• NASA Gets Ready for a Thursday Launch to Asteroid Psyche

    After a number of delays, the Psyche mission appears ready to go as the spacecraft sits at Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch is scheduled for tomorrow at 10:16 a.m. EDT. The spacecraft will not reach the metal-rich asteroid Psyche until 2029. It will then orbit the asteroid for…

  • Annual International Mars Society Convention

    If you missed the Annual International Mars Society Convention last weekend in Arizona, you will soon be able to catch up on all of the presentations. First, you can find abstracts on all of the convention presentations here, which includes many topics, such as: Investigating the Effects of Time-Delayed Communications on the Crew Mission Support;…

  • Space Stories: Fancy Space Suits, Giant Blinding Satellites, and More Russian Space Station Leaks

    Here are some recent stories of interest. —Dezeen: “Prada Designing Lunar Spacesuits for NASA Moon Mission“ Fashion house Prada has teamed up with commercial space company Axiom Space to create lunar spacesuits for NASA’s Artemis III mission, which will be the first crewed moon landing since 1972. Called Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU), the suits will…

  • Movie: A Million Miles Away

    I recently watched the movie A Million Miles Away after experiencing a summer with no blockbuster films addressing anything interesting related to space travel or alien life. I was happy that this new movie (available on Amazon Prime last month) addressed both, but the “alien” life related to migrant farmers seeking a better life in…

  • Amazon’s Project Kuiper is Underway

    If you were worried about satellite traffic and its impact on astronomy, then you have one more thing to worry about. Yesterday, two prototype satellites were launched aboard an Atlas V rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. They are part of Amazon’s Project Kuiper, which may lead to 3,200 additional satellites orbiting the…

  • Space Quote: Astronomers Have a New Term – JuMBOs

    “We find them down as small as one Jupiter mass, even half a Jupiter mass, floating freely, not attached to a star…Physics says you can’t even make objects that small. We wanted to see, can we break physics? And I think we have, which is good.” –Statement by Mark McCaughrean, a senior adviser for science…

  • Pic of the Week: Dusty Spiral Arms of NGC 1087

    This week’s image comes from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.  It is an image of the grainy-textured, colorful barred spiral galaxy NGC 1087, which is about 80 million light-years away. Here is more about the galaxy from NASA: It has a diameter of 87,000 light-years and a very small nucleus, or center. The galaxy’s dust…

  • Where is This? October 4, 2023 Quiz

    Take a look at the image above. Can you determine where this image originated? Take a guess and then check your answer by going to the “Where is This? The Answer Sheet” page.

  • Satellite News: Otter Pup to the Rescue

    Things are looking up for the satellite business. That is, things should shortly be coming down from space that no longer need to be there, and that is a good thing. And Starfish Space hopes to be the one to bring down those satellites. Here is the story. Starfish Space has created the electric-propulsion Otter…

  • Space Stories: Psyche Ready to Go, Interesting Exoplanets, and Protecting Astronaut Health

    Here are some recent stories of interest. —Universe.com: “NASA’s Psyche Now Set to Launch October 12“ With just under two weeks until its planned launch, NASA’s Psyche mission has been rescheduled. As per a NASA blog post, the agency along with SpaceX are now aiming for liftoff on October 12 at 10:16 A.M. EDT from the…