Tag Archives: nasa

Boeing is now aiming for its first astronaut launch at the beginning of June, after spending the past few weeks struggling with more problems on the space capsule. Officials for the company and NASA said Friday that intensive reviews indicate the Starliner capsule can safely fly two test pilots to the International Space Station, despite a propulsion system leak. The …

New research indicates the sun’s magnetic field originates much closer to the surface than previously thought, a finding that could help predict periods of extreme solar storms like the ones that slammed Earth earlier this month. The magnetic field appears to generate 20,000 miles beneath the sun’s surface. Previous calculations put the roots of this process more than 130,000 miles …

Ed Dwight, America’s first Black astronaut candidate, finally rocketed into space 60 years later, flying with Jeff Bezos’ rocket company on Sunday. Dwight was an Air Force pilot when President John F. Kennedy championed him as a candidate for NASA’s early astronaut corps. But he wasn’t picked for the 1963 class. Dwight, now 90, went through a few minutes of …

The Webb Space Telescope has discovered the earliest known merger of black holes. These two gigantic black holes and their galaxies consolidated just 740 million years after the universe-forming Big Bang. It’s the most distant detection ever made of merging black holes, scientists reported Thursday. One black hole is 50 million times more massive than our sun. The other is …

Astronomers have identified a planet that’s bigger than Jupiter yet surprisingly as fluffy and light as cotton candy. The exoplanet has exceedingly low density for its size, an international team reported Tuesday. The gas giants in our solar system — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — are much denser. “The planet is basically super fluffy” because it’s made mostly of …

America’s first space station, Skylab, launched into Earth’s orbit on this day in history, May 14, 1973. The unmanned space station blasted into space on a modified Saturn V rocket at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, NASA’s Skylab website reports. This marked the last time the Saturn V rocket was used in spaceflight, according to Space.com. ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, …

A thick atmosphere has been detected around a planet that’s twice as big as Earth in a nearby solar system, researchers reported Wednesday. The so-called super Earth — known as 55 Cancri e — is among the few rocky planets outside our solar system with a significant atmosphere, wrapped a blanket of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. The exact amounts …

After overcoming the hurdles of COVID-19 delays and budget overruns, NASA has finally given the Dragonfly rotorcraft mission the go-ahead. This autonomously operated nuclear-powered rotorcraft is set to embark on a groundbreaking journey to Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, in 2028. Artist’s concept of Dragonfly rotorcraft (NASA/JHU-APL) Why Titan? Titan is no ordinary celestial body. Located about 746 million miles from …

The roots of a heroic American life that grew to reach the heavens are found in New Concord, Ohio. The John and Annie Glenn Museum opens to the public for the 2024 season on Wednesday, May 1. “This is where John Glenn spent his formative years,” Hope Neal, assistant director of the museum, told Fox News Digital. AMERICAN CULTURE QUIZ: …

The Hubble Space Telescope, which has delivered awe-inspiring images of creation and destruction from the deepest reaches of the universe, was placed into orbit on this day in history, April 25, 1990. “Hubble’s launch and deployment in April 1990 marked the most significant advance in astronomy since Galileo’s telescope,”NASA writes in an online history of the Hubble program. The telescope, …