Category: The Moon

Our moon

NASA’s Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter: Live updates

NeRD

2024-10-14T03:32:07.823Z Europa Clipper “GO” for launch A triple booster SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft on the launch pad. (Image credit: SpaceX/NASA/JPL) NASA and SpaceX are both “GO” to launch the Europa Clipper spacecraft toward Jupiter’s moon Europa on Monday, Oct. 14, 2024 after days of delays caused by the impacts of Hurricane Milton on its Florida launch site. Europa Clipper, a $5 billion flagship mission to an icy moon of Jupiter, is currently scheduled to lift off at 12:06 p.m. EDT (1606 GMT) from NASA’s Kennedy…

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What time will SpaceX launch NASA’s Europa Clipper to icy Jupiter moon today (and how to watch online)?

NeRD

Watch live! SpaceX Falcon Heavy to launch NASA’s Europa Clipper – YouTube Watch On NASA’s first mission to another ocean world in our solar system will launch toward Jupiter on Monday (Oct. 14), but if you want to watch it live, you’ll need to know when to tune in. Europa Clipper, a $5 billion NASA mission to study the salty ocean beneath the ice of Jupiter’s moon Europa, will launch on its way Monday atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Liftoff is set for 12:06 p.m. EDT (1606 GMT) from…

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SpaceX catches giant Starship booster with ‘Chopsticks’ on historic Flight 5 rocket launch and landing (video)

NeRD

The biggest and most powerful rocket ever built took to the skies again. And this time, it came back. SpaceX launched its 400-foot-tall (122 meters) Starship vehicle for the fifth time ever today (Oct. 13), sending the giant rocket aloft from its Starbase site in South Texas at 8:25 am. EDT (1225 GMT; 7:25 a.m. local Texas time).  The mission aimed to break new ground for Starship, and for spaceflight in general: SpaceX planned to return Starship’s huge first-stage booster, known as Super Heavy, directly to its launch mount, catching…

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What time is SpaceX’s Starship Flight 5 launch test on Oct. 13 (and how to watch online)?

NeRD

Watch live! SpaceX to launch Starship, attempt to catch booster – YouTube Watch On It’s official: SpaceX is “go” to launch what may be its most ambitious Starship test flight yet, and if you’re hoping to watch it live online, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered.  SpaceX’s next Starship test launch, called Starship Flight 5, is now officially scheduled to launch on Sunday, Oct. 13, at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) from the company’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas. It will be 7 a.m. local time…

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FAA clears SpaceX to resume Falcon 9 rocket launches

NeRD

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has given SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket a green light to return to flight. The Falcon 9 had been grounded since Sept. 28, when the rocket suffered an issue with its upper stage during the launch of the Crew-9 astronaut mission for NASA. (A Falcon 9 did launch Europe’s Hera asteroid-inspection probe on Oct. 7, but that was a one-time exception granted by the FAA.) “The FAA notified SpaceX on Oct. 11 that the Falcon 9 vehicle is authorized to return to regular flight…

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SpaceX Starship launches: Live updates

NeRD

2024-10-11T23:05:00.079Z SpaceX aims for Starship Flight 5 launch on Oct. 13 SpaceX’s Starship Flight 5 rocket and its Super Heavy booster are stacked together ahead of a planned launch from Boca Chica Beach, Texas on Oct. 13, 2024, pending FAA approval. (Image credit: SpaceX) SpaceX on Friday, Oct. 11, said its next Starship rocket could launch as early as Sunday, Oct. 13, pending final FAA regulatory approvals. Liftoff is targeted for no earlier than 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) on Oct. 13, if the approvals come through in time. A…

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‘Stunning was the word’: Astronauts snap amazing aurora photo from ISS during severe geomagnetic storm

NeRD

The auroras were pretty special on Thursday night (Oct. 10) — especially if you got to see them from orbit. NASA astronauts Don Pettit and Matthew Dominick are in that very exclusive club, getting a bird’s-eye view of the amazing auroral displays — which were supercharged by a recent solar storm — from the International Space Station (ISS). And the sight took the spaceflyers aback. “Stunning was the word,” Pettit wrote in a lengthy post on X on Friday (Oct. 11)  that shared a photo of the celestial light show. “The…

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Gaia space telescope discovers 55 ‘runaway’ careening away from stellar cluster at 80 times the speed of sound

NeRD

Using Europe’s Gaia space telescope, astronomers have identified 55 runaway stars being ejected at high speeds from a densely packed young cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way. This is the first time so many stars have been seen escaping from a single star cluster. The star cluster R136, located around 158,000 light-years away, is home to hundreds of thousands of stars and sits in a massive region of intense star formation in the LMC. It’s home to some of the biggest…

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Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is being squeezed, Hubble Telescope finds — and nobody knows why (video)

NeRD

The venerable Hubble Space Telescope has watched Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) oscillating, as though it were being squeezed in and out roughly every 90 days.  Why this huge anticyclone, which has been shrinking over the decades and currently measures about 9,165 miles (14,750 kilometers) across (although astrophotographer Damian Peach has reportedly measured it to be just 7,770 miles, or 12,500 km, wide), is behaving in such fashion is a mystery.  “With Hubble’s high resolution, we can say that the GRS is definitely squeezing in and out at the same…

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Hopes dim for another bright October comet after Tsuchinshan-ATLAS

NeRD

While skywatchers around the world have been raving about the performance of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, there has been talk on social media of yet another spectacular comet due to make its appearance at the end of this month.  The lineage of this second object apparently connects it with a family of comets, some of which have been among the most brilliant ever observed. For this reason, some might have already branded it as “The Great Halloween Comet.”  Unfortunately, it now appears likely that this will not happen.   We’ll get into…

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