• Space Quote: The Great Filter at Work?

    “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.” -Statement by artificial intelligence (AI) experts and public figures in a “Statement on AI Risk” from the Center for AI Safety. This followed an earlier open letter back in March from other AI leaders that…

  • Space Stories: Habitable Zone Planets, Satellite Interference, and Extraterrestrial Communication

    Here are some recent stories of interest. —ScienceDaily: “One-third of Galaxy’s Most Common Planets Could be in Habitable Zone“ In a new analysis based on the latest telescope data, University of Florida astronomers have discovered that two-thirds of the planets around these ubiquitous small stars could be roasted by these tidal extremes, sterilizing them. But that…

  • Podcast: A Conversation with William Shatner

    WTF Podcast host Marc Maron interviewed William Shatner recently. Overall, it was a fun conversation with Mr. Shatner discussing his early acting career, his family, his flight into space on Blue Origin, his various ongoing projects, and more. In terms of projects, Mr. Shatner mentioned a variety of interests, including horse shows, television series, and…

  • A Poem for Europa

    U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limon was asked by NASA to write a poem for the upcoming Europa Clipper mission. Her new poem, “In Praise of Mystery: a Poem for Europa,” premiered late last week in Washington, DC. Here is the poem from the Library of Congress (and you can also hear it in the poet’s voice):…

  • Not Again: Boeing Still Isn’t Ready for a Crew-Carrying Starliner

    If you were eager to see the first flight of Boeing’s Starliner with a human crew, you will just need to wait a little longer. The original plan was to send two astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on July 15, after many earlier delays. But now Boeing said it still needs time to…

  • Starlink: DOD Pays for Ukrainian Service

    Elon Musk got his way. The US Department of Defense (DOD) will be paying an undisclosed amount for the Starlink services being used in Ukraine. This is good news for the Ukrainians had they feared interruption of this vital link with the rest of the world, yet I imagine this will also put SpaceX’s Starlink…

  • Pic of the Week: New Crew Sent to the Tiangong Space Station

    This week’s image shows China’s launch of the Shenzhou 16 spacecraft earlier this week atop a Long March 2-F rocket. The launch included a three-man crew, one being the first civilian astronaut in the Chinese crew rotation, who will relieve the current crew on the Tiangong Space Station.

  • A Day in Astronomy: The Founding of the European Space Agency

    On this day in 1975, the European Space Agency (ESA) was founded after the combination of  the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) and the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO). Ten countries were part of this new organization, which has since grown to 22 members (noted below). The Agency also has associate members and other cooperating partners.…

  • Two Space Stations, Two Stories

    This week astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) said goodbye to the second set of private astronauts who are part of the Axiom Space mission, while China sent its first non-military astronaut to its Tiangong space station. It is not surprising that China started out with military astronauts. NASA also recruited from the US…

  • NASA TV: Stay Tuned In

    If you cannot find anything worthwhile on regular television, don’t forget that NASA continues to broadcast key events on its own television station, including this week’s meeting on UFOs, now called “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” or UAPs. Here is the latest schedule for NASA TV: Tuesday, May 309 a.m. – Coverage of hatch closure for the Axiom…