Joe Engle, X-15 and space shuttle astronaut, dies at 91 | Space Quiz! Which NASA rover is collecting samples of the Martian surface to be returned to Earth on a later mission? | Starliner's return date? Boeing and NASA still don't know.
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Joe Engle, the first astronaut to fly in space aboard two different winged vehicles, has died at the age of 91. Engle's death on Wednesday (July 10) was announced in a note from his family shared publicly on Facebook. "Blessed with natural piloting skills, General Joe, as he was known to many, was at his happiest in any cockpit," read the note. "He lived a fulfilled life as a proud American, U.S. Air Force pilot, astronaut and Kansas Jayhawk. His passing leaves a tremendous loss in our hearts."
The first crewed mission of Boeing's Starliner capsule has been in orbit for more than a month now, and it still doesn't have a return date. "We're taking our time on the ground to go through all the data before we decide on the return opportunity," Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, said during a press conference on Wednesday (July 10).
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China is planning its first mission to impact an asteroid in the name of planetary defense. The mission will serve a dual purpose: One craft will impact the asteroid while its partner observes the space rock to learn more about the solar system and its formation.
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SpaceX plans to launch 20 more of its Starlink satellites on Thursday night (July 11), including 13 with direct-to-cell capabilities. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off Thursday from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base, during a four-hour window that opens at 10:39 p.m. EDT (7:39 p.m. local California time; 0239 GMT on July 12). That's one day later than originally planned; SpaceX didn't give a reason for the slip.
Scientists with the University of California, Berkeley, have carried out successful tests of a next-gen microgravity 3D printer called SpaceCAL. The tests were carried out as part of the Virgin Galactic 07 mission, a crewed suborbital spaceflight that launched on Monday (June 8). During its 140-second trial run, SpaceCAL 3D printed four items from a liquid plastic called PEGDA. These included space shuttle models and small tugboats called "Benchys," conventionally used as benchmarks (hence the name) to evaluate a printer's quality and performance.
While NASA's portion of the Mars Sample Return mission sits in budgetary limbo, the European Space Agency (ESA) continues to move forward with its piece of the Red Planet sampling puzzle: the Earth Return Orbiter (ERO). ERO will provide the crucial transport of Mars samples collected by NASA's Perseverance rover from the Red Planet to Earth. In order to do so, it will rendezvous with the sample in Martian orbit, catch a basketball-sized capsule whizzing around the planet and finally bring that capsule back to Earth.
Forget about those campfire yarns about the infamous land rushes of the Old West in the 19th century as it can't hold a candle to the crazy, free-for-all stampede for positioning satellite megaconstellations in the erupting sectors of space infrastructure and aerospace firms' desires for profit in the unfolding era of commercial exploitation. Wild Wild Space" (a sly nod to the cult '60s western spy series, "Wild Wild West") is a new HBO Original documentary directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ross Kauffman ("Born Into Brothels") which premieres on HBO and streams on Max beginning on July 17, 2024.
After an uneven first half of the season, The Acolyte seems to have found its voice and a satisfying rhythm. Last week, the plot slowed down and characters were reshuffled a bit after they were shaken to the core in the fantastic fifth episode (Qimir is doing fine though). With episode 7, the show finally unveils what really happened 16 years ago on Brendok, and the line between good and evil feels even more blurred.
