Day: March 15, 2025

This Week In Space podcast: Episode 152 — Atomic Rockets II: Nuclear Electric Boogaloo

NeRD

Atomic Rockets II: Nuclear Electric Boogaloo – Pathways to the Solar System – YouTube Watch On On Episode 152 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik host Dr. Robert O’Brien, Director of the Universities Space Research Association’s Center for Space Nuclear Research, for a fascinating deep dive into nuclear propulsion technology for space exploration. They discuss the history, current developments, and future potential of nuclear electric and nuclear thermal propulsion systems, which could revolutionize our ability to explore Mars and beyond — both robotically and with human…

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SpaceX aces 3rd launch in 13 hours, sending 23 Starlink satellites to orbit (video)

NeRD

SpaceX just pulled off a spaceflight tripleheader. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 of the company’s Starlink internet satellites, including 13 with direct-to-cell capability, lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today (March 15) at 7:35 a.m. EDT (1135 GMT). It was SpaceX‘s third launch in a 13-hour span, as the company noted via X this morning. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on March 15, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX) The rocket flurry began at 7:03 p.m.…

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Where will the partial solar eclipse be visible in March 2025?

NeRD

Although it won’t be as spectacular as North America’s April 2024 total solar eclipse, the first solar eclipse since the “ring of fire” eclipse in October 2024 is set to bring stunning views to some lucky eclipse chasers. Just two weeks after a stunning total lunar eclipse on March 13-14, 2025, skywatchers across the western Northern Hemisphere will see at least a partial solar eclipse on March 29, 2025. For some observers, an eclipsed sun will appear on the eastern horizon at sunrise — if skies are clear — as…

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NASA’s EZIE Launches on Mission to Study Earth’s Electrojets

NeRD

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, carrying NASA’s EZIE spacecraft into orbit. SpaceX Under the nighttime California sky, NASA’s EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) mission launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 11:43 p.m. PDT on March 14. Taking off from Vandenberg Space Force Base near Santa Barbara, the EZIE mission’s trio of small satellites will fly in a pearls-on-a-string configuration approximately 260 to 370 miles above Earth’s surface to map the auroral electrojets, powerful electric currents that flow through our upper atmosphere in the polar…

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SpaceX Crew-10 folds traits, hopes into origami crane zero-g indicator

NeRD

What do you get when you fold together the ambitions and contributions of four space station-bound astronauts from the United States, Japan and Russia? A zero-g indicator in the form of an origami crane. Minutes after arriving in Earth orbit on Friday (March 14), the members of Crew-10 — SpaceX’s 10th operational mission to the International Space Station (ISS) under NASA’s commercial crew program — revealed their choice for the traditional plush toy used to signal they entered the microgravity environment of outer space. Mission specialist Takuya Onishi of the…

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Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket launching for 6th time ever soon: Watch it live

NeRD

Update for 12:15 a.m. ET on March 15: Firefly has called off the planned March 15 liftoff attempt due to an issue with the launch range. No new target date has been announced. Firefly Aerospace will launch its Alpha rocket for the sixth time ever on Saturday morning (March 15), and you can watch the action live. Alpha is scheduled to lift off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base on Saturday during a 52-minute window that opens at 9:25 a.m. EDT (1325 GMT; 6:25 a.m. local California time). Firefly will…

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