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Space Archive

Archives for April 2024

Wes Davis
Wes Davis
China’s dream moon base has a NASA Space Shuttle.

The China National Space Administration released a video showing its concept for a future lunar base, which it says it will have set up by 2045, writes Space.

The China Global Television Network appears to have blurred out the Shuttle in the video on YouTube.

A screenshot of a moon base, with the US Space Shuttle lifting off in the background.
Good to see the Space Shuttle back at work.
Image: China National Space Administration
Wes Davis
Wes Davis
Get a load of the horsehead on this nebula.

Scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope recently produced the “sharpest infrared images to date” of the Horsehead Nebula, according to the European Space Agency.

As BBC Science Focus explains, images like this are made up of multiple composites taken at different infrared wavelengths, then shifted to the visible spectrum and combined.

A color-shifted image of a portion of the Horsehead Nebula. The dust clouds are blue and brown, a reddish glow follows their contour, and stars and galaxies sit in the background.
A small portion of the Horsehead Nebula.
Photo: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, K. Misselt
Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
The best rocket launchpad Lego’s ever made.

The epic Saturn V and Space Shuttle Discovery didn’t come with a gantry, but Lego’s making up for it with the 3,091-piece NASA Artemis Space Launch System, coming May 28th for $259.99.

How much better is it? Here it is alongside all the other official Lego launchpad examples I could think of:

Note: If you buy something from these links, we might get affiliate revenue.

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Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Voyager 1 is communicating properly again.

NASA has finally found a fix after the 46-year-old space probe stopped sending readable data to Earth in November. Voyager 1 can only send information about its health and status for now, but NASA says it’s working to get it back to transmitting scientific data, too.

Andrew J. Hawkins
Andrew J. Hawkins
Elon Musk’s companies enjoy paying each other lots of money.

Tesla paid X $280,000 for advertising and other services, according to the company’s proxy statement. X paid Tesla $1.02 million for unspecified work. SpaceX paid Tesla $2.9 million for “certain commercial, licensing and support agreements.” Tesla paid SpaceX $800,000 for use of its corporate jet. And Tesla paid the Boring Company $1.2 million.

No one paid Neuralink anything.

Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
First crewed Boeing Starliner mission will launch on May 6th.

The spacecraft is being readied to carry astronauts Barry Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station, with liftoff from Cape Canaveral scheduled for no earlier than 10:34PM ET.

The crew is expected to spend about a week at the orbiting laboratory before their capsule makes an airbag and parachute-assisted landing in the southwestern United States.

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, set to carry NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test to the International Space Station, passes in front of the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft (pictured) before being placed on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.
Image: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Until we meet again, Ingenuity.

After making its final flight in January, NASA’s Mars helicopter has transmitted its last message to Earth and will now serve as a stationary testbed for collecting up to 20 years’ worth of data. Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity’s project manager, gave it this moving farewell:

“Whenever humanity revisits Valinor Hills — either with a rover, a new aircraft, or future astronauts — Ingenuity will be waiting with her last gift of data, a final testament to the reason we dare mighty things. Thank you, Ingenuity, for inspiring a small group of people to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds at the frontiers of space.”

Justine Calma
Justine Calma
Can mirrors in space bounce solar energy down to Earth?

The European Space Agency plans to find out with a project called Solaris. Scientists and engineers have been trying to figure out how to make space-based solar power work since the 1960s. And the rise of the commercial space industry is finally bringing launch costs down enough to really put the technology to the test.

Elizabeth Lopatto
Elizabeth Lopatto
Is Starlink actually profitable?

The accounting is “more of an art than a science,” anonymous sources tell Bloomberg. But on an operational and ongoing basis? No, not profitable, according to those sources.

Previously, The Wall Street Journal reported Starlink fell short of expectations in 2022. Hm!