• Pic of the Week: Astronaut Frank Rubio Still at Work on the ISS

    This week’s image shows astronaut Frank Rubio hard at work last year outside the International Space Station (ISS). He has now exceeded the U.S. space duration record, which was 355 days. All of this was unplanned, come as the result of a faulty Russian capsule that kept him on the station longer than his scheduled…

  • Damn it, Jim! I’m a Doctor, Not a Spider!

    The Star Trek name and characters have been thrown around in popular culture for years, but now scientists have locked onto them. A new group of spiders, part of the Roddenberryus genus (yes, that’s right), have been named Kirk, McCoy and Spock. If you do not believe me, take a look at this article in…

  • JWST Spots a Promising Exoplanet

    The exoplanet, some 120 light-years away, has caught the attention scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). K2-18 b, about 8.6 times as massive as Earth, has carbon-bearing molecules in its atmosphere, including methane and carbon dioxide. This could mean the exoplanet has a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and a water ocean-covered surface (called a Hycean exoplanet). Exoplanets…

  • UFOs: If You See One, Report It

    Uncle Sam is starting up a new website so the public can report UFOs, or Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) to use the politically correct term. The Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) is building the website, which notes: AARO will be accepting reports from current or former U.S. Government employees, service members, or contractors with…

  • Space Quote: SpaceX Has a Long List of Corrective Actions Before the Next Starship Launch

    “The final mishap investigation report cited a total of sixty-three (63) corrective actions for SpaceX to implement. These included actions to address redesigns of vehicle hardware to prevent leaks and fires, redesign of the launch pad to increase its robustness, incorporation of additional reviews in the design process, additional analysis and testing of safety critical…

  • Space Stories: Strange Asteroid Behavior, Another Earth in Our Solar System, and the Study of Galaxy Clusters

    Here are some recent stories of interest. —Futurism: “Something Weird is Going On with the Asteroid NASA Smashed“ Nearly a year ago, NASA successfully smashed an asteroid for the first time, in a landmark test to see whether we could divert a killer space rock before disaster — but now, the asteroid in question is behaving…

  • The Pragyan Rover is Sleeping on the Moon

    After a few weeks of work, India’s Pragyan rover on the Moon’s south pole was put to sleep last weekend to sit out the long lunar evening. It accomplished all of its goals, according to a Tweet from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO): We shall know in a few weeks whether the little lander…

  • Pic of the Week: Cosmic Smokescreen

    This week’s image is from the Hubble Space Telescope. It shows a fantastic array of colors from a portion of NGC 6530, which is about 4,350 light-years from Earth. Here is more about this image from the European Space Agency (ESA): A portion of the open cluster NGC 6530 appears as a roiling wall of…

  • RIP: Marilyn Lovell, Wife of Apollo 13 Commander

    Marilyn Lovell died on August 27th in Lake Forest, Illinois at the age of 93. She is the wife of astronaut James A. Lovell Jr., who commanded the troubled Apollo 13 mission. You can read her full obituary at the Washington Post site. I just wanted to highlight one interesting piece from the obituary. It…

  • Planetary Society’s Day of Action

    On September 17 and 18, the Planetary Society holds its Day of Action to advocate for space issues before Congress. For those who already registered for the event, they can expect: It is too late to sign up for the upcoming event, but you can still assist in other ways such as pledging to take…