Great Space

2022-01-30 23:38:01 SpaceX planning to launch up to 52 missions in 2022

Commercial space company SpaceX plans to launch a whopping 52 flights in 2022, a NASA safety panel revealed today during a meeting. If successful, it would be the most launches the company has ever conducted in a single year, with its previous record last year at 31 launches

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2022-01-28 21:48:36 Remembering Challenger and Her Crew

In this image taken in 1985, four members of the Challenger STS-51L crew – Michael J. Smith, left, Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik, and Francis R. “Dick” Scobee – train on the flight deck of the shuttle crew compartment.

Just 73 seconds after launch on the morning of Jan. 28, 1986, a booster joiint failed and caused the shuttle Challenger to break apart, taking the lives of all seven crew members. Open / Comment

2022-01-26 19:51:19 NASA’s MRO Finds Water Flowed on Mars Longer Than Previously Thought

Caltech researchers used the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to determine that surface water left salt minerals behind as recently as 2 billion years ago.

Mars once rippled with rivers and ponds billions of years ago, providing a potential habitat for microbial life. As the planet’s atmosphere thinned over time, that water evaporated, leaving the frozen desert world that NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) studies today.

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2022-01-24 18:37:40 Saturn’s ‘Death Star’ moon might be hiding an underground ocean

During a mission to discover whether or not Saturn’s moon Mimas was geologically dead, researchers discovered something far more surprising: “compelling evidence” of an underground ocean buried beneath the surface of the Death Star-like moon. Mimas, the researchers say, might be a “‘stealth’ ocean world,” a finding that, if verified, would further expand the number of potentially habitable places in our solar system.

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2022-01-22 23:30:01 NASA to Discuss Webb’s Arrival at Final Destination, Next Steps

Scientists and engineers operating NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will answer questions about the mission’s latest milestones in a NASA Science Live broadcast at 3 p.m. EST Monday, Jan. 24, followed by a media teleconference at 4 p.m.

The broadcast will air live online on the NASA Science Live website, as well as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

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2022-01-20 17:37:46 NASA Tracking Volcano Eruption Near Tonga

A powerful volcanic eruption has obliterated a small, uninhabited South Pacific island known as Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai. Damage assessments are still ongoing, but preliminary reports indicate that some communities in the island nation of Tonga have been severely damaged by volcanic ash and significant tsunami waves.

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2022-01-18 21:57:14 Citizen Scientists Spot Jupiter-like Planet in NASA TESS Data

Tom Jacobs of Bellevue, Washington, loves treasure hunts. Since 2010, the former U.S. naval officer has participated in online volunteer projects that allow anyone who is interested — “citizen scientists” — to look through NASA telescope data for signs of exoplanets, planets beyond our solar system.

Now, Jacobs has helped discover a giant gaseous planet about 379 light-years from Earth, orbiting a star with the same mass as the Sun. The Jupiter-size planet is special for astronomers because its 261-day year is long compared to many known gas giants outside our solar system. The result also suggests the planet is just a bit farther from its star than Venus is from the Sun. The finding was published in the Astronomical Journal and presented at an American Astronomical Society virtual press event on Jan. 13.

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2022-01-16 18:23:24 Virgin Orbit launches first satellite mission after SPAC merger

Small satellite launcher Virgin Orbit successfully lofted seven tiny satellites into orbit around Earth, marking the third successful mission for the Virgin Galactic spinoff company. The payloads consisted of various research satellites for the Department of Defense, along with three small satellites from companies SatRevolution and Spire Global.

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2022-01-14 21:22:29 NASA Sets Coverage for Russian Spacewalk Outside Space Station

Two Russian cosmonauts will venture outside the International Space Station at about 7 a.m. EST Wednesday, Jan. 19, to conduct a spacewalk to ready the new Prichal module for future Russian visiting spacecraft.

Live coverage of the spacewalk will begin at 6 a.m. on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.

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2022-01-12 19:27:29 NASA’s New IXPE Mission Begins Science Operations

On Jan. 11, IXPE began observing its first official scientific target – Cassiopeia A, or Cas A – the remains of a massive star that blew itself apart in a supernova around 350 years ago in our own Milky Way galaxy. Supernovae are filled with magnetic energy and accelerate particles to near light-speed, making them laboratories for studying extreme physics in space.

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