NASA Astronaut Don Pettit, Crewmates Complete Space Station Expedition

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The Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 72 NASA astronaut Don Pettit, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner aboard, April 19, 2025 (April 20, 2025, Kazakhstan time). The trio are returning to Earth after logging 220 days in space as members of Expeditions 71 and 72 aboard the International Space Station. NASA/Bill Ingalls NASA astronaut Don Pettit returned to Earth Saturday, accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, concluding a seven-month science…

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NASA’s oldest active astronaut lands with space station crewmates on his 70th birthday

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NASA’s oldest active astronaut has redefined traveling “home” for your birthday, landing from the International Space Station on the same day that he turned 70. Don Pettit touched down on Saturday (April 19) with his Soyuz MS-26 crewmates, Aleksey Ovchinin, 53, and Ivan Vagner, 39. The U.S. astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts reached the ground in Kazakhstan at 9:20 p.m. EDT (0120 GMT or 6:20 a.m. local time April 20), seven months after they left Earth aboard the same spacecraft. Pettit was born on April 20, 1955, in Silverton, Oregon,…

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Lunt SunOculars 8×32 solar binoculars review

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Specifications Optics: Uncoated internal dye filter Design: Roof prism Magnification: 8x Objective lens diameter: 1.3 inches (32 millimeters) Waterproof/fog-proof: Weatherproof Eye relief: 0.54 inch (13.6 mm) Weight: 1.12 pounds (508 grams) Dimensions: 1.5 x 5.5 x 4.3 inches (40 x 140 x 110 mm) Safe observation of solar eclipses requires care. Enter the Lunt SunOculars 8×32. This compact pair of solar binoculars has built-in permanent solar filters that allow you to observe the partial phases of solar eclipses and study sunspots. Although they don’t offer the highest magnification on the…

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NASA’s Lucy probe will fly by the asteroid Donaldjohanson on Easter Sunday

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Easter Sunday certainly won’t be a day of rest for the astronomy community. All eyes will be on NASA’s asteroid-studying Lucy spacecraft, which is due to have a close encounter at 1:51 p.m. EDT (1751 GMT) on April 20, 2025. Launched in 2021, Lucy is on a 12-year journey to the orbit of Jupiter, during which the probe will perform flybys of eight Trojan asteroids in a quest to learn about the origins of the solar system, searching for elements that could spark the rise of life. But before Lucy gets…

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Watch NASA astronaut Don Pettit and 2 cosmonauts return to Earth today

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Watch live! NASA astronaut Don Pettit and 2 cosmonauts return to Earth from ISS – YouTube Watch On NASA astronaut Don Pettit and two cosmonaut colleagues will return to Earth this evening (April 19), and you can watch their homecoming live. A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying Pettit, Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station (ISS) today at 5:57 p.m. EDT (2157 GMT). It will touch down on the steppe of Kazakhstan about 3.5 hours later at around 9:20 p.m. EDT (0120 GMT and…

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Could Mars volcanoes have supported ancient life on the Red Planet? Well, maybe

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While most people searching for signs of alien life these days might have their eyes on the exoplanet K2-18b, one team of researchers is keeping their sights a little closer to home. Texas A&M researcher Michael Tice and a team of international scientists have revealed new clues about Mars’ potential to have supported life, thanks to data collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover. Since 2021, Perseverance has been exploring Mars’ Jezero Crater, using its mobile laboratory to support the work of scientists around the world. Tice and his team, in particular,…

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Bahamas puts SpaceX rocket landings on hold pending review: report

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Just months after SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 rocket in the Bahamas for the first time, the country has hit pause on future landings pending an environmental review, according to news wire reports. A top Bahamas government official announced on Tuesday (April 15) that the country was suspending future SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket landings until a “full environmental assessment” is complete, Reuters reported. “No further clearances will be granted until a full environmental assessment is reviewed,” Reuters quoted Bahamian Director of Communications Latrae Rahming as writing on the social media…

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Hubble Spies Cosmic Pillar in Eagle Nebula

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ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll This newly reprocessed image released on April 18, 2025, provides a new view of an enormous, 9.5-light-year-tall pillar of cold gas and dust. Despite its size, it’s just one small piece of the greater Eagle Nebula, also called Messier 16. The Eagle Nebula is one of many nebulae in the Milky Way that are known for their sculpted, dusty clouds. Nebulae take on these fantastic shapes when exposed to powerful radiation and winds from infant stars. Regions with denser gas are more able to withstand…

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NASA to Cover US Spacewalk 93, Hold Preview News Conference

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NASA astronauts work to retrieve batteries and adapter plates from an external pallet during a spacewalk to upgrade the International Space Station’s power storage capacity. Credit: NASA Two NASA astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station, conducting U.S. spacewalk 93 on Thursday, May 1, to complete station upgrades. NASA will preview the upcoming spacewalk during a news conference at 2 p.m. EDT on Thursday, April 24, on the agency’s website from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including…

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Early Career Faculty 2024

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1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Back to ECF Home Transformational Advanced Energetic Propulsion Omid BeikColorado School of MinesDevelopment of a MW-Scale High-Voltage Multiphase Dual-Rotor Generator and Rectifier for a PMAD in an NEP System Ognjen IlicUniversity of MinnesotaConcept Demonstration of Directed Energy Propulsion with Metasurface Lightsails Kenshiro OguriPurdue UniversityOrigami-inspired Diffractive Sail for Directed Energy Propulsion Thomas UnderwoodUniversity of Texas, AustinStabilized Z-Pinch Fusion Driven Electromagnetic Propulsion Power Systems to Enable Small System Operations in Permanently Shadowed Lunar Regions Manan AryaStanford UniversityLightweight Deployable Solar Reflectors Jessica…

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