• Space Quote: The Search for UAPs

    “NASA believes that the tools of scientific discovery are powerful and apply here also…We have access to a broad range of observations of Earth from space – and that is the lifeblood of scientific inquiry. We have the tools and team who can help us improve our understanding of the unknown. That’s the very definition…

  • Pic of the Week: Dazzling Star Cluster

    The image this week is from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. It shows a cluster of old and young stars in the globular cluster Liller 1 located within the bulge of the Milky Way Galaxy. Here is a full explanation from NASA: The muted red tones of the globular cluster Liller 1 are partially obscured…

  • JWST: It Can Be Dangerous in Space

    NASA reports that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was hit by a micrometeroid last month. The tweet from NASAWebb stated: In late May, Webb sustained a dust-sized micrometeroid impact to a primary mirror segment. Not to worry: Webb is still performing at a level that exceeds all mission requirements. A second story explained how…

  • Where is This? June 7, 2022 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 menu and selecting the “Where is this?” page.

  • A New Suit for the Moon Mission

    U.S. companies Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace have been tasked to build new suits for NASA’s astronauts. The suits will be worn as part of the Artemis Program returning astronauts to the Moon. First, the new suits will be tested and used on the International Space Station (ISS). While both companies are still in the…

  • NASA’s FY 2023 Budget Request

    So what else did NASA Administrator Bill Nelson share with the Senate Committee on Appropriations last week (beyond his comments about the International Space Station)? In his prepared statement regarding NASA’s $26 billion budget request, he highlighted a number of priorities for his agency, including: the Artemis Program to bring astronauts back to the Moon…

  • World’s First Liquid Mirror Telescope

    An earlier post mentioned NASA’s plans for a liquid mirror telescope in space. Well, India now has one here on Earth. The Indian Express reports that the liquid mirror telescope was designed and built at the Advanced Mechanical and Optical Systems Corporation and the Centre Spatial de Liege, Belgium. While funded by Canada and Belgium,…

  • International Space Station: Russians Still Busy

    Earlier today, NASA announced that an uncrewed Russian cargo ship, Progress 81, arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) without incident. Work continues among the Americans and Russians aboard the ISS regardless of the situation on the ground, which is reassuring. As NASA administrator Bill Nelson said last month at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing,…

  • Pic of the Week:  Gypsum Dunes on Mars

    This week’s amazing image was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launched in 2005. The University of Arizona’s Lunar & Planetary Laboratory, which operates HiRISE, described the image in this way: This image suggestion outlines a contact between gypsum-rich dunes in Olympia Undae and flat-lying layers…

  • Whatever Happened to NASA’s Mariner 8?

    An earlier post noted the anniversary of NASA’s Mariner 9 spacecraft to Mars, launched on May 30, 1971, but what about Mariner 8? What happened to that Mars bound spacecraft? Both Mariner 8 and 9 we developed together so one could replace the other if needed, which was pretty smart. The Russians did the same…