• The Artemis II Mission Has a Patch

    This week NASA unveiled the new mission patch for the Artemis II mission to return astronauts to lunar orbit (shown above). The Artemis II crew designed the patch with the hope that the mission to the Moon will occur next year. The four astronauts selected for the crew are NASA Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor…

  • Pic of the Week: Cosmic Tornado

    This week’s image is from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The transparent red cloud in the middle of the image, nicknamed the “cosmic tornado,” is outflow of gas and dust from a newly formed star. Moreover, the bright blue glow at the top of the cloud has nothing to do with what you are…

  • Upcoming Hearing on NASA Nominee

    The process continues to bring on a new NASA Administrator, even as Elon Musk and his DOGE team do all they can to cripple the agency. The nomination hearing for Jared Isaacman, announced earlier today by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, will take place next Wednesday, April 9, at 10am. The hearing…

  • Space Stories: More Space Tourists, Chinese Maglev Rocket Launches, and New Hubble Findings on Uranus

    Here are some recent stories of interest. —South China Morning Post: “SpaceX Launches Fram2: 4 Astronauts Seek to Make Historic Flight Over Earth’s Poles“ A SpaceX spacecraft carrying four international astronauts is on a pioneering journey circling Earth over its poles after launching Monday night from Florida…Fram2 follows in the footsteps of other commercial spaceflight ventures,…

  • A Short Test Flight for a German Rocket in Norway

    Elon Musk is not the only one losing rockets these days. Yesterday the German firm Isar Aerospace launched its Spectrum rocket from a spaceport in northern Norway, but the mission ended in less than a minute. Pointing out that Isar Aerospace is the first European commercial space company to launch an orbital rocket from Continental…

  • Is Russia Making a Separate Peace with Russia?

    While the current White House discussions with Russia regarding its invasion of Ukraine has already raised some eyebrows, the Ukrainian newspaper The Kyiv Independent has reported that Russia appears to be making a separate offer to Elon Musk. The newspaper reports that Russia has offered Mr. Musk a “small-sized nuclear power plant” for a future…

  • 2025 International Mars Society Convention

    It is time to mark your calendar for the Mars Society’s 2025 International Mars Society Convention scheduled for October 9–11 at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The theme this year is “Mars: The Time Has Come!” If you want to learn more about past conventions to see if this is something for…

  • Space Quote: More on the DEI Issue and Artemis

    “[I]t is important to note that the change in language does not indicate a change in crew assignments.” -Statement by a NASA spokesperson to Space.com regarding the recent removal of “DEI” language from the Artemis mission page. The scheduled crew for the upcoming Artemis II mission includes one woman, one person of color, and one…

  • Pic of the Week: Deep Field South

    Last week, the European Space Agency released images from the Euclid space telescope, which was launched on July 1, 2023. The goal of the space telescope’s mission is to catalog more than 1.5 billion galaxies over a six year period. The image above shows a part of the sky called the Deep Field South. One…

  • Space Stories: Cygnus Spacecraft Damaged, AI & Astronomy, and Toxic Martian Dust

    Here are some recent stories of interest. —Ars Technica: “After a Spacecraft was Damaged en route to Launch, NASA Says it Won’t Launch“ Three weeks ago, NASA revealed that a shipping container protecting a Cygnus spacecraft sustained “damage” while traveling to the launch site in Florida. Built by Northrop Grumman, Cygnus is one of two Western…