Category: Space Stations

Space stations in orbit or planned

Watch a SpaceX rocket launch the next-gen SpainSat NG 1 satellite into orbit tonight

NeRD

SpaceX is set to launch a next-generation Spanish communications satellite tonight (Jan. 29) and you can watch it live online. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying SpainSat Next Generation 1 (SpainSat NG 1), a communications satellite for the European Space Agency (ESA) and Hisdesat communications, is scheduled to lift off from Pad 39A of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a two-hour window that opens at 8:34 p.m. EST (0134 GMT on Jan. 30). SpaceX will webcast the launch live beginning about 15 minutes prior to liftoff, which you can…

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Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander snaps its 1st photos of the moon (images)

NeRD

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost moon lander has snapped its first photos of its distant target. On Monday (Jan. 27), Texas-based Firefly released two photos of the moon that Blue Ghost captured from Earth orbit. One shows the natural satellite all alone, a small grayish dot in an empty black sea; the other is a selfie, showing the moon glowing above some of Blue Ghost’s golden hardware. “While Blue Ghost is in Earth orbit, we’ll continue to keep an eye on our final destination! To the moon!” Firefly said in a…

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Watch India launch a new navigation satellite into orbit today on its 1st mission of 2025

NeRD

Launch of GSLV-F15/NVS-02 Mission from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota – YouTube Watch On India will launch its first mission of 2025 this evening (Jan. 28), and you can watch the action live. The Indian Space Research Organisation‘s (ISRO) Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) is scheduled to lift off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, on the island of Sriharikota, today at 7:53 p.m. EST (0053 GMT and 6:23 a.m. local time on Jan. 29). It will be the 100th launch overall from the spaceport, according to ISRO. You…

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Satellites watch world’s largest iceberg on crash course with Antarctic penguin island (photo/video)

NeRD

The world’s largest iceberg, A23a, is drifting toward South Georgia Island, a remote and ecologically vital wildlife haven. This massive block of ice, about the size of Rhode Island, poses a significant threat to the delicate ecosystem of the island, home to penguins and seals. Satellite images, including recent data captured by NOAA’s GOES East satellite on Jan. 22, 2025, are closely monitoring the iceberg’s slow journey through the Southern Ocean, where it could soon reach the shallow waters surrounding South Georgia. Breaking free Iceberg A23a has been a concern…

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What time is Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket ‘moon gravity’ launch on Jan. 28? Here’s how to watch live

NeRD

Blue Origin will launch its first suborbital rocket launch of 2025 this week — and attempt a wild spin trick to mimic the moon’s gravity during the flight — but if you want to see it live, you’ll need to know when and where to tune in. An uncrewed New Shepard rocket will launch the so-called NS-29 mission no earlier than Tuesday, Jan. 28, at 11:30 a.m. EST (10:30 a.m. CST/1630 GMT) from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas. The mission will launch 30 different experiments, most of…

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Supermassive black holes in ‘little red dot’ galaxies are 1,000 times larger than they should be, and astronomers don’t know why

NeRD

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered distant, overly massive supermassive black holes in the early universe. The black holes seem way too massive compared to the mass of the stars in the galaxies that host them. In the modern universe, for galaxies close to our own Milky Way, supermassive black holes tend to have masses equal to around 0.01% of the stellar mass of their host galaxy. Thus, for every 10,000 solar masses attributed to stars in a galaxy, there is around one solar mass of…

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India’s space agency completes 1st Gaganyaan astronaut crew capsule

NeRD

The capsule that will one day ferry Indian astronauts to space and return them to Earth has been fitted with the key technology required for the task — marking another milestone in the country’s pursuit to develop homegrown technology for independent human spaceflight capabilities. The country’s space agency, Indian Space Research Organization, announced on Wednesday (Jan. 22) that its Bengaluru center completed assembling the Gaganyaan crew module and equipping it with a liquid propulsion system, which is responsible for generating the thrust needed to control the capsule’s orientation and trajectory.…

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‘Star Trek: Section 31’ has a huge surprise celebrity cameo at the end

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No matter what side of the galaxy you’re on regarding your opinion of Paramount+’s first-ever direct-to-streaming “Star Trek” film, “Section 31,” we can at least all agree (hopefully) that the fun cameo at the very end of the movie was unexpectedly amusing and does leave an opening for a potential sequel. Spoilers ahead: If you haven’t seen the movie yet, check out our How to watch Star Trek: Section 31 guide for more info. That specific scene occurs when Emperor Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) and her motley crew of black…

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Earth is bombarded with rocks from space — but who gets to keep these ultimate antiques?

NeRD

Every day, about 48.5 tons of space rock hurtle towards Earth. Meteorites that fall into the ocean are never recovered. But the ones that crash on land can spark debates about legal ownership. Globally, meteorite hunting has become a lucrative business, with chunks of alien rock traded online and shipped between countries. Meteorites hold the key to the mysteries of the universe, but increasingly, significant scientific finds are being lost to private collectors. Last year, New Zealand formally recorded an apple-sized meteorite weighing 810g. It fell on Department of Conservation…

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US military practices rescuing astronauts from the sea (photos)

NeRD

A U.S. military joint task force did some training recently off the Florida coast to help with astronaut splashdowns. “Space travel is expected to increase, so the search and rescue alert is going to increase, and we will be ready to answer that call,” Maj. Ryan Schieber, lead planner for Human Space Flight Support (HSFS) in the U.S. Air Force’s 315th Operations Support Squadron, said in a statement. So, as the U.S. sees an uptick in crewed spaceflight operations, the military wants to make sure it can support astronaut retrieval…

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