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spaceship was dramatically aborted Saturday with just minutes left on the countdown clock, yet another setback for a program that has faced years of delays. With the astronauts strapped in and ready for liftoff, the test mission to the International Space Station was unexpectedly halted due to reasons that aren't yet clear. United Launch Alliance, responsible for the Atlas V rocket that Starliner sits atop, is now investigating why an "automatic hold" was triggered by its computer with three minutes and 50 seconds to go. ULA CEO Tory Bruno told reporters that engineers were currently de-fueling the rocket to enable...

Voyager 1 is once again returning data from two of four science instruments onboard. Things are looking better for one of NASA’s longest running deep space missions. After a several-month period of problems, engineers have announced that the Voyager 1 spacecraft is not only back online but also transmitting useful data from two of four science instruments. Work is now underway to bring the remaining two instruments up to operational status. Problems began last November, when Voyager 1 suddenly began sending a repeating gibberish signal instead of the science and engineering data it typically sends. Troubleshooting on the 46-year-old spacecraft...

China’s top-secret spaceplane has released a mysterious object into Earth’s orbit just 372 miles above the surface. The US Space Force is monitoring the situation, but the purpose of the object ejected on May 24 is unknown. A Harvard astrophysicist first spotted the object, speculating it could be a subsatellite deployment, or a piece of hardware ejected before the spaceplane ends its mission and deorbits.

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF)on Monday launched the Neo Space Group to work on the kingdom's nascent satellite and space industry, its first investment in the sector. One of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, the PIF has already invested heavily in sports, gaming and so-called Saudi giga-projects including Neom, a $500-billion futuristic megacity under construction in the desert. ... Under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler, Saudi Arabia has sought both to open up and diversify its oil-reliant economy. ...

Boeing is set to launch its first crewed space mission in June without fixing a small helium gas leak on its troubled Starliner spaceship, officials said Friday. The vessel, under development since 2010, has been plagued by technical problems and has yet to fulfill its purpose of ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station, allowing Boeing's rival SpaceX to zoom ahead with its Crew Dragon capsule. Starliner was supposed to finally fly astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the orbital outpost on May 6, but the mission was scrubbed hours before lift-off after a faulty valve was discovered on...

Boeing's Starliner flight to the International Space Station was delayed again due to a helium leak. NASA, Boeing and the United Launch Alliance said in a statemen Tuesday that the launch date will now come no earlier than Tuesday at 4:43 p.m. EDT. "Starliner teams are working to resolve a small helium leak detected in the spacecraft's service module traced to a flange on a single reaction control system thruster. Helium is used in spacecraft thruster systems to allow the thrusters to fire and is not combustible or toxic," they said. Boeing's statement said that it is working with NASA...

"This was a powerful blast - More info to come on what sort of impact we should expect here on earth! This marks the 4th X-flare since May 3rd (X1.6, X1.2, X1.2, X4.5), making AR3663 the most active sunspot of Solar Cycle 25 so far."

The first crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner spaceship was dramatically called off just two hours before launch after a new safety issue was identified, officials said Monday, pushing back a high-stakes test mission to the International Space Station. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were strapped into their seats preparing for liftoff when the call for a "scrub" came, because engineers noticed audible buzzing from a liquid oxygen relief valve on the Atlas V rocket meant to propel the capsule into orbit. In a late night press conference, Tory Bruno, president and CEO of United Launch Alliance (ULA) that built...

Scientists have calculated the rotational speed of asteroid 2024 BX1, which exploded over Berlin earlier this year, by letting it trail in images of the sky. It turns out, 2024 BX1 was spinning faster than any other near-Earth object ever seen...The space rock, dubbed 2024 BX1, turned into a fireball and exploded over Berlin in the early hours of Jan. 21. Although small asteroids on collision courses with Earth are typically detected only when they crash into the atmosphere, scientists spotted this one roughly three hours before impact.That's not the only way 2024 BX1 was unusual, according to a paper...

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft took a road trip Tuesday before its May 6 liftoff, moving from the Kennedy Space Center to the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Starliner boarded a transporter at the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center on Monday. Final checks were completed Tuesday for the short trip to the United Launch Alliance's Vertical Integration Facility at the Space Force station. "The Atlas V will receive its precious cargo today as the Boeing Space Starliner spacecraft is transported to ULA's Vertical Integration Facility and lifted onto the rocket," ULA said on X. Astronauts Butch Wilmore...

