Tag: Space Exploration

NASA astronaut Suni Williams sets new record on 5.5-hour spacewalk outside ISS (video)

NeRD

Two NASA astronauts working outside of the International Space Station on Thursday (Jan. 30) were able to finally remove a faulty radio communications unit, succeeding where two previous spacewalks had been unsuccessful. The extended work needed to free the radio frequency group (RFG) by Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore came at a cost, though, as the two ran out of time to accomplish all of the tasks planned for Thursday’s EVA (extravehicular activity). Williams and Wilmore, who launched together on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft and are serving together on…

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Watch a SpaceX rocket launch the next-gen SpainSat NG 1 satellite into orbit tonight

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SpaceX is set to launch a next-generation Spanish communications satellite tonight (Jan. 29) and you can watch it live online. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying SpainSat Next Generation 1 (SpainSat NG 1), a communications satellite for the European Space Agency (ESA) and Hisdesat communications, is scheduled to lift off from Pad 39A of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a two-hour window that opens at 8:34 p.m. EST (0134 GMT on Jan. 30). SpaceX will webcast the launch live beginning about 15 minutes prior to liftoff, which you can…

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Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander snaps its 1st photos of the moon (images)

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Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost moon lander has snapped its first photos of its distant target. On Monday (Jan. 27), Texas-based Firefly released two photos of the moon that Blue Ghost captured from Earth orbit. One shows the natural satellite all alone, a small grayish dot in an empty black sea; the other is a selfie, showing the moon glowing above some of Blue Ghost’s golden hardware. “While Blue Ghost is in Earth orbit, we’ll continue to keep an eye on our final destination! To the moon!” Firefly said in a…

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Watch India launch a new navigation satellite into orbit today on its 1st mission of 2025

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Launch of GSLV-F15/NVS-02 Mission from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota – YouTube Watch On India will launch its first mission of 2025 this evening (Jan. 28), and you can watch the action live. The Indian Space Research Organisation‘s (ISRO) Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) is scheduled to lift off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, on the island of Sriharikota, today at 7:53 p.m. EST (0053 GMT and 6:23 a.m. local time on Jan. 29). It will be the 100th launch overall from the spaceport, according to ISRO. You…

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What time is Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket ‘moon gravity’ launch on Jan. 28? Here’s how to watch live

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Blue Origin will launch its first suborbital rocket launch of 2025 this week — and attempt a wild spin trick to mimic the moon’s gravity during the flight — but if you want to see it live, you’ll need to know when and where to tune in. An uncrewed New Shepard rocket will launch the so-called NS-29 mission no earlier than Tuesday, Jan. 28, at 11:30 a.m. EST (10:30 a.m. CST/1630 GMT) from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas. The mission will launch 30 different experiments, most of…

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India’s space agency completes 1st Gaganyaan astronaut crew capsule

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The capsule that will one day ferry Indian astronauts to space and return them to Earth has been fitted with the key technology required for the task — marking another milestone in the country’s pursuit to develop homegrown technology for independent human spaceflight capabilities. The country’s space agency, Indian Space Research Organization, announced on Wednesday (Jan. 22) that its Bengaluru center completed assembling the Gaganyaan crew module and equipping it with a liquid propulsion system, which is responsible for generating the thrust needed to control the capsule’s orientation and trajectory.…

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US military practices rescuing astronauts from the sea (photos)

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A U.S. military joint task force did some training recently off the Florida coast to help with astronaut splashdowns. “Space travel is expected to increase, so the search and rescue alert is going to increase, and we will be ready to answer that call,” Maj. Ryan Schieber, lead planner for Human Space Flight Support (HSFS) in the U.S. Air Force’s 315th Operations Support Squadron, said in a statement. So, as the U.S. sees an uptick in crewed spaceflight operations, the military wants to make sure it can support astronaut retrieval…

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Blue Origin to simulate moon gravity on Jan. 28 New Shepard suborbital launch

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Blue Origin will launch the 29th mission of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle next week, on an uncrewed research flight that will simulate lunar gravity conditions. The mission, known as NS-29, is scheduled to lift off from Blue Origin‘s West Texas launch site on Tuesday (Jan. 28) at 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT; 10 a.m. local Texas time). The company, which was founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, will webcast the action live, beginning 15 minutes before liftoff. New Shepard is a reusable rocket-capsule combo named after Alan Shepard, the first…

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NASA honors fallen astronauts with ‘Day of Remembrance’ ceremony

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NASA honored its fallen space explorers during its annual “Day of Remembrance” on Thursday (Jan. 23). The agency held events at a number of its facilities around the nation, including Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida and Johnson Space Center in Houston. The proceedings commemorated the lives lost in NASA’s three space tragedies — the Apollo 1 fire in January 1967, the space shuttle Challenger explosion in January 1986 and the shuttle Columbia disaster in February 2003. “It is an emotional and solemn reminder that we cannot let the decades…

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Growing up and going out: Beyond the cradle (op-ed)

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Rick Tumlinson is the founder of SpaceFund, a venture capital firm investing in space startups. He also founded the Space Frontier Foundation, Earthlight Foundation, and New Worlds Institute and was a founding board member of the X Prize Foundation. He contributed the following piece — an edited essay from his upcoming book “Why Space: The Purpose of People,” to be published in the spring of 2025 — to Space.com’s Expert Voices section. My daughter is about to turn 12. To her, I am an ancient being; to me, she is…

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