• Video: Cosmic Dawn: The Untold Story of the James Webb Space Telescope

    If you are looking for some inspiration about the US space program, you might want to watch this NASA video, “Cosmic Dawn: The Untold Story of the James Webb Space Telescope.” As the NASA site explains: Go behind the scenes with the dedicated NASA team and its partners to uncover the untold story of the…

  • Space Quote: ISS is Closed to Visitors at the Moment

    “NASA and Axiom Space are postponing the launch of Axiom Mission 4 to the International Space Station. As part of an ongoing investigation, NASA is working with Roscosmos to understand a new pressure signature, after the recent post-repair effort in the aft most segment of the International Space Station’s Zvezda service module.” –Statement by NASA…

  • The European Space Agency is Staying Busy with Sunshine

    While NASA is going crazy over budget cuts, the European Space Agency (ESA) is focused on new images from the Solar Orbiter spacecraft showing the sun’s south pole from a distance of about 40 million miles (shown above). Launched in February 2020, Solar Orbiter is an ESA-led cooperative mission with NASA designed to answer a…

  • Pic of the Week: A Fun Evening Steven Colbert’s Guests

    This week’s image comes from an episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which aired earlier this week. Mr. Colbert was interviewing William Shatner and Neil deGrasse Tyson about the absurdities on Earth and in the galaxy. In an odd twist, Dr. Tyson was generally quiet on the sofa while Mr. Shatner carried the…

  • Space Stories: Spirals in the Oort Cloud, Killer Asteroid Heading Towards Moon, and Starlink Messes Up Astronomy

    Here are some recent space-related stories of interest. —NDTV: “Visual Glitch Leads To Accidental Discovery Of Spiral In Mysterious Oort Cloud“ Scientists have long assumed the Oort Cloud, one of the most mysterious structures in our solar system, to be spherical. But during the pre-production of their new space show, “Encounters in the Milky Way,” they…

  • Video: The Dark Forest

    And now for something really different. If you are tired of national politics, maybe its time to talk about the extinction of all life in our solar system. Just for a change of topic, of course. The Cool Worlds Lab has an interesting video titled “Why I Don’t Buy The Dark Forest Hypothesis” that picks…

  • Star Wars: Another Political Take on the Empire

    While the libertarians at Reason magazine have their view of the imperial story-line in the Star Wars television series Andor, the liberal folks at Mother Jones magazine have a whole different take on the Star Wars universe. In an article last month titled “How Star Wars Reveals Conservatives’ Authoritarian Fantasies,” we read about how some…

  • What are NASA’s Plans for Starliner?

    It was this time last year – June 5th to be exact – that Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft was launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket towards the International Space Station (ISS). Hopes were high, but then things started to unravel. So where do things stand now, particularly with the new concerns about SpaceX?…

  • Giving Everything to SpaceX is Risky? Who Knew?

    According to the Washington Post, the leaders at NASA and the Department of Defense (DOD) have finally figured out that Mr. Musk is a potential threat to our space program and national security. Now where did they get that idea? The newspaper stated: NASA and Pentagon officials moved swiftly this past week to urge competitors…

  • Space Quote: Japanese Lunar Lander Fails a Second Time

    “Given that there is currently no prospect of a successful lunar landing, our top priority is to swiftly analyze the telemetry data we have obtained thus far and work diligently to identify the cause.” -Statement by Takeshi Hakamada, CEO and founder of Japan’s private space company ispace, in a press release following the failure of…