1st Boeing Starliner Astronauts Are Ready To Launch To The ISS For NASA (Exclusive)

HOUSTON — Two former U.S. Navy test pilots, now NASA astronauts, can't wait to finally get their hands on a new spacecraft.

Wilmore, who has 8,000 flight hours and two space missions under his belt, said Friday (March 22) he'll be comparing the handling and rolling qualities of Starliner to see if it matches up with the simulators he's been training on for numerous years.

Differences "may or may not be a negative," he said in a sunny, glassed-in conference room at JSC's Building 2 and press center, "but it will be a difference that we will fix in our simulation, and go from there."

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SpaceX Prepares For 2 Launches Tonight From Florida’s Space Coast

One of the missions, the EUTELSAT 36D, is scheduled to liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 5:52 p.m.

After stage separation, the booster will land on the Just Read the Instructions drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 satellites plans to liftoff at 9:02 p.m. from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

A report from The Markup that was co-published with the local nonprofit newsrooms Documented and The City revealed numerous instances in which NYC's business chatbot responded with incorrect information about city policies.

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NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Is Already Rewriting Solar System History

Sourced from a 121.6-gram sample returned to Earth by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, a small speck of material from the asteroid Bennu sits on a prepared microscope slide in an exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

Meteorites are messengers from the depths of primordial time—cast-off fragments of asteroids and comets that formed alongside our sun from raw materials predating our star itself. But their messages are often muddled by their final, fateful encounter with Earth—charred in their fiery plunge through our planet’s atmosphere and contaminated by our world’s ever-shifting environmental tumult. And unlike a typical piece of lost mail, they don’t come with a return address to reveal their provenance.

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Meet The Two Women Leading Space Station Science

The International Space Station provides researchers access to the unique features of low Earth orbit: long-duration microgravity, exposure to space, and a one-of-a-kind perspective of our planet. These special attributes enable scientists to conduct innovative experiments that can't be done anywhere else.

Employees in the International Space Station Research Integration Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center help enable and execute the research opportunities only available on board the space station with a wide variety of researchers. They also look out for and coordinate new partnerships with international partners, academic organizations, commercial companies, and more.

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Ready For The April 8 Solar Eclipse? Here's What You Need To Know In Tuscarawas County

NEW PHILADELPHIA ‒ Many Tuscarawas Valley residents are looking forward with eager anticipation to April 8, when Ohio will be in the path of a total solar eclipse for the first time since 1808.

Tuscarawas County is not in the direct path but will experience 99% totality. The peak viewing time will be at 3:15 p.m. in Dover and New Philadelphia.

Daylight will give way to sudden darkness for a few brief minutes that day as the orbiting moon will appear as the same size as the sun, completely blocking its light. Many animals will fall silent while other nocturnal creatures will stir during the resulting totality, whereby observers can see the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere, known as the corona.

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Mass. State Police Robot Dog, * Shot In Cape Cod Standoff

A Massachusetts State Police robot dog was shot during a standoff on Cape Cod this month, officials said, calling it an example of how the technology can make police work safer in dangerous situations.

It's both the first time a Massachusetts State Police robot dog was shot while working and the first time that one of Boston Dynamics' well-known Spot robots was shot while working, representatives told NBC10 Boston Wednesday.

Moreira was barricaded inside a home on St. Francis Circle after a 911 call about a person holding someone else at knifepoint, police said at the time. The person escaped, but when officers arrived at the home, Moreira allegedly opened fire on a SWAT vehicle and periodically shot near the officers who'd circled the home.

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NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Is Already Rewriting Solar System History

Sourced from a 121.6-gram sample returned to Earth by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, a small speck of material from the asteroid Bennu sits on a prepared microscope slide in an exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

Meteorites are messengers from the depths of primordial time—cast-off fragments of asteroids and comets that formed alongside our sun from raw materials predating our star itself. But their messages are often muddled by their final, fateful encounter with Earth—charred in their fiery plunge through our planet’s atmosphere and contaminated by our world’s ever-shifting environmental tumult. And unlike a typical piece of lost mail, they don’t come with a return address to reveal their provenance.

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Scientists Discover The Best Places In The U.S. To Spot A UFO

After trawling through 19 years data on reported UFO sightings, scientists have discovered the best locations in the U.S. to spot one. In general, you need to head west for the best chance.

Nowadays, UFOs (unidentified flying objects) are known as UAPs (unexplained aerial phenomena). They include any object in the sky without a natural or known technological explanation.

Researchers at the University of Utah wanted to explore if local environmental factors affected the number of sightings in an area. They scoured through all the sightings — a staggering 98,724 of them — that the public logged with the National UFO Reporting Center between 2001 and 2020. For each one, they assessed two variables: sky view potential, and the likelihood of objects in the sky.

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AFRL Showcases Key Programs At 2024 Space Symposium > Air Force Materiel Command

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Solar-powered Sail Can Travel Forever, And It's The Future Of Space Exploration - Fast ...

