Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Watch the sun set over the moon in epic video from private Blue Ghost lunar lander

Never-'stuck' Starliner astronauts return to Earth at last | Space Quiz! How many sample return missions from the moon has China completed? | Sunset over the moon in epic video from Blue Ghost lander
Created for znamenski.spacecom@blogger.com | Web Version
March 19, 2025
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The Launchpad
Never-'stuck' Starliner astronauts return to Earth at last
(NASA)
Sunita "Suni" Williams and Barry "Butch" Wilmore did not set out to make history other than being the first crew to launch on Boeing's CST-100 Starliner capsule. After their capsule encountered propulsion issues, though, and NASA, out of an abundance of caution, decided to land it without them on board, Williams and Wilmore were reassigned to SpaceX's Crew Dragon to complete what ultimately extended from a 12-day to a nine-and-half-month mission.
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Space Quiz! How many sample return missions from the moon has China completed?
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Sunset over the moon in epic video from Blue Ghost lander
(Firefly Aerospace)
Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lunar lander made the most of its last few hours of life on the moon. The solar-powered Blue Ghost shut down on Sunday evening (March 16), shortly after the sun set over its lunar locale. The lander watched our star's descent and disappearance over the cratered horizon, capturing the oncoming, killing darkness in a poignant video that Firefly shared with the world.
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Spaceflight
Varda space capsule plunges through Earth's atmosphere
(Varda Space)
A small space private capsule has captured stunning onboard scenes from its high-velocity atmospheric reentry. The final two minutes of the video show things really heating up, as sparks of varying colors and intensities are captured by the camera as the spacecraft interacts with the thick atmosphere at speeds exceeding Mach 25, or 25 times the speed of sound.
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Science & Astronomy
The far side of the moon was once a vast magma ocean
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
Recent findings from samples collected by China's Chang'e 6 mission have provided valuable insights into the history of the moon, particularly its far side. New research from scientists with the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences and published in the journal Science found that sample analysis backs up an established model of the moon as a global liquid magma ocean in the early days after its formation and likely lasted for tens to hundreds of millions of years.
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SpaceX
Dolphins welcome SpaceX's Crew-9 astronauts home
(NASA)
A pod of curious dolphins were on scene for yesterday's return of the SpaceX Crew-9 mission, carrying NASA astronauts Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore and Nick Hague, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
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Technology
Starlab space station moves into 'full-scale development'
(Starlab)
Starlab, a joint project between the U.S. space technology firm Voyager Space and European aerospace conglomerate Airbus, will consist of a service module and a habitat large enough to host four space tourists. Currently, the station is expected to launch in 2028 aboard SpaceX's Starship megarocket. The recently completed preliminary design review (PDR) marks the beginning of the station's "full-scale" production, the company said.
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Star Trek
SNW Season 4 starts filming before Season 3 airs
(Paramount)
"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" is now officially the flagship darling of Paramount's "Star Trek" empire and we couldn't be happier! Last week it was announced that prior to the 10-episode Season 3 launching on Paramount+ sometime this year, production has actually already begun in earnest on Season 4 at studios in Toronto, Canada.
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