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Blue Ghost Lunar Lander scheduled to launch on January 15th

2025-01-07T15:41:14-05:00

A lander hasn't successfully reached the surface of the Moon's cratered Mare Crisium region since the Soviet Luna 24 probe landed there to collect samples in August 1976. But SpaceX is prepping a launch that'll send not one, but two landers there on Wednesday January 15th, Firefly Aerospace has announced.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch at approximately 1:11 AM EST, and will not only have Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost 1 lander on board, but also the Resilience lander from the Japanese robotic spacecraft firm iSpace. It will take 45 days for the craft to journey to the Moon before it spends another 14 days carrying out surface oper …

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The Odysseus lunar lander is on its side and will likely run out of energy soon

2024-02-26T16:19:53-05:00

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“Odysseus captured this image approximately 35 seconds after pitching over during its approach to the landing site.” | Image: Intuitive Machines (X)

The Odysseus lander is likely to remain operating for another 24 hours on the Moon's surface, despite being tipped over onto its side. Intuitive Machines, the private space company behind Odysseus, tweeted a few images taken by the spacecraft and gave more updates on how long the team expects it will remain operational.

Because of Odysseus' landing position, the panels and antennas aren't oriented exactly as planned, making it harder for it to generate power and communicate. Controllers on Earth will continue to collect data until its solar panels are no longer exposed to sunlight, which they anticipate will happen on Tuesday morning.

Flig …

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NASA picks Blue Origin to make a second human-crewed lunar lander

2023-05-19T14:42:47-04:00

A concept image of the Blue Moon lander. | Image: Blue Origin

NASA has picked Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin to make a lunar lander for an upcoming Artemis mission to the Moon, the agency announced on Friday. As part of the $3.4 billion contract, there will be one uncrewed "demonstration mission" ahead of a human-crewed demo that's set to take place in 2029 for the Artemis V mission, according to a press release.

Currently, the plan for the Artemis V mission is for four astronauts to first fly to the Gateway space station on NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft. Then, two astronauts will go to the Moon on Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander for "about a weeklong trip to the Moon's Sout …

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Uncontrolled rockets pose unnecessary risk, study finds

2022-07-11T11:00:00-04:00

BEIJING, CHINA - MAY 02: China’s space station core module ‘Tianhe’ flies over the Bell Tower on May 2nd, 2021, in Beijing, China. A Long March 5B rocket carrying the core module of China’s space station blasted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on April 29th. | Photo by Lu Lin / VCG via Getty Images

What are the odds a free-falling rocket will kill one person somewhere in the world? There's about a 10 percent chance over the next decade if current practices in the space industry stay the same, according to the authors of a new paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

While that's not a huge risk, the threat is significantly bigger in some parts of the world than in others. In particular, many countries in the Global South are likely to deal with a larger share of space trash even though they're not responsible for it, according to the analysis. And it could become a bigger issue as rockets launch into space more frequently to f …

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The Mars Express spacecraft is finally getting a Windows 98 upgrade

2022-06-24T12:57:28-04:00

The Mars Express. | Image: European Space Agency

Engineers at the European Space Agency (ESA) are getting ready for a Windows 98 upgrade on an orbiter circling Mars. The Mars Express spacecraft has been operating for more than 19 years, and the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument onboard has been using software built using Windows 98. Thankfully for humanity and the Red Planet's sake, the ESA isn't upgrading its systems to Windows ME.

The MARSIS instrument on ESA's Mars Express was key to the discovery of a huge underground aquifer of liquid water on the Red Planet in 2018. This major new software upgrade "will allow it to see beneath the surfac …

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South Korea hits a space race milestone with latest rocket launch

2022-06-21T11:57:51-04:00

In this handout image provided by Korea Aerospace Research Institute, a space rocket Nuri (KSLV-Ⅱ) taking off from its launch pad at the Naro Space Center on June 21, 2022, in UGoheung-gun, South Korea. | Photo by Korea Aerospace Research Institute via Getty Images

For the first time in its history, South Korea has successfully launched a satellite into orbit on a domestically built rocket. The Nuri rocket lifted off at 4PM local time today from the Naro Space Center in Goheung. The launch could help South Korea gain footing in the growing global space industry and potentially bolster the nation's national defense arsenal with future spy satellites.

Nuri's payload today included a set of satellites that officials say have no military purposes. The rocket placed a 357-pound performance verification satellite into orbit about 435 miles (700 km) above our planet. The performance verification satellite is …

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Nope’s final trailer reveals true horror Jordan Peele’s been hiding this whole time

2022-06-09T09:48:56-04:00

After months of carefully dancing around the truth of what's going on Jordan Peele's new horror Nope, Universal's final trailer for the film at last reveals the reason why everyone in it is terrified of the sky, and it has very little to do with the weather.

The sudden death of Otis Jr. (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald Haywood's (Keke Palmer) father Otis Sr. (Keith Haywood) is what initially sends the brother and sister reeling, and left with the task of figuring out what to do with the family's ranch full of rodeo horses in the new trailer. Though both of the siblings are ready to step up to the plate in their father's absence, Otis Jr. (who g …

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NASA and SpaceX say lagging parachutes on Dragon capsule are not a problem

2022-02-04T14:57:41-05:00

A screengrab of the livestream during the Crew-2 landing, showing the one lagging parachute | Image: NASA

NASA and SpaceX say they are looking into a recurring issue with lagging parachutes on SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule - critical features the spacecraft needs to land when it returns from orbit. However, the two spaceflight partners are downplaying the seriousness of the problem, claiming that the parachutes are still behaving safely despite the behavior.

The parachute issue cropped up during the two most recent landings of SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule. During each of those descents to Earth, one of the four main parachutes on the spacecraft was slower to fully inflate than the other three. The lagging parachute was clearly visible during a l …

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FAA clears Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo for flight after probe into July incident

2021-09-29T18:46:51-04:00

Virgin Galactic is cleared to resume flights of its SpaceShipTwo space plane, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Wednesday, after capping a safety investigation into issues that came up during the company's July flight carrying its founder Richard Branson. During that mission, SpaceShipTwo strayed from its designated airspace on its descent from space, and Virgin Galactic didn't tell the FAA about it when it was supposed to.

With the investigation now closed, the FAA required Virgin Galactic to make changes "on how it communicates to the FAA during flight operations to keep the public safe," it said in a statement. Virgin Galact …

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Watch Virgin Galactic launch Richard Branson to space

2021-07-10T12:00:00-04:00

Update 10:50 AM: The livestream appeared to experience technical difficulties ahead of takeoff. The plane took off around 10:40 AM. Soon after, the stream started. Original story continues below.

Virgin Galactic will launch Richard Branson and three company employees to the edge of space on the morning of Sunday, July 11th. The company is promising quite a show for the mission: Stephen Colbert will host the mission's livestream, singer-songwriter Khalid will reportedly perform a new single live onstage following the spaceplane's landing, and Branson has said he'll "announce something very exciting" after his spaceflight.

The flight marks …

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