Category: Space Stations

Space stations in orbit or planned

This exoplanet circling a dead star may mirror Earth’s fate — if our planet survives a dying sun, that is

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A planetary system anchored by a dead white dwarf star, located around 4,000 light-years away, has offered astronomers a possible glimpse into what our sun and Earth could look like in around 8 billion years.  However, this would only be Earth’s future if our planet manages to survive the sun’s eventual transformation into a swollen red giant. This transformation is expected to happen around 5 billion to 6 billion years from now, when the sun finally exhausts its fuel supply needed for nuclear fusion. That red giant phase will see…

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‘That’s weird’: James Webb Space Telescope spies a strange galaxy outshining its stars

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In a pocket of the universe teeming with galaxies, the James Webb Space Telescope has zeroed in on one blazing so brightly it outshines its stars. The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted the galaxy named GS-NDG-9422 — a realm that existed about one billion years after the Big Bang, and indeed one that may provide the missing link of galaxy evolution between the universe’s first stars and well-structured galaxies. GS-NDG-9422 “will help us understand how the cosmic story began,” Alex Cameron, an observational astronomer at the University of Oxford…

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NASA Invites Public to Join as Virtual Guests for SpaceX Crew-9 Launch 

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin onboard, Sunday, March 3, 2024, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA/Aubrey Gemignani NASA invites the public to participate as virtual guests in the launch of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission. NASA astronaut Nick Hague, commander, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, mission specialist, will embark on a flight aboard a SpaceX Dragon…

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Radar images capture snowman-shaped object tumbling past Earth

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The universe appears to have sent us an early Christmas present: the large asteroid that tumbled safely past Earth last week was, in fact, two asteroids melded into one object that resembles a snowman. The asteroid, named 2024 ON, zipped past Earth on Sept. 17 at 19,842 mph (31,933 kph), which is roughly 26 times the speed of sound. The space rock is huge — 1150 feet (350 meters) long, about the size of a skyscraper — but it safely floated past Earth at a distance of 620,000 miles (1…

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Japan launching spy satellite on penultimate mission of H-2A rocket early Sept. 26

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Japan’s workhorse H-2A rocket is set to fly for the second-to-last time early Thursday morning (Sept. 26). An H-2A topped with a secret spy satellite called IGS-Radar 8 is scheduled to lift off from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center on Thursday at 1:24 a.m. EDT (0524 GMT and 2:24 p.m. local Japan time). Space.com will provide a webcast of the launch, if one is made available. According to NextSpaceflight.com, IGS-Radar 8 will head to sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), a polar path in which satellites cruise over patches of Earth at the same local…

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Canon PowerShot Zoom digital monocular review

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The Canon PowerShot Zoom is a bit confusing at first. Most of its features as a camera are equally well matched by your average phone and undoubtedly surpassed with almost any modern digital camera. You realize the camera’s point only once you start using the 400mm zoom. Canon calls the PowerShot a monocular, but we find it’s better understood as a really small digital camera with the addition of a two-position zoom lens. This feature makes it a unique take on the monocular market. The lens is 100/400mm (equivalent) with…

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NASA Sets Coverage for Agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 Launch, Docking

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NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov walk across the crew access arm at Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Credit: SpaceX NASA will provide coverage of the upcoming prelaunch and launch activities for the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff is targeted for 1:17 p.m. EDT, Saturday, Sept. 28, from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This is the first human spaceflight mission to launch from that pad. The targeted docking time is…

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SpaceX launching 20 Starlink internet satellites to orbit early Sept. 25

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SpaceX plans to launch 20 more of its Starlink broadband satellites, including 13 with direct-to-cell capability, from California early Wednesday morning (Sept. 25). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, on California’s central coast, Wednesday at 3:01 a.m. EDT (0701 GMT; 9:01 p.m. on Sept. 24 California time). You can watch the action live via SpaceX’s X account; coverage will begin about five minutes before launch. If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will come…

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‘We are close:’ SETI astrobiologist Nathalie Cabrol on the search for life

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A leading astrobiologist melds her passion with the weighty nature of trying to grasp for answers to two key questions: Are we alone in the universe? How did life on Earth begin in the first place? Nathalie Cabrol’s book, “The Secret Life of the Universe: An Astrobiologist’s Search for the Origins and Frontiers of Life” (Scribner/Simon & Schuster), released last month, offers an insightful and reflective view of the search for life — a mind-stretching quest not only looking “out there” but also right here on Earth. Perhaps part of…

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Tropical Storm Helene delays SpaceX’s Crew-9 astronaut launch to Sept. 28

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SpaceX’s next astronaut mission has been delayed by a powerful storm. The company had been planning to launch the Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday afternoon (Sept. 26). However, that target date has slipped by at least two days, thanks to a maelstrom named Helene. Helene is a tropical storm at the moment, but it’s expected to slam into Florida’s Gulf Coast on Thursday as a Category 3 hurricane. Thus, NASA and SpaceX now aim to launch…

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