Tag: Space Exploration

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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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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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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Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong’s gold Omega moonwatch sells for record $2.2M at auction

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A new record has been set for the most paid at auction for an astronaut’s timepiece. The 18-karat gold Omega Speedmaster that was presented to Neil Armstrong four months after he became the first person to walk on the moon in 1969, sold for a hammer price of $1.7 million on Thursday (April 17). With the auction house’s fees included, the total price for the chronograph was $2,187,500 — $280,546.25 more than the previous record set in 2022 by a nearly-identical gold Speedmaster gifted to Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronaut…

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NASA developing 1st-ever space-based quantum sensor for gravity measurements

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Scientists are developing an advanced quantum sensor for low Earth orbit that can detect the tiniest tremors in Earth’s gravity. These barely perceptible shifts — caused by moving water, tectonic activity or shifting rock — offer clues about what lies beneath the planet’s surface. The new device could allow the mapping of underground features like aquifers and mineral deposits — crucial data for navigation, resource management and national security, its developers say. You may like “We could determine the mass of the Himalayas using atoms,” Jason Hyon, chief technologist for…

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Haircut on high: Getting a trim in space | Space picture of the day for April 17, 2025

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NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers gave Takuya Onishi, her JAXA crewmate, a haircut on board the International Space Station on April 13, 2025. (Image credit: JAXA/Takuya Onishi) What is it? A month into his second long-duration stay aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 73 commander Takuya Onishi received a haircut from his crewmate Nichole Ayers. Onishi shared this photo on social media, commenting on how this haircut by a NASA astronaut was different from his experience with a Russian cosmonaut during his first stay on the station in 2016. “A different…

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US and UK militaries pick Rocket Lab’s HASTE launcher to help test hypersonic tech

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Rocket Lab is becoming an even bigger player in the world of hypersonic technology. The militaries of the United States and the United Kingdom have both picked the California-based company as a potential partner for their multibillion-dollar programs dedicated to building hypersonic technology. Rocket Lab can now compete for contracts via the two programs, offering the services of its HASTE suborbital rocket as a hypersonic testbed. You may like “The ability to contribute toward the collective security of the United States and the United Kingdom across both of these important…

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Rocket repurposed from intercontinental ballistic missile launches secret US spy satellites to orbit from California

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For the first time in nearly a decade and a half, a Minotaur has streaked through Californian skies. A Minotaur IV rocket lifted off from the Golden State’s Vandenberg Space Force Base today (April 16) at 3:33 p.m. EDT (1633 GMT; 12:33 p.m. local California time), kicking off the NROL-174 mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). It was the first launch of a Minotaur from the site since 2011, the NRO said via X. The NROL-174 mission patch. (Image credit: NRO) The Minotaur rocket family, built by aerospace…

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James Webb Space Telescope sees a celestial Venn diagram around a dying star

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A stunning new image from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is allowing astronomers to examine the complex and turbulent final stages of a dying star’s life. The snapshot above showcases NGC 1514, a planetary nebula that resides roughly 1,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus. Despite the term, however, NGC 1514 has nothing to do with planets. Instead, at its heart, there are two stars. These stars appear as a single point of light in the James Webb Space Telescope‘s view, and this point of light is encircled…

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Gayle King just conquered her fears with Blue Origin’s all-female space launch. Here’s how she did it.

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Having the opportunity to overcome Earth’s gravity well and launch into space can be a spiritual and revelatory experience for those lucky enough to hitch a private ride on a rocket, as pop star Katy Perryand her historic all-female crew did on their Blue Origin trip from West Texas today (April 14). Joining Perry on the 10.5-minute suborbital NS-31 mission, which lifted off from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One, were CBS journalist Gayle King, philanthropist and author Lauren Sánchez, ex-NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, research scientist Amanda Nguyen and film…

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