Category: Space Stations

Space stations in orbit or planned

Alien life could survive on Earth-like planets circling dead stars, study suggests

NeRD

White dwarfs may be stellar corpses, but that doesn’t mean that everything around them has to be lifeless. That’s the conclusion of Florida Institute of Technology researcher Caldon Whyte, who’s particularly fascinated by these stellar remnants. Until now, scientists have generally thought that planets orbiting white dwarfs would be unsuitable for life because the dynamic temperature decrease of their dead parent star makes their atmospheres too unstable. As the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) increasingly investigates white dwarf systems, however, Whyte and colleagues developed a model capable of assessing if…

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SpaceX launches 23 Starlink internet satellites to orbit from Florida’s Space Coast (video, photos)

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SpaceX launched yet another batch of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit from Florida this afternoon (March 18). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink craft, including 13 with direct-to-cell capability, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 3:57 p.m. EDT (1957 GMT). About eight minutes later, the rocket’s first stage touched down on the SpaceX drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas,” which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the 19th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a company mission description. A…

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Never-‘stuck’ Starliner astronauts return to Earth at last with Crew-9 duo in SpaceX Dragon splashdown

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The first astronauts to fly on board two different commercial spacecraft during a single mission have returned to Earth, splashing down with two of their International Space Station crewmates. Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore did not set out to make history other than being the first crew to launch on Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner capsule. After their capsule encountered propulsion issues, though, and NASA, out of an abundance of caution, decided to land it without them on board, Williams and Wilmore were reassigned to SpaceX‘s Crew Dragon to complete…

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Watch the sun set over the moon in epic video from private Blue Ghost lunar lander

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Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander made the most of its last few hours of life on the moon. The solar-powered Blue Ghost shut down on Sunday evening (March 16), shortly after the sun set over its lunar locale. The lander watched our star’s descent and disappearance over the cratered horizon, capturing the oncoming, killing darkness in a poignant video that Firefly shared with the world today (March 18). “These are the first high-definition images taken of the sun going down and then going into darkness at the horizon [on…

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Feel the burn with this amazing video of a Varda space capsule’s plunge through Earth’s atmosphere

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A small space private capsule has captured stunning onboard scenes from its high-velocity atmospheric reentry. Varda Space’s W-2 mission came to a successful and spectacular end on Feb. 27 when the capsule reentered the atmosphere and landed at the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia. The 265-pound (120 kilograms) capsule spent six weeks in space after launching atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Transporter 12 mission. (Image credit: Varda Space via YouTube) The company has now released a video capturing dramatic images from its final moments…

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World’s largest digital camera to help new Vera Rubin Observatory make a ‘time-lapse record of the universe’ (video)

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A major milestone with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory has been reached with the installation of the telescope’s enormous LSST Camera — the last optical component required before the last phase of testing can begin. The car-sized Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) Camera that was recently installed on the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is the largest digital camera ever built and will be used to capture detailed images of the southern hemisphere sky over a decade. “The installation of the LSST Camera on the telescope is a triumph of science…

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Farewell, Blue Ghost! Private moon lander goes dark to end record-breaking commercial lunar mission

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The historic mission of Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander is over. The solar-powered Blue Ghost went dark on Sunday evening (March 16) after the sun set on its lunar locale, bringing an end to a highly successful two weeks of surface operations on the moon. “We battle-tested every system on the lander and simulated every mission scenario we could think of to get to this point,” Blue Ghost Chief Engineer Will Coogan said in a Firefly statement today (March 17) that announced the end of the mission. “But what…

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This butterfly-shaped nebula owes its structure to 2 chaotic young stars

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A huge bipolar outflow of gas and dust, grown from the tumultuous birth of a double-star system, has formed a cosmic hourglass — and the James Webb Space Telescope imaged the scene in splendiferous detail. Referred to as Lynds 483, or LBN 483,, this nebulous outflow is located about 650 light years away. It provides an ideal opportunity for the James Webb Space Telescope to learn more about the process of star formation. (Beverly Lynds was an astronomer who catalogued both bright nebulas – BN – and dark nebulas –…

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The 1st private mission to Venus comes together ahead of possible 2026 launch (photos)

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Engineers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley report progress in installing a heat shield on the first private spacecraft targeted for Venus. Rocket Lab of Long Beach, California, is leading the effort, along with their partners at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. NASA’s Heatshield for Extreme Entry Environment Technology (HEEET) was invented at the NASA Ames center. NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology program, part of the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, supported the development of the heat shield for Rocket Lab’s Venus mission. You…

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You can buy Chewbacca’s Bowcaster or Luke’s medal at a ‘Star Wars’ auction, but it could cost you half a million dollars

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Poor Chewbacca never got his golden bravery medal for helping to destroy the Death Star during “Star Wars”‘ climactic Battle of Yavin, but you might be lucky enough to score Luke’s if you’re the high bidder in Propstore’s Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction that returns to Los Angeles on March 26–28, 2025. London-based Propstore is one of the world’s premier entertainment memorabilia auction houses and this spring they’re presenting a remarkable selection of priceless film-used “Star Wars” collectibles. Two of the showcase lots that should have fans and collectors salivating are…

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