Stopgap spending bill includes FAA learning period extension

A short-term funding bill passed at the last minute includes a three-month extension of the “learning period” limiting regulations on commercial spaceflight participant safety. The post Stopgap spending bill includes FAA learning period extension appeared first on .

Get a sneak peek at Titan Comics' new 'Doctor Who: Once Upon A Time Lord' (video)

David Tennant’s iconic portrayal of the Tenth Doctor in the venerable “Doctor Who” franchise is one of the most beloved in the series’ 60-year history.  Now, Titan Comics is offering up a batch of new adventures starring the gallivanting Gallifreyan in a 64-page graphic novel written by comics veteran and “Spider-Verse” co-creator Dan Slott. Zooming…

See Jupiter meet up with a bright moon in the night sky tonight

Skywatchers who are out during the late evening hours on Sunday will almost certainly be attracted toward the eastern sky, where the two brightest visible objects at that hour will be readily evident.   The moon, now a waning gibbous phase, will be poised near a brilliant silvery non-twinkling “star.” That object is not a star, however, but…

NASA selects SpaceX for rideshare launch of smallsat mission

NASA has selected SpaceX to launch a pair of smallsats to study space weather as part of a rideshare mission in 2025. The post NASA selects SpaceX for rideshare launch of smallsat mission appeared first on .

Brilliant Harvest Moon, the last supermoon of 2023, wows stargazers around the world (photos)

The summer of 2023 has been a treat for full moon fans. Since July, we’ve seen four supermoons in a row, including the rare Super Blue Moon Moon of August and this weekend, the final supermoon of the year, the Harvest Moon of September, gave skywatchers the final lunar thrill of the season.  When the…

Lasers cut through star trails in beautiful photo from the European Southern Observatory

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) shared a beautiful new image of stars trailing across the night sky. It was taken at the ESO’s Paranal Observatory, located in the Chilean Atacama Desert. The observatory is home to the Very Large Telescope (VLT), which consists of four Unit Telescopes and four smaller, movable Auxiliary Telescopes, like the…

Celebrate 'Star Wars Rebels' 10th anniversary with Marvel Comics

It’s difficult to fathom that it’s been nearly a decade since “Star Wars Rebels” first blasted onto Disney XD’s animation lineup with its charismatic, rag-tag crew of the Ghost on Oct. 3, 2014.  Created by Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg, and Carrie Beck, the fun “Star Wars” series was set between the events of “Star Wars:…

New York City is sinking — and it's not just because of the flooding

While the ground may feel stable under your feet, it’s always moving ever so slightly — not just horizontally with the movement of tectonic plates, but also vertically. And New York City, in particular, is sinking. (No, it’s not because of all the recent flooding that has seen commuters swimming on the streets of the West Village…

Watch the glow of the Milky Way and ghostly zodiacal light during the 2023 Perseid meteor shower (video)

Miguel Claro is a professional photographer, author and science communicator based in Lisbon, Portugal, who creates spectacular images of the night sky. As a European Southern Observatory Photo Ambassador and member of The World At Night and the official astrophotographer of the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve, he specializes in astronomical “Skyscapes” that connect both Earth and the night sky.  Astrophotographer Miguel…

NASA to extend New Horizons mission through late 2020s

NASA has agreed to extend operations of its New Horizons spacecraft through late this decade to support “multidisciplinary” science that could include another Kuiper Belt object flyby. The post NASA to extend New Horizons mission through late 2020s appeared first on .

Watch a dust devil swirl across Mars in this video from NASA's Perseverance rover

NASA’s Perseverance rover has given us a great look at a weather phenomenon that’s very familiar to folks who live in desert regions here on Earth. The car-sized Perseverance captured video of a dust devil swirling on the western rim of Mars’ Jezero Crater on Aug. 30, 2023.  Mission team members calculated that the little…

See green comet Nishimura's tail get whipped away by powerful solar storm as it slingshots around the sun (video)

The recently discovered green comet Nishimura has been body slammed by a potential coronal mass ejection (CME) after surviving a close encounter with the sun. The unexpected collision, which briefly blew away the comet’s tail, was caught on camera by a NASA spacecraft.  In footage captured by NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO-A) spacecraft, the…

Time-lapse video shows a supernova's aftermath ballooning into space

It is a remarkable age that we live in — a time when astronomers have the ability to capture direct footage of space explosions that happened long before you and I existed. Such is the case for a cosmic time-lapse video scientists released on Thursday (Sept. 28).  Constructed from about 20 years of Hubble Space…

Space Development Agency funds demonstration of satellite laser links in ‘degraded’ environments

The Space Development Agency awarded a $14.2 million contract to General Atomics to produce two optical communications terminals hosted on two small satellites for an in-space demonstration. The post Space Development Agency funds demonstration of satellite laser links in ‘degraded’ environments appeared first on .

These photos of Stoke Space's 'Hopper' reusuable rocket test are just amazing

Stoke Space shared stunning new photos from a recent flight test of the company’s Hopper reusable rocket prototype. The flight test, called Hopper2, included a vertical takeoff and vertical landing demonstration, during which the reusable second-stage rocket successfully lifted about 30 feet (9 meters) off the ground and then safely touched down in its targeted…

Light from the cosmic web connecting galaxies has been seen for the 1st time (video)

Astronomers announced on Thursday (Sept. 28) that they had for the first time captured the faint glow of the largest structure in the universe known as the “cosmic web,” a network of filaments that connect galaxies across the universe. Images such as these unveil valuable information about how galaxies form and evolve, and can also…

How methane studies on Earth could inform the search for alien life in our solar system

On Earth, massive amounts of methane are trapped within white, cage-like chemical structures. These deposits are primarily found in permanently frozen polar regions as well as on the seafloor, but the key here is that they’re not specific to our planet. Similar reservoirs are known to exist on bodies across the solar system — from…

'Einstein ring' snapped by James Webb Space Telescope is most distant gravitationally lensed object ever seen

Photos snapped by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed the farthest-ever example of an “Einstein ring.” The record-breaking halo of warped light, which is a whopping 21 billion light-years away, is unusually perfect and surrounds a mysteriously dense galaxy. An Einstein ring is an extremely rare type of gravitationally lensed object that was…

SpaceX to launch 22 Starlink satellites to orbit from Florida this evening

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is poised to launch from Florida’s Space Coast this evening (Sept. 29), carrying 22 Starlink satellites to orbit. The Falcon 9 is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 6:39 p.m. EDT (2239 GMT).  You can watch it live via SpaceX’s account on X (formerly…

Ispace revises design of lunar lander for NASA CLPS mission

The American subsidiary of Japanese company ispace has revised the design of a lunar lander it is providing for a NASA mission, pushing back the launch of that mission by a year. The post Ispace revises design of lunar lander for NASA CLPS mission appeared first on .