• Pic of the Week: Liftoff of the New Glenn Rocket

    This week’s image comes from Scientific American magazine’s best space photos of 2025. It shows Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket lifting off from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on November 13, 2025. It was carrying NASA’s twin Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) spacecraft, which are destined…

  • Space Quote: NASA Delays ISS Spacewalk

    “NASA is postponing the Thursday, Jan. 8, spacewalk outside the International Space Station. The agency is monitoring a medical concern with a crew member that arose Wednesday afternoon aboard the orbital complex. Due to medical privacy, it is not appropriate for NASA to share more details about the crew member. The situation is stable. NASA…

  • Space Stories: Modernizing a Space Center, a Rogue Saturn, and a Lifeless Europa

    Here are some recent space-related stories of interest. —Fox54 News: “NASA to Begin Modernization at Marshall Space Flight Center: Historic Structures to be Demolished Starting this Weekend“ With NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman in place, the agency is spearheading a major infrastructure modernization initiative, starting with the demolition of historic testing facilities at Marshall Space Flight Center.…

  • Some Good News for NASA

    Today the House and Senate came together to agree on NASA’s FY 2026 budget, and the news could not have been better. Overall, NASA is looking at basically a flat budget (compared to a threatened 24 percent cut) with only a 1 percent cut in science funding from last year’s level (compared to the threatened…

  • Podcast: Does the Younger Generation Even Care about Returning to the Moon?

    In a recent episode of What Next: TBD, titled “Are We Over the Moon?,” the host spoke with Joel Achenbach, freelance journalist and author of an article in Slate called Moondoggle about the upcoming Artemis missions. The discussion covers the plans for multiple missions to the Moon, the difference in generational interest, and the confusion…

  • Television: Pluribus and Kepler-22 b

    We will have to wait for season two of Apple TV’s Pluribus series before learning more about the inhabitants of the fictional Kepler-22 b, which is the source of the “virus” that turned humans in to docile livestock. In the meantime, we can look into facts about the actual exoplanet. According to NASA, we know…

  • The Shutting Down of Earth Science at NASA

    While most of the press stories have been focused on this week’s closing of a NASA largest research library located at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, NASA is quietly shutting down a key news source called The Earth Observer. This newsletter was a source of information and data related to the multiple satellites…

  • Pic of the Week: The Moon from Kyiv

    This week’s image is from the Planetary Society’s magazine called The Planetary Report, which had a series of great photos in an article titled “The Year in Pictures.” This image is from 19-year-old student and amateur astrophotographer Ildar Ibatullin who lives in Kyiv, Ukraine. It is titled “The Moon from Kyiv.” Here is the story…

  • Television: 2025 Was a Good Year for Sci-fi Space Shows

    Before the year is over, I want to highlight five sci-fi space television series that kept me entertained. I cannot do the same with sci-fi space movies because 2025 lacked exciting, well-made films. Here are my top five sci-fi space television shows in order of preference. While Andor saw its second and last season this…

  • Space Quote: Houston, Discovery May Not Be Landing

    “We’ve got spacecraft that are going around the moon with Artemis II, III, IV and V. One way or another, we’re going to make sure that Johnson Space Center gets their historic spacecraft.” –Statement by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman to CNBC when asked about the planned move of the Discovery space shuttle from the Smithsonian…