Category: The Moon

Our moon

Blue Origin to launch New Shepard moon-gravity mission on Feb. 4 after glitch

NeRD

Blue Origin is now targeting Tuesday (Feb. 4) for its first-ever moon-gravity mission. The company first tried to launch the NS-29 mission of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle on Jan. 28, but called off that try due to uncooperative weather and an issue with the rocket’s avionics. But everything appears to be in order now. Blue Origin, which is run by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, plans to fly the uncrewed NS-29 on Tuesday morning. If all goes according to plan, New Shepard — a reusable rocket-capsule combo — will lift…

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Newly-launched Indian satellite left stranded by propulsion problem

NeRD

India just launched its first mission of 2025. The Indian Space Research Organisation‘s (ISRO) Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) lifted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on schedule today at 7:53 p.m. EST (0053 GMT and 6:23 a.m. local time on Jan. 29). It was the 100th launch overall from the storied spaceport, which lies on the barrier island Sriharikota, off India’s southeastern coast. The first orbital liftoff from the site occurred in August 1979, according to The Hindu. NVS-02 was expected to take up a position along the geostationary…

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‘Roasting marshmallow’ exoplanet is so hot, it rains metal. How did it form?

NeRD

Astronomers may have inadvertently complicated the mystery of how strange “roasting marshmallow” planets form. Using the Gemini South telescope, researchers found that the “hot and puffy” ultra-hot Jupiter planet WASP-121b may have formed closer to its star than previously believed, challenging what we know about how planets form. Since the discovery of the first planet outside the solar system in the mid-1990s, the catalog of extrasolar planets, or “exoplanets,” has grown to over 5,000 entries. Many of these exoplanets are like nothing found in our solar system. The hot and…

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SpaceX launching 21 Starlink satellites from Florida on Feb. 3

NeRD

SpaceX is set to launch another batch of Starlink satellites to orbit from Florida’s Space Coast early Monday morning (Feb. 3) A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 Starlink spacecraft, including 13 with direct-to-cell capability, is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Monday during a four-hour window that opens at 3:54 a.m. EST (0854 GMT). SpaceX will livestream the action via its X account, beginning about five minutes before launch. If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth about eight…

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A year in isolation: 366-day mock moon mission wraps up in Russia

NeRD

On Nov. 14, 2024, the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) of the Russian Academy of Sciences marked the successful completion of SIRIUS-23, a year-long biomedical isolation experiment simulating the conditions of deep-space travel and lunar surface operations. For 366 days, a crew of six analog astronauts lived and worked in a sealed environment, a meticulously controlled Earth-based stand-in for interplanetary missions of the future. The SIRIUS (Scientific International Research in Unique terrestrial Station) project, launched in collaboration with NASA’s Human Research Program and the IBMP in 2017, had previously conducted…

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Astronaut’s mission ‘back to Earth’ lands on colorful spacesuit patch

NeRD

A former NASA astronaut who has made it her mission to promote the healing power of art and the need to protect our planet has inspired a new, limited-edition collectible with its own complementary cause. Nicole Stott, who was the first person to paint with watercolors in space, returned from the International Space Station (ISS) with a greater appreciation for saving our planet. She also had an idea for how to encourage pediatric cancer patients by involving them in a worldwide space art project. Now another creative effort has embraced…

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SpaceX launches 22 Starlink satellites to orbit from California (video)

NeRD

SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink internet satellites from California today (Feb. 1). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 6:02 p.m. EST (2302 GMT). The Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth about eight minutes after liftoff as planned, touching down in the Pacific Ocean on the SpaceX drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You.” The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rests on the deck of a drone ship shortly after launching 22 Starlink internet…

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‘Star Trek: Section 31”s costume design was literally ‘Star Trek by Balenciaga’ (interview)

NeRD

Hairstyles and makeup choices for a hardcore Empress of the Terran Empire ducking her duties in Starfleet’s under-the-radar black ops espionage division Section 31 to run a space disco and casino on the outer fringes of Federation space means that nothing exceeds like excess, as the old saying goes. For “Star Trek: Section 31’s” Emmy-nominated makeup department head, Shauna Llewellyn, and Ryan Reed, the hair department head, this Paramount+ project set outside the rules and regulations of Starfleet meant that they were free to explore a wide variety of wildly…

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Watch Japan launch navigation satellite on its 1st mission of 2025 on Feb. 2

NeRD

「みちびき6号機」（準天頂衛星）／H3ロケット5号機打上げライブ中継 – YouTube Watch On Japan will launch its first mission of the year early Sunday morning (Feb. 2), and you can watch the action live. An H3 rocket is scheduled to launch the Michibiki 6 navigation satellite from Tanegashima Space Center on Sunday during a two-hour window that opens at 3:30 a.m. EST (0830 GMT; 5:30 p.m. local Japan time). You can watch the liftoff live here at Space.com, courtesy of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency or directly via JAXA. Coverage will begin 40 minutes before the window opens.…

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Private Blue Ghost moon lander sees gorgeous lunar eclipse from Earth orbit (video)

NeRD

Blue Ghost, the “little lander” from Firefly Aerospace that’s headed to the moon, has captured the littlest lunar eclipse ever (as well as our hearts). Firefly contracted SpaceX to launch the company’s “Ghost Riders in the Sky” mission last month (Jan. 15) on a Falcon 9 rocket, out of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Since then, the lander has been camped out in Earth orbit, undergoing systems checks and preparing to light its engines for a translunar injection burn, which will propel the probe on a four-day trajectory for…

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