Europa. NASA’s Europa Clipper will soon be bound for that cold, mysterious world. And Leonard joins us to discuss what to expect and what the hopes for life miles below the ice…

Read More