Space

WASHINGTON — Firefly Aerospace is preparing for the second launch of its Alpha rocket in late August or early September, hoping that a successful mission can enable a “step change” in activity for the company. The second Alpha rocket is currently at the company’s launch site at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California as the

The Philae lander is awake! And it’s sending us data straight from Comet 67P! Submit your photos of Comet 67P! http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov/amateur-observer-registration ———- Dooblydoo thanks to the following Patreon supporters — we couldn’t make SciShow without them! Shout outs go to Justin Ove, Justin Lentz, David Campos, John Szymakowski, Peso255, Jeremy Peng, Avi Yaschin, and Fatima

SAN FRANCISCO – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded contracts to GeoOptics, PlanetIQ and Spire Global to provide space weather data as part of a pilot program to test the value of the commercial observations. “The awards represent NOAA’s next step toward working with the commercial sector to obtain and analyze space weather data

TAMPA, Fla. — Georgia became the latest country July 14 to approve SpaceX’s Starlink broadband constellation. Starlink applied for permission to provide services in Georgia July 8 after meeting regulatory officials at the end of June, the Georgian National Communications Commission (ComCom) said. “Starlink is especially important and interesting in mountainous regions as well as

WASHINGTON — Saudi Arabia is the latest nation to sign the Artemis Accords as part of what the White House called “expanding cooperation” with the United States in space. The signing of the Accords, which outline best practices for safe and sustainable space exploration, took place in a virtual ceremony July 14 featuring officials from

Earth’s magnetic field is special! And, in the last 20 years, we’ve made incredible discoveries, thanks to a squad of probes that have flown around our planet, observing solar wind as a team! Hosted by: Reid Reimers SciShow has a spinoff podcast! It’s called SciShow Tangents. Check it out at http://www.scishowtangents.org ———- Support SciShow by

Space Force satellite operators want to move away from having different ground systems for each military constellation WASHINGTON — The Space Force set a goal to replace custom-built ground stations with a common system that can be used with multiple types of satellites. But the effort is running into roadblocks due to the technical and

WASHINGTON — A NASA science division is seeking funding for a program that could fly scientists to the International Space Station on private missions to conduct research that could then be handed off to NASA astronauts. In a presentation at a July 13 meeting of a National Academies committee working on the decadal survey for

WASHINGTON — Virgin Galactic announced July 14 plans to assemble a fleet of suborbital spaceplanes in a new factory in a suburb of Phoenix. The company said it has started work on the factory in Mesa, Arizona, where it will perform final assembly of new Delta-class spaceplanes. The facility is scheduled to be fully operational

Update: SpaceX has rescheduled the Falcon 9 launch on January, 6th 2015. SciShow Space walks you through this week’s upcoming nail-biter: SpaceX’s attempt to land a reusable rocket on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean. Hosted by: Hank Green ———- Like SciShow? Want to help support us, and also get things to put on your

WASHINGTON — The Russian government dismissed Dmitry Rogozin as the head of the space agency Roscosmos July 15, the same day the agency and NASA signed a long-anticipated agreement to exchange seats on flights to the International Space Station. In a brief statement, the Kremlin announced the Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, had dismissed Rogozin

Provisions in the House NDAA urge DoD to use commercial space services for communications, space domain awareness and debris removal WASHINGTON — The House on July 14 passed the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act  by a vote of 329-101. The bill authorizes $839 billion for military spending, or $37 billion more than the administration requested.

WASHINGTON — A SpaceX cargo Dragon spacecraft is on its way to the International Space Station after a July 14 launch delayed more than a month by a hydrazine leak on the spacecraft. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A at 8:44 p.m. Eastern, deploying the Dragon into low Earth

Black holes are already pretty extreme, but some stand out among their peers, driving cosmic engines that outshines the rest of the galaxy and even serving as birth control for stars! Hosted By: Hank Green SciShow has a spinoff podcast! It’s called SciShow Tangents. Check it out at http://www.scishowtangents.org ———- Support SciShow Space by becoming

The NRO wants to ‘continuously evaluate new and emerging capabilities and providers’ WASHINGTON — The National Reconnaissance Office has released a request for proposals from commercial providers of space-based radio frequency (RF) imagery.  Companies in this emerging sector of the remote sensing industry use low-orbiting satellites to track ships, vehicles or any devices that emit

TAMPA, Fla. — The payload for Viasat’s second ViaSat-3 broadband satellite has arrived in California to be integrated with a Boeing chassis, the operator said July 13. The high-throughput payload traveled by truck from Viasat’s facility in Tempe, Arizona, to Boeing in El Segundo, where it will also undergo environmental tests in preparation for launch.

