Tag: Space

NASA Scores Wright Brothers Moment With First Helicopter Flight on Mars

LOS ANGELES—NASA’s miniature robot helicopter Ingenuity performed a successful takeoff and landing on Mars early on Monday, achieving the first powered, controlled flight by an aircraft over the surface of another planet, the U.S. space agency said. The twin-rotor whirligig’s debut on the Red Planet marked a 21st-century Wright Brothers moment for NASA, which said…


Double Quasars Reveal Galactic Collision in Ancient Universe

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has spotted rare “double quasars” in the distant universe, implying a catastrophic galactic collision in ancient times. Peering back 10 billion years into the universe’s history, astronomers found a pair of quasars that appear to be a single object. But with the crisp view provided by the HST, the pair…


Australia Plans for a New Space Command as Australian Air Force Celebrates 100 Years

The Chief of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Air Marshal Mel Hupfeld has verified that Australia will establish an integrated space organisation in the next year. Hupfeld, who told the ABC the news on March 31, is currently heading up an analysis into the requirements for Australia to establish its own sovereign space domain for…


Australia Plans New Space Command as Air Force Celebrates 100 Years

The Chief of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Air Marshal Mel Hupfeld has verified that Australia will establish an integrated space organisation in the next year. Hupfeld, who confirmed the news to the ABC on March 31, is currently heading up an analysis into the requirements for Australia to establish its own sovereign space organisation…


First Polarized Image of Black Hole Hints at Its Magnetic Field Structure

Astronomers from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration have produced the first-ever polarized picture of a black hole. In 2019, the same team obtained the first-ever image of a black hole. Both images were taken of the same object in the center of the M87 galaxy. The 2019 image, which shows a bright ring-like structure…


Two Space Fans Get Seats on Billionaire’s Private Flight

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—A billionaire’s private SpaceX flight filled its two remaining seats Tuesday with a scientist-teacher and a data engineer whose college friend actually won a spot but gave him the prize. The new passengers: Sian Proctor, a community college educator in Tempe, Arizona, and Chris Sembroski, a former Air Force missileman from Everett, Washington….


Rocket Debris Lights Up Skies Over the Pacific Northwest

SEATTLE—Burning debris from a rocket lit up Pacific Northwest skies Thursday night, the National Weather Service in Seattle said. “The widely reported bright objects in the sky were debris from a Falcon 9 rocket 2nd stage that did not successfully have a deorbit burn,” the service said in a tweet about the astral occurrence that…


Largest Asteroid of the Year Will Pass By Earth on March 21

An asteroid will be at its closest to Earth on March 21 and is expected to be the largest asteroid that will pass by us in 2021. According to NASA, this asteroid, dubbed 2001 FO32, will make its closest approach at a distance of about 1.25 million miles (2 million kilometers). At such a great…


Russia Postpones Soyuz-2.1A Rocket Launch to Sunday: RIA

MOSCOW—Russia has postponed the launch of its Soyuz-2.1a rocket to Sunday, state news agency RIA quoted Roscosmos space agency Director General Dmitry Rogozin as saying on Saturday. Rogozin said the decision to postpone from Saturday was made after a voltage spike ahead of the planned launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, RIA reported. The…


Biden Picks Former Senator Nelson as NASA Chief: White House

WASHINGTON—President Joe Biden has tapped former U.S. senator and astronaut Bill Nelson to lead the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the White House said in a statement on Friday. Nelson, a Democrat from Florida—home to NASA’s Kennedy Space Station in Cape Canaveral—must secure Senate approval to be confirmed in the post. Nelson has long held…