Tag: Space

Spacewalking Astronauts Prep Station for New Solar Wings

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.— Spacewalking astronauts ventured out Sunday to install support frames for new, high-efficiency solar panels arriving at the International Space Station later this year. NASA’s Kate Rubins and Victor Glover put the mounting brackets and struts together, then bolted them into place next to the station’s oldest and most degraded solar wings. They…


Supermassive Black Holes May Form From Dark Matter, Study Suggests

Supermassive black holes are exotic astrophysical objects harbored at the centers of galaxies. Their masses can reach 1 million to 1 billion times larger than our sun, and their gravitational force is so strong that even light cannot escape; hence the name “black” holes. Dark matter is a mysterious form of matter that lurks in…


UK and Australia Collaborate on World First Space Bridge

Australia and the United Kingdom (UK) space agencies have strengthened their ties further by signing the worlds first “Space Bridge” arrangement to increase connection, exchange, and investment. Minister for Industry, Science, and Technology Karen Andrews said the arrangement the two countries signed in Canberra and London on Feb. 23 will connect Australian and UK expertise…


Mars Rover’s Giant Parachute Carried Secret Message

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—The huge parachute used by NASA’s Perseverance rover to land on Mars contained a secret message, thanks to a puzzle lover on the spacecraft team. Systems engineer Ian Clark used a binary code to spell out “Dare Mighty Things” in the orange and white strips of the 70-foot parachute. He also included the…


NASA Releases Mars Landing Video: ‘Stuff of Our Dreams’

CAPE CANAVERAL—NASA on Monday released the first high-quality video of a spacecraft landing on Mars, a three-minute trailer showing the enormous orange and white parachute hurtling open and the red dust kicking up as rocket engines lowered the rover to the surface. The footage was so good—and the images so breathtaking—that members of the rover…


Bone Cancer Survivor to Join Billionaire on SpaceX Flight

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—After beating bone cancer, Hayley Arceneaux figures rocketing into orbit on SpaceX’s first private flight should be a piece of cosmic cake. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital announced Monday that the 29-year-old physician assistant—a former patient hired last spring—will launch later this year alongside a billionaire who’s using his purchased spaceflight as a…


New Evidence Defies Theory of Galactic Evolution in Early Universe

A recent observation has challenged the current theory about the way galaxies formed in the early days of the universe. Many cosmologists believe that the universe began with a Big Bang. Therefore, galaxies forming in the early universe could experience very chaotic physical processes, which made them appear disordered. However, the new study has cast…


NASA’s Astrobiology Rover Perseverance Makes Historic Mars Landing

LOS ANGELES—NASA’s science rover Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world, streaked through the Martian atmosphere on Thursday and landed safely on the floor of a vast crater, its first stop on a search for traces of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet. Mission managers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory…


NASA Rover Streaks Toward a Landing on Mars

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—A NASA rover streaked toward a landing on Mars on Thursday in the riskiest step yet in an epic quest to bring back rocks that could answer whether life ever existed on the red planet. Ground controllers at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, settled in nervously for the descent…


Russian Cargo Ship Launched to International Space Station

MOSCOW—An unmanned Russian cargo ship launched successfully Monday with a load of supplies for the International Space Station. The Progress MS-16 cargo ship blasted off as scheduled at 9:45 a.m. local time from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan and reached a designated orbit en route to the station. It is carrying water, propellant,…