Chirag Parikh: ‘What we’ve done is we’re putting our money where our mouth is’ WASHINGTON — Chirag Parikh, executive secretary of the National Space Council, said he expects the Office of Space Commerce to start developing an architecture for space traffic management, an initiative that has been bogged down by studies and lack of funding.

New research suggests that Venus’ patterned crust might currently be more active than we thought! Astrophysicists have also modeled the orbits of mysterious objects between Jupiter and Neptune, and found that they could have come from other solar systems! Hosted by: Reid Reimers SciShow has a spinoff podcast! It’s called SciShow Tangents. Check it out

TAMPA, Fla. — Europe’s new Vega-C medium-lift rocket lifted off on its maiden flight July 13, carrying an Italian physics satellite and six cubesats. The four-stage rocket launched from Kourou, French Guiana, at 9:13 a.m. Eastern on a mission that will last about two hours and 15 minutes. Italy’s 295-kilogram Laser Relativity Satellite-2, or LARES-2,

GREENBELT, Md. — The James Webb Space Telescope, once an albatross around the neck of NASA, has become a symbol of the agency’s capabilities and potentially a tool to win support and funding for other programs. That transformation has become evident with the successful launch and commissioning of the $10 billion space telescope, culminating with

GREENBELT, Md. — NASA released the long-anticipated first science observations from the James Webb Space Telescope July 12, the culmination of decades of work and the start of a new era in astrophysics. The observations, released during an event at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center here a day after the unveiling of one image at

Earlier this year, NASA put out a call for names for features on Pluto and its moons based on an established set of rules. Now, it’s finally time to put those names on the map. Proposed names for features on Pluto and its moons: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pz1AF-fe0TV9YcNl502ThK04hxigxtv04GqtJ380E3I/edit Thumbnail Credit: Lexicon ———- Dooblydoo thanks go to the following

WASHINGTON — Two upcoming Rocket Lab launches for the National Reconnaissance Office will send to orbit classified spy satellites that the U.S. intelligence agency developed jointly with the Australian government. The payloads on NROL-162 and NROL-199 are “designed, built, and operated by the National Reconnaissance Office in partnership with the Australian Department of Defence as

WASHINGTON — A test of the booster for SpaceX’s first orbital Starship vehicle July 11 ended with flames erupting unexpectedly from the base of the vehicle, triggering a fire at the pad. Video of testing activities at SpaceX’s Starbase complex at Boca Chica, Texas, showed a burst of flames at the base of the Super

WASHINGTON — A deep field of distant galaxies, some dating back to the first billion years after the Big Bang, is the first full-color image to come from the James Webb Space Telescope. The image, released at a White House event July 11 and called “Webb’s First Deep Field,” is a sneak preview of a

This week, some rather confusing news from the Moon, and details about how ordinary folks like you helped classify 2 million celestial objects in just five days! Volunteer for the next round of image classification! http://snapshotsupernova.org Annotations: Where Did the Moon Come From?: https://youtu.be/vRf-hB8X7b0 Water on Ganymede, and NASA Needs Your Help! : https://youtu.be/BhN6GQUuJsg ———-

Tory Bruno: ‘I think we’re really looking at a sea state change’ WASHINGTON — Some companies in the space industry may not survive the coming headwinds in the U.S. and global economies, United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno said July 11. “I think we’re really looking at a sea state change,” Bruno said at the

Anduril, Aalyria, Atlas Space and Enveil won contracts for the Defense Innovation Unit’s hybrid space architecture program WASHINGTON — The Defense Innovation Unit awarded contracts to Anduril, Aalyria Technologies, Atlas Space Operations and Enveil for a project that seeks to demonstrate a hybrid architecture where commercial, civil and military satellites can share data. DIU, based