Called a "solar sail," the silvery sheet of fabric is 32 times thinner than a human hair and stretches the size of three basketball courts. Over a recent Zoom call, Johnson says the sheet of fabric works much like a sail used for boats—if a boat sail were designed for high-speed space travel. "Just as a sailboat uses the wind to push it through the water, solar sails use the pressure of sunlight to push them through space," Johnson says.

This seemingly impossible feat is, in fact, not impossible at all. Avi Loeb, an astrophysicist and Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University, says solar sails represent one of the most promising technologies for future space exploration. They offer a sustainable and efficient way to navigate the cosmos, with the potential to propel spacecraft to unprecedented speeds and distances.

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Just A Moment...

Just a moment...

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Astronomers Furious At Plan To Shut Down NASA Space Telescope

For over two decades, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory — humanity's most powerful telescope of its kind — has provided astronomers with an unparalleled view, allowing them to better understand the structure and evolution of the universe.

But a potential budget crunch could pose an existential threat to the observatory, Space.com reports .

On March 11, NASA released its proposed budget for fiscal year 2025, introducing stringent spending caps that could force Chandra to go dark. The space agency suggested cutting spending on the observatory from $68.3 million in 2023 to just $41.1 million in 2025, and then just $26.6 million in 2026. The budget could drop to just $5 million by 2029.

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NASA Innovation On Display At AAS Goddard Space Science Symposium

From the search for habitable worlds beyond our solar system to Earth science missions closer to home, NASA shared its goals for the next decades of exploration at this year's Goddard Space Science Symposium, held March 20-22, 2024, at the University of Maryland in College Park.

"We wanted to help bring focus to this long-term vision by gathering people from all areas of the industry to discuss the plan, the associated opportunities and challenges, and how we will all work together to succeed," said Jim Way, executive director at the American Astronautical Society (AAS), which co-hosted the symposium with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

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China’s Queqiao-2 Relay Satellite Enters Lunar Orbit

HELSINKI — China's Queqiao-2 communications relay satellite entered lunar orbit March 24, paving the way for a lunar far side sample return mission.

Queqiao-2 began a 19-minute-long braking burn at 12:46 p.m. Eastern Sunday (1646 UTC), allowing the spacecraft to be captured by the moon's gravity, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced early March 25.

The spacecraft is expected to have entered an initial 200 by 100,000-kilometer lunar orbit. Operators will further alter its orbit and inclination to bring Queqiao-2 into a 200 by 16,000-km, highly-elliptical "frozen" orbit.

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US Army Experiments With Human-machine Warfare

FORT IRWIN, Calif. — Looking like a toy helicopter, a small black drone rose up over a cluster of adobe buildings in a quiet desert village, emitting a faint buzz.

The drone, an Anduril Industries' Ghost-X, paused and then rose higher, disappearing into the clouds. Another followed.

All at once, an overwhelming group of air- and ground-based machine fighters burst onto the scene. An "octocopter" lumbered through the sky with precision munitions and other robots attached to its belly, dropping three 60mm mortar rounds on a roof and other small, hand-held, cylindrical "throwbots" on the ground.

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An Orchestral Trip Through The Moons Of Our Solar System

This month's episode of Physics World Stories features an interview with composer Amanda Lee Falkenberg with music from The Moons Symphony . Her creation takes listeners on an epic journey through the science and stories of the moons of our solar system.

The seven-movement symphony dramatises the geophysical features of Io, Europa, Titan, Enceladus, Miranda, Ganymede, before turning to our own Moon for two-part finale. In creating the work, Australian born Amanda Lee Falkenberg immersed herself in the scientific research and consulted many scientists and astronauts.

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Which Planets Will Be Visible During The Solar Eclipse?

(Gray News) - A total solar eclipse is coming on April 8 and along with seeing the eclipse, you may get a glimpse at some planets, too.

Venus will be the brightest planet in the sky, just 15 degrees down to the right of the sun, according to Space.com .

Jupiter will also be visible, but not as bright. It will be 30 degrees up to the left of the sun, according to Space.com .

According to the Associated Press, North America will not experience totality again until 2033, but only in Alaska. In 2044, totality will be confined to Western Canada, Montana and North Dakota. There will not be another U.S. eclipse spanning coast to coast until 2045.

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The West As Prime Location

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ASU Student Team’s Design Selected As Finalist For 2024 NASA-sponsored BIG Idea Challenge

ASU student team's design selected as finalist for 2024 NASA-sponsored BIG Idea Challenge | ASU News

An artistic rendering of the student-designed AEGIS inflatable lunar landing system, which is capable of autonomously deploying to reduce dust and debris generated by landers. Image courtesy Luminosity Lab/ASU

Arizona State University's Luminosity Lab student team was recently selected as a finalist in NASA's Breakthrough, Innovative, and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea Challenge . The group is one of six teams selected by NASA to present at the 2024 BIG Idea Challenge Forum, Nov. 5–7, at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

The theme for the 2024 NASA-sponsored engineering competition, "Inflatable Systems for Lunar Operations," challenges student teams to research, design and demonstrate novel inflatable systems configured for future lunar operations that could help future Artemis missions and beyond.

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