Astronaut’s diary found among fallen space shuttle debris added to National Library of Israel

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The handwritten journal pages of Israel’s first astronaut have been added to the country’s national library in Jerusalem, more than 20 years after they were found among the debris from the NASA tragedy that claimed his life. Ilan Ramon wrote most of the diary while he was in orbit aboard the space shuttle Columbia, serving as an STS-107 payload specialist on the winged spacecraft’s last, ill-fated flight. The found pages document Ramon’s day-to-day life in space, from his hygiene routine to the research he performed on behalf of NASA and…

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James Webb Space Telescope finds a dusty skeleton in this starburst galaxy’s closet

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The dwarf galaxy NGC 4449 is the star of the show in the James Webb Space Telescope‘s latest cosmic portrait. Located 12.5 million light-years away in the constellation of Canes Venatici, the Hunting Dogs, NGC 4449 has much in common with our very own Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the satellite galaxy orbiting the Milky Way. Both are small and irregular in shape and each has a distinctive bar running through its center. However, whereas the LMC has one extreme region of star formation, which is the 30 Doradus region famously…

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The ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ series finale is a mixed bag (review)

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Warning: Spoilers ahead for “Star Trek: Discovery” season 5, episode 10 Here we are, six years, eight months and six days later, and, to paraphrase a well-known “Star Trek” alum, Oh my, the world has drastically changed during that time. And so has “Star Trek.” You may remember that, way back on Nov. 2, 2015, news trickled out that CBS was going to reboot “Star Trek” in some way, shape or form, giving producers a year or so to put something together before the show’s 50th anniversary in September 2016.…

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Spaceflight effects tumor-bearing fruit fly hosts and their parasites

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How does spaceflight affect tumor-bearing fruit fly hosts and their parasites? Pigmentation: A side-by-side comparison of wasps shows a clear difference in the melanization of wing veins for wild-type and each mutant.Blade Shape: The kona mutant has an angular wing shape in contrast to wild-type’s rounded wing blade (vertical arrows in D–F). S. Govind. Background: Like humans, fruit flies (a model organism for spaceflight research) also exhibit immune system dysfunction in space. Despite decades of studies on fruit flies and wasps, little was known about how their immune systems interact with…

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The Marshall Star for May 29, 2024

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25 Min Read The Marshall Star for May 29, 2024 More to Marshall: Center Leadership Provides Updates During Spring All-Hands Meeting By Wayne Smith NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center will celebrate its 65th birthday next summer, and while there are plans to honor the center’s rich history, there is also More to Marshall ahead. Team members at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center listen to Center Director Joseph Pelfrey, background center, share updates on culture and strategy during the spring all-hands meeting May 20 in Activities Building 4316. NASA/Danielle Burleson That…

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NASA Goddard, Maryland Sign Memo to Boost State’s Aerospace Sector

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2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) To foster growth in Maryland’s aerospace industry, the state’s Department of Commerce signed a Memorandum of Understanding with NASA at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Wednesday, May 28, 2024. Center Director Dr. Makenzie Lystrup, Secretary of the Maryland Department of Commerce Kevin Anderson signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Maryland’s Department of Commerce at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Wednesday, May 28, 2024. NASA/Brian Gabourel The agreement commits the two organizations to develop the…

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Euclid space telescope finds 1.5 trillion orphan stars wandering the Perseus cluster (images)

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Using the Euclid space telescope, scientists have discovered a staggering 1.5 trillion orphan stars drifting through a massive cluster of thousands of galaxies, one of the largest structures in the cosmos.  These orphan stars, ripped free from their own galaxies, are filling the space between the galaxies of the Perseus cluster with ghostly blue light. This so-called “intracluster” light is so faint that it is many thousands of times darker than the night sky over Earth.  By observing this intracluster light in the Perseus cluster, which is located 240 million…

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Bejeweled galaxy of ‘Bernice’s Hair’ sparkles in new Hubble Telescope photo

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A bejeweled galaxy shines brightly in a stunning new photo from the Hubble Space Telescope.  The nearby spiral galaxy, formally known as NGC 4689, lies only 54 million light-years from Earth. It is located in the constellation Coma Berenices, which means “Berenice’s Hair” in Latin and refers to Queen Berenice II of Egypt. As such, NGC 4689 swirls through the Queen’s sparkling strands.  And that name once had a literal meaning. “Some people of Berenice’s time would have meant this quite literally, as the story goes that her court astronomer…

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Is it time to put a dimmer on the push for space solar power?

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The thought of beaming power to an energy-hungry Earth from space has long been studied. It was first proposed over 80 years ago in science fiction.  “It was quiet in the officer’s room of Solar Station #5 – except for the soft purring of the mighty Beam Director somewhere far below,” wrote renowned author Isaac Asimov in his April 1941 story “Reason” appearing in the magazine “Astounding Science Fiction.” Asimov had his characters tending a solar energy collection station in space that routed energy rays to receivers on Earth, as…

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Apollo 10 Ends Successfully

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NASA Astronaut Eugene A. Cernan, lunar module pilot for the Apollo 10 mission, exits the spacecraft during recovery operations on May 26, 1969. He and the other two crew members already in the raft, Thomas P. Stafford (left) and John W. Young, were brought to the prime recovery ship, USS Princeton after splashdown. The Apollo 10 mission was the first flight of a complete, crewed Apollo spacecraft to operate around the Moon. It encompassed all aspects of an actual crewed lunar landing, except the landing. See more photos from the…

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