Category: The Moon

Our moon

SpaceX to launch new Intuitive Machines moon lander, lunar satellites in 2027

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Intuitive Machines may have crashed its latest moon lander on the lunar surface, but that’s not keeping the company down for long. The Houston-based company has picked SpaceX to launch IM-4, its fourth moon lander, on a Falcon 9 rocket in 2027 alongside two relay satellites for a NASA lunar communications network. The news comes just weeks after the company’s IM-2 moon lander crashed near the moon’s south pole, and as the firm continues work on its third moon lander (yes, it’s called IM-3), which is expected to launch in…

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SpaceX’s next Dragon cargo ship launch for NASA will lift off on April 21

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NASA’s next special delivery to the International Space Station has a launch date, but it’s going to be one for early-birds. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch an uncrewed Dragon cargo ship packed with tons of supplies on Monday, April 21, from the historic Pad 39A of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Liftoff is set for 4:15 a.m. EDT (0815 GMT), making it a predawn launch. “Along with food and essential equipment for the crew, Dragon is delivering a variety of experiments, including a demonstration of…

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We now know the shape of notorious asteroid 2024 YR4 that dominated headlines recently — it’s probably ‘suburban,’ too

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The asteroid 2024 YR4 — the one that caused a stir earlier this year due to its potential collision course with Earth — has a surprising tale to tell. A new study reports that this space rock likely hails from the central region of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter — a cosmic “suburb” scientists don’t typically associate with asteroids that cross paths with our planet. Shortly after its discovery late last year, astronomers calculated that 2024 YR4 had a 1.3% chance (1-in-83) of impacting Earth in December…

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How to watch Jared Isaacman’s NASA chief confirmation hearing in the Senate on April 9

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American billionaire Jared Isaacman heads to Capitol Hill this week for a Senate confirmation hearing on whether he’ll take NASA’s top job, and you can watch it live online. Jared Isaacman, President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as the next NASA Administrator, will appear before the Senate on Wednesday (April 9) during a hearing with the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) and you’ll be able to watch it live directly from a Senate webcast or on the NASA+ streaming…

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Black holes as batteries: Could humanity ever harness the energy of these cosmic titans?

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Humans are quite rightly fascinated by black holes, but could we ever harness them as an energy source? New research poses this question in order to explore some of the most wonderous cosmic events. Black holes are bounded by outer barriers called event horizons that prevent us from ever viewing their interiors or their hearts, singularities at which all known laws of physics collapse. This means black holes couldn’t be more mysterious. Black holes are also unlike anything found on Earth or in the solar system in another respect: their…

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Navy SEAL-doctor-astronaut lifts off with cosmonauts on Russian flight to ISS

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A Navy SEAL, medical doctor and NASA astronaut lifted off for an eight-month mission on the International Space Station — and that was just one of the three crewmembers on the trip into Earth orbit. Jonny Kim of the United States, together with Russia’s Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, launched on Tuesday (April 8) as the Soyuz MS-27 crew. Riding atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket, they ascended from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:47 a.m. EDT (0547 GMT or 10:47 a.m. local time). “I am so proud and excited,”…

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SpaceX launches 27 Starlink satellites on brand-new Falcon 9 rocket, aces Pacific Ocean landing (video)

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A never-before-flown Falcon 9 rocket launched the newest round of Starlink internet satellites Monday (April 7), in an afternoon liftoff from the U.S. West Coast. The booster, likely the one designated B1091, was the second new rocket that SpaceX has launched so far this year, both of which supported Starlink missions. Monday’s flight, known as Starlink 11-11, lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 7:06 p.m. EDT (2306 GMT), lofting 27 Starlink satellites toward low Earth orbit (LEO). About eight minutes after liftoff, B1091 completed its descent…

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A day on Uranus is actually longer than we thought, Hubble Telescope reveals

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Uranus just got a little more time on its hands. A fresh analysis of a decade’s worth of Hubble Space Telescope observations shows Uranus takes 17 hours, 14 minutes and 52 seconds to complete a full rotation — that’s 28 seconds longer than the estimate provided by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft nearly four decades ago. In January 1986, Voyager 2 became the first — and so far the only — spacecraft to explore Uranus, and with its data, astronomers pegged the ice giant’s rotation period at 17 hours, 14 minutes…

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North America is ‘dripping’ down into Earth’s mantle, scientists discover

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An ancient slab of Earth’s crust buried deep beneath the Midwest is sucking huge swatches of present-day’s North American crust down into the mantle, researchers say. The slab’s pull has created giant “drips” that hang from the underside of the continent down to about 400 miles (640 kilometers) deep inside the mantle, according to a new study. These drips are located beneath an area spanning from Michigan to Nebraska and Alabama, but their presence appears to be impacting the entire continent. The dripping area looks like a large funnel, with…

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‘Doctor Who’ Season 2 premieres this week with a robot revolution and AI terrors

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Doctor Who | Season 2 Official Trailer | Disney+ – YouTube Watch On The sands of time might be running out for Ncuti Gatwa’s turn in the TARDIS as the Fifteenth Doctor since rumors circulated this year that he’ll exit for creative endeavors in Los Angeles after this run. But if so, there’s still some gas in the tank for one more trip around the universe as this whirlwind “Doctor Who” Season 2 trailer plainly reveals. Last season saw a significant viewer drop-off and longtime fans’ underwhelming response to the…

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