SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket set to launch secretive X-37B | Space Quiz! What event triggered what some academics are calling the "Lunar Anthropocene"? | This Week In Space podcast: Wizard of Griffith Observatory
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After a one-day delay, liftoff of the Falcon Heavy with the Space Force's secretive X-37B space plane is scheduled to occur from Launch Complex-39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, during a 10-minute window that opens at 8:14 p.m. EST (0114 GMT Dec. 12).
Most of us have experienced a planetarium at one time or another, but unless you've been to the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, you've missed out. Besides a brand-spanking-new planetarium theater chock-a-block with special effects and computerized systems, the Observatory's Halls of Science are a treat not to be missed. Add to that the stunning views of Los Angeles and the facility's director, Dr. Ed Krupp -- one of the best science communicators in the business--and you have a real treat. And the kicker? He's a world expert in ancient astronomy!
(Xue Bing / Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
What potentially will be the best meteor display of the year is just around the corner, scheduled to reach its peak on late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning, Dec. 13-14: The Geminid meteor shower.
United Launch Alliance (ULA) performed a wet dress rehearsal (WDR) of the company's new Vulcan Centaur rocket over the weekend, which includes loading propellant into the spacecraft and running through launch-day procedures up to the moments before engine ignition. That test, however, didn't go to plan.
NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli celebrated the first night of Hanukkah aboard the International Space Station with a felt menorah and video of a spinning dreidel in microgravity, raising the question: If a dreidel in space spins forever, who gets the gelt?
The "Lunar Anthropocene" is a mirror to Earth's Anthropocene, a geological epoch defined by the timeframe within which human activity started warping our world. The Anthropocene has no official recognition - and even its proponents still debate when it truly began - but it's impossible to deny that, through everything, humans are permanently changing the planet.
Jared Isaacman, the billionaire funding the private space mission in collaboration with SpaceX, disclosed the news Saturday (Dec. 9) in replies on X (formerly Twitter) to a question about when his mission will run.
The Hubble Space Telescope remains in good health and may last until the 2030s, but it is gradually being dragged back into Earth's atmosphere. No spacecraft has been able to visit Hubble since 2009, two years before NASA retired its space shuttle fleet. There are early-stage plans to refurbish Hubble again, possibly using a SpaceX Dragon vehicle. But in the meantime, Hubble's eventual retirement could leave behind a big gap.
