SpaceX’s Starship continued to wow onlookers during its third test flight today. On Thursday (March 14), SpaceX launched Starship for the third time from its Starbase manufacturing and launch facility near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas. Hundreds of rocket chasers and spectators gathered along the beach to watch the test flight, which saw Starship, or “The Ship,” separate successfully from its Super Heavy booster and reach orbital velocity. Although neither vehicle survived the test flight, SpaceX hailed the flight as a success after several key milestones were met during…
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FAA grants license for SpaceX’s March 14 Starship launch
Starship’s third-ever test flight is officially on for Thursday morning (March 14). The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced today (March 13) that it has awarded a launch license for the mission. “The FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental, policy and financial responsibility requirements,” the agency wrote in a post on X this afternoon. Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, is scheduled to lift off on Thursday from SpaceX’s Starbase site in South Texas during a 110-minute window that opens at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT).…
Read MoreCanon EOS R8 vs Sony A7C II: Which should you buy?
Making the jump into full-frame camera systems is never a decision to be taken lightly, mainly because, most of the time, it involves investing in a full-frame lens setup as well as purchasing the camera body. For this reason, you want to make sure you’re buying into the right brand to avoid buyer’s regret later down the line. Here we’re looking at Sony and Canon’s smallest full-frame cameras, comparing their specs and how we found them when we tested them. So, if you’re in the market for your first full-frame…
Read MoreDark Energy Camera captures record-breaking image of a dead star’s scattered remains
This billowing mass of dust filaments and gas tendrils stretching across 100 light-years of space like delicate lace is the Vela supernova remnant — scattered ashes of a star that exploded about 11,000 years ago. The image was acquired by the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), which is mounted on the Victor M. Blanco 4-Meter Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. DECam was originally designed to conduct a survey of distant galaxies to measure the strength of dark energy as it accelerates the universe’s expansion and draws those…
Read MoreWater-themed plaque to fly on Europa Clipper to Jupiter’s icy ocean moon
A NASA spacecraft dedicated to studying a small ocean world will carry with it a metal plaque etched with the ripples created by the many ways humans say “water.” The Europa Clipper Vault Plate was revealed by NASA on Friday (March 8) at the opening session of the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas. Lori Glaze, NASA’s director of planetary science, joined U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón on stage to discuss the intersection of space and art, as well as again hear Limón recite her ode, “In Praise…
Read MoreSpaceX stacks Starship ahead of 3rd test flight (photos)
SpaceX’s latest Starship megarocket is poised for its highly anticipated liftoff. SpaceX has stacked the 400-foot-tall (122 meters) vehicle on the pad at its Starbase site in South Texas, the company announced via X today (March 12). That post also included two photos of the newly stacked Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built. Stacking is a big step toward launch, which SpaceX has said could occur as soon as Thursday (March 14). Related: SpaceX fuels up massive Starship megarocket in test for 3rd launch (photos) Another shot…
Read MoreA rare nova ignites a ‘new star’ in the sky this year. Here’s how to see it
A nova outburst visible to the naked eye is expected to decorate the night sky this year, offering a rare skywatching opportunity. The star system offering us this opportunity is known as T Coronae Borealis (T CrB). It’s located some 3,000 light-years away from Earth and consists of a red giant star and a white dwarf that orbit each other. When the white dwarf steals enough stellar material from its red giant companion, it ignites a brief flash of nuclear fusion on its surface, triggering what is known as a…
Read MoreWatch Rocket Lab launch a commercial radar-imaging satellite on March 12
Rocket Lab will launch a commercial radar-imaging satellite on Tuesday morning (March 12), and you can watch the action live. An Electron rocket topped with one of Japanese company Synspective’s Strix-3 satellites is scheduled to lift off from Rocket Lab‘s New Zealand launch site on Tuesday during an hour-long window that opens at 10:13 a.m. EDT (1413 GMT; 3:13 a.m. local New Zealand time on March 13). You can watch the event here at Space.com, courtesy of Rocket Lab, or directly via the company’s website. Coverage is expected to start…
Read MoreWatch SpaceX’s Crew-7 astronaut mission for NASA return to Earth March 12 in this free livestream
The four astronauts of SpaceX’s Crew-7 mission will return to Earth early Tuesday morning (March 12), and you can watch their homecoming live. Crew-7’s Dragon capsule, named Endurance, undocked from the International Space Station on Monday (March 11) after the astronauts’ 6.5-month stay on the orbiting laboratory. If all goes according to plan, the spacecraft will splash down off the coast of Florida on Tuesday around 5:50 a.m. EDT (0950 GMT). You can watch the reentry and recovery activities here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV. Coverage will begin at…
Read MoreNASA gets $25.4 billion in White House’s 2025 budget request
NASA won’t be getting a big budget boost next year. The White House allocated $25.4 billion to NASA in its federal budget request for fiscal year 2025, which was released today (March 11). That’s a 2% increase over the $24.9 billion the agency is getting for fiscal 2024, an amount that was enacted by Congress just last Friday (March 8). That enacted amount is a substantial cut from the $27.2 billion that the White House requested for the current fiscal year. So there’s certainly no guarantee NASA will get the…
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