• We Await the Indian Moon Landing

    We are down to one spacecraft approaching the Moon’s south pole – India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission, which is expected to land as early as tomorrow. This is India’s second try for a Moon landing after the loss of Chandrayaan-2, so fingers crossed. Chandrayaan-1 also sent a probe that impacted the Moon, but that was the plan. We…

  • Luna-25 Fails to Land (Properly) on the Moon

    The message from Roscosmos was pretty bland: During the operation, an abnormal situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the maneuver to be performed with the specified parameters. Translated into normal speech, we learned that Luna-25 crashed during its attempted landing on the lunar surface. This is a blow for Russia…

  • A Day in Astronomy: The Launch of Voyager 2

    On this day in 1977, NASA launched the Voyager 2 space probe from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida to study the solar system’s outer planets as well as interstellar space beyond the Sun’s heliosphere. The Voyager 2 space probe is still talking to us as it continues its journey beyond the planets with a special message…

  • Space Quote: If You Build It…Don’t Forget to Maintain It

    “On average we have a $250 to $260 million dollar annual maintenance gap…Unplanned failures can have mission impacts, and the last thing we want to do is affect Artemis or some other significant mission.” -Statement by NASA Facilities and Real Estate Division Director Eric Weiser regarding the maintenance of NASA’s infrastructure, as reported in The…

  • A New View of the Moon

    The first images from Russia’s Luna-25 mission have arrived. They show the far side of the Moon permanently hidden from those of us here on Earth. The spacecraft is now orbiting the Moon, which was last done by the Russians back in 1976. The lander is expected to be on the lunar surface this Monday…

  • Pic of the Week: Cape Byron Lighthouse Moonrise

    The winners of the Australia Geographic astronomy photography contest have been named, and the photo above is one that won honorable mention in the Nightscapes Category, “Cape Byron Lighthouse Moonrise” by Kevin Hennessey. Here is a little more about the impressive image: The full moon rises behind the Cape Byron Lighthouse at the most easterly…

  • Space Stories: The End of Arecibo, Early Black Holes, and Habitable Red Dwarf Exoplanets

    Here are some recent stories of interest. —Scientific American : “Arecibo Observatory Shuts Down Its Science“ After weathering hurricanes, earthquakes, budget cuts and a pandemic-induced shutdown, the iconic Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico closed its doors on 14 August. After its main instrument collapsed two years ago, the site was supposed to shift from carrying out astronomy and other…

  • Good Article: Looking Ahead in Astronomy

    Astronomy magazine has a good article titled “Predictions for the Next 50 Years of Astronomy.” Five astronomers provide their ideas about what we might experience in the field of astronomy in the 2070s. For instance, S. Alan Stern, a planetary scientist and member of the U.S. National Science Board, had this prediction: By the ’70s, I…

  • Television: Another Star Wars Series Comes to Disney+

    If you thought that Disney had run out of Star Wars series ideas, you are far from the mark. The past few series have pulled a variety of stories from the movies, be it The Mandalorian or The Book of Boba Fett. However, the new series Ahsoka comes from the animated The Clone Wars series…

  • Space Quote: What’s the Launch Date for Artemis III?

    “We really are trying to get in the details of that schedule because when we come up with a date, December of 2025, or whatever that date might be, we want to have confidence for our teams, that we all have a realistic path to get there.”  -Statement by Jim Free, NASA associate administrator of…