You can watch SpaceX launch NASA supplies to space station early Tuesday | NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission slips to spring 2022 after engine issue | Japanese billionaire and crewmates land from short stay on space station
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SpaceX will launch a Dragon spacecraft packed with NASA cargo to the International Space Station early Tuesday (Dec. 21) as part of its latest resupply mission for the U.S. space agency and you can watch it live. A shiny new SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will take to the skies here from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 5:06 a.m. EST (1006 GMT). The two-stage launcher will blast off from Pad 39 lofting a robotic Dragon cargo capsule carrying more than 6,500 pounds (2,948 kilograms) of fresh supplies, experiment hardware, and other gear for the astronauts aboard the orbiting lab.
Rocket woes have again delayed NASA's return to the moon. The agency is now targeting a launch in March or April 2022 for its Artemis 1 flight, an uncrewed mission around the moon and the first flight of its massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. NASA was previously targeting Feb. 12, 2022, for the flight, which is the first in the Artemis program that aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface later this decade. But hiccups in the mission's integrated testing program have forced another schedule delay.
A Japanese billionaire and his production assistant have safely returned to Earth after spending nearly 12 days in space filming and posting videos online about their experience. Yusaku Maezawa, who made his fortune as an online fashion retailer, and Yozo Hirano, his videographer, landed with cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin of the Russian federal space corporation Roscosmos on the Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft on Sunday (Dec. 19). The three crewmates touched down at about 10:13 p.m. EST (0313 GMT or 9:13 a.m. local time on Dec. 20) on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan.
SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket for a record 11th time Saturday (Dec. 18), sending a new stack of Starlink satellites into orbit from California in a predawn liftoff. The previously flown Falcon 9 rocket blasted off at 7:41 a.m. EST (1241 GMT, 04:41 a.m. local time) from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Station in California, carrying a stack of 52 Starlink satellites.
SpaceX launched its second rocket in less than 24 hours on Saturday night (Dec. 18), delivering a Turkish communications satellite into orbit before capping off the successful mission with a landing at sea. A 230-foot-tall (70 meters) Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Space Launch Complex 40 here at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:58 p.m. EST (0358 GMT on Dec. 19), at the beginning of a planned 90-minute window, carrying the Turksat 5B satellite into space.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is currently poised to launch and become the most powerful telescope in space. But how will its photos compare to Hubble's? The Hubble Space Telescope launched into low Earth orbit in April 1990. Over the three decades since, the famous observatory has expanded our view of the cosmos and held our attention with the stunning images it collects. But the James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to launch on Dec. 24, will do things a bit differently.
The James Webb Space Telescope could help to solve the pressing mysteries of dark matter. While the James Webb Space Telescope cannot directly "see" dark matter, scientists think that by measuring the effects it has on its surrounding, Webb could answer some major questions about dark matter. This, in turn, would greatly advance our knowledge of the universe at large.
Comet Leonard may have sparked meteor showers at Venus this weekend during a relatively close approach of the comet to the planet. Officially known as comet C/2021 A1, also known as Comet Leonard was discovered in January by astronomer Gregory J. Leonard of the Mount Lemmon Infrared Observatory in Arizona. Its close pass of Venus this weekend gave skywatchers a marker in the evening sky to help spot the comet, which is at binocular visibility from Earth and may be just barely bright enough to be visible to the naked eye under clear, dark skies.
If you want to be dazzled by a spectacular northern lights display, your best bet is to skywatch near the North Pole. But that wasn't the case 41,000 years ago, when a disruption of Earth's magnetic field sent auroras wandering toward the equator.
It's here … and we almost wish it wasn't. The sixth and final season of "The Expanse" is currently showing on Amazon Prime Video. So, sit back, strap in, get comfortable in your crash couch, disengage the docking clamp, fire thrusters, engage the Epstein drive and ready "the juice" ... this is the awesome, high-octane, action-packed concluding season of one of the best science fiction dramas ever written for television.
The first proper footage from the eagerly-awaited "Halo" TV series on Paramount Plus has arrived, the live-action adaptation of the famous first-person shooter Xbox games.