Founder Mateus Chipa wants the Black community to be more involved in space exploration. According to a Scripps News report of the 360 astronauts enlisted with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), just 18 had been Black astronauts as of Feb 5, 2024. For Chipa, he believed that to increase representation and empowerment it would be necessary for an influential Black entrepreneur to launch a company to break down barriers. According to his website, he waited eight years for Black leaders to step forward. In frustration after that time had passed, he decided to take matters into his own...

Days before one of the researchers’ wedding, a star explodes in a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.A team of Israeli scientists managed to capture and study a once-in-a-lifetime supernova using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, helping mankind better understand this magnificent event. Supernovas, or exploding stars, are phenomenons that occur in our galaxy about once every century, with the last observable explosion taking place hundreds of years ago. Supernovas can’t be predicted, and instead astrophysicists study their aftermath in a way reminiscent of space archaeology. But the researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science learned about the supernova as it was taking place on...

The fabric of the cosmos, as we currently understand it, comprises three primary components: 'normal matter,' 'dark energy,' and 'dark matter.' However, new research is turning this established model on its head. A recent study conducted by the University of Ottawa presents compelling evidence that challenges the traditional model of the universe, suggesting that there may not be a place for dark matter within it. Dark matter, a term used in cosmology, refers to the elusive substance that does not interact with light or electromagnetic fields and is only identifiable through its gravitational effects. Despite its mysterious nature, dark matter...

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have made a groundbreaking discovery: a galaxy that ceased forming new stars over 13 billion years ago, making it the oldest ‘dead’ galaxy ever observed. The galaxy, which existed a mere 700 million years after the Big Bang, is odd by galactic standards. Now, based on recent findings, it’s also challenging our understanding of early galaxy evolution. In research led by Tobias J. Looser and an international team of astronomers, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has discovered an ancient quiescent galaxy. At a redshift of z=7.3, it is the oldest galaxy...

A high-altitude Nuclear-EMP (nuclearweaponsedproj.mit.edu/high-altitude-electromagnetic-pulse-emp-attack-scenario-against-usa) creates an electric free field incident (commonsensehome.com/electromagnetic-pulse-emp/) powerful enough to damage any microcircuitry onboard satellites (see: Starfish Prime Test (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime)), especially modern electronics due to increasingly thin structures (therefore electric breakthrough occurs already at relatively low voltages). We are hardening military systems against such EM incidents by shielding (www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/EM-shielding-electromagnetic-shielding), e.g. on a ship using its hull as a Faraday cage (containerauction.com/read-news/using-a-shipping-container-faraday-cage-to-survive-an-electromagnetic-pulse-emp-blast).

The U.S. believes Russia wants to put a nuclear weapon in space, according to reports sparked by a top Republican warning about a 'serious national security threat'. House Intel Chair Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio said members of Congress had been made aware of the threat which is reported to be related to Russia and its threat from space - but wouldn't go into details. It later emerged that it was related to Moscow's plan to put a nuclear weapon into space to target and destroy satellites the world depends on, ABC News reported. Turner asked the president to declassify...

[Video] A camera at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii has captured an object as it burned up on re-entering Earth's atmosphere on 8 February. The Subaru-Asahi Star Camera, owned by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, recorded a time-lapse of the fireball blazing across the night sky, followed by smaller glowing streaks.

It turns out space helmets serve a dual purpose - to keep air in and stink out. Just like Earth, the universe emits various smells from every corner of the never-ending universe, often of which are generally unpleasant, Space.com reported, citing numerous space expeditions over the decades. Although it is impossible to take a whiff of the cosmos without facing certain death, astronauts have long described strong odors clinging to their space suits after they return to their air-locked chambers. Metallic, burnt meat Those aboard the Apollo moon landings described the scent as gunpowder-like, while others who traversed the International...

2:24 Today, Sunday January 28, 2024, is the 38th anniversary of the Challenger space shuttle explosion that took the lives of an entire crew, a loss that deeply grieved Americans across the nation, per WGAL. The seven NASA astronauts were killed 73 seconds after liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, according to History.com. The site noted that prior to the disaster, the launch was delayed for several days because of weather and technical issues.

The identification of another ultra-large structure in remote space continues to defy our understanding of the cosmos. The Big Ring is made up of galaxies and galaxy clusters. Scientists have found an enormous ring-shaped structure called the Big Ring, positioned an astonishing 9.2 billion light-years away from Earth. This massive cosmic formation is made up of galaxies and clusters of galaxies, with a diameter of approximately 1.3 billion light-years and a total circumference of around 4 billion light-years. To help grasp its size, envision that if you could somehow observe the Big Ring directly, it would stretch across the night...