• ULA is Up for Sale

    United Launch Alliance (ULA), a space rocket partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, is now being offered for sale. Both Blue Origin and Cerberus are showing interest, which could upset the space business as Blue Origin takes a big step forward or Cerberus gets into the space business. ULA, formed in 2006, has both a…

  • NASA Had a Busy Year

    This is the time of year for lists, so I wanted to highlight one of the more important lists, at least in the opinion of this writer. That’s right, we need to remember the important space milestones from this year. Fortunately, NASA recently summed up its successes in 2023 with a new video titled NASA…

  • Holiday Wishes from the Crew on the ISS

    You can watch a holiday video from International Space Station astronauts associated with three space programs provide greetings in three languages. They are away from family during the holidays, yet on the job to keep our space program going.

  • Merry Christmas from NASA

    NASA shared this image of NGC 2264, also known as the “Christmas Tree Cluster,” to brighten everyone’s holiday. You can read more about this image on this NASA page. You will also find an animated version of the “Tree” on the same NASA page. Merry Christmas to all!

  • Martian Habitat: One More Try

    The image above is one more attempt with an AI program to create a Martian habitat. As with the images in my last post, I asked the AI image program Freepik to respond to the following request: “Realist painting, surface of Mars, rocket and habitat in the foreground, ultra detailed.” The image generated was better…

  • AI Images: Habitat on Mars

    I was recently using OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 to test what it would provide if I was looking for examples of a Martian colony. I put in the following request: “Realist painting, surface of Mars, rocket and habitat in the foreground, ultra detailed.” One of the images, shown above, clearly shows the rocket yet the habitat…

  • Pic of the Week: Another Lunar View of Earth

    NASA is sharing a 51-year old photo from Apollo 17 showing both the American flag placed on the lunar surface by the crew as well as their home planet. It is a great shot that gives us plenty to thing about as the U.S. plans a return to the moon (with at least one other…

  • Space Stories: An International Astronaut for Artemis, Martian Eruptions, and Surprisingly Young Stars in Our Galaxy

    Here are some recent stories of interest. —Politico: “NASA’s Moon Landing Mission will Include a Non-American, Harris Says“ NASA is hoping to send a group of astronauts to the moon before the end of the decade, and at least one of them won’t be American. During a National Space Council meeting Wednesday afternoon, Vice President Kamala…

  • Starship Launch: A Few Legal Issues on the Ground

    SpaceX and NASA are trying to get ready for the third launch of the Starship, a key component of the Artemis program. Yet some parties here are Earth are still steamed about the April 2023 Starship launch that spread debris at the Texas rocket site. A group of organizations – the Center for Biological Diversity,…

  • A Day in Astronomy: Birth of Steven Spielberg

    On this day in 1946, Steven Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. The American film director is best known for his many science fiction films, such as Jaws as well as the Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park series. However, he has a special place in the hearts of space fans for his other films, including:…