SpaceX delays private Polaris Dawn launch to Aug. 27 | NASA to give Boeing Starliner update on Aug. 24 | Space Quiz! Which commercial spaceships does NASA use to fly astronauts?
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SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission — the first in history to feature a private spacewalk —was slated for Monday, Aug. 26, but will now launch no earlier than Tuesday, Aug. 27. The shift comes two days after the Polaris Dawn crew arrived in Florida for the final leg of their pre-mission preparations.
As Boeing's first crewed Starliner test flight nears the 80-day mark of what was initially an eight-day mission, NASA leaders will give an update on Saturday (Aug. 24) to outline their plan on how to return Starliner's astronaut crew to Earth.
The Celestron SkyMaster 25x100 binoculars are now $120 off on Amazon and we rate them as the best for magnification in our guide to the best binoculars. In our Celestron SkyMaster 25x100 binoculars review, we found that it has an excellent, high magnification which makes viewing the stars and beyond possible and that's partnered with high-quality optics, giving you crisp, clear views. While these aren't suitable for hand-held, casual viewing, they do come with a tripod adaptor, which is where these binoculars excel
(Alan Dyer/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
If you were among the countless numbers of people who spent time last week looking for Perseid meteors, you doubt took notice of a striking stellar arrangement in the northeastern part of the sky: A zigzag row of five bright stars marking the Queen of Ethiopia, Cassiopeia.
The passage of time can slow to a crawl when you're waiting, and waiting, and waiting. How will the Boeing Starliner astronauts feel time move if they have to stay in space for another 6 months?
(NASA; ESA; Z. Levay and R. van der Marel, STScI; T. Hallas; and A. Mellinger)
Astronomers have long considered it inevitable that our home galaxy, the Milky Way, will merge with the neighboring Andromeda galaxy within the next 5 billion years. However, a new simulation suggests the chance of this clash happening comes down to a coin flip — at least, within the next 10 billion years.
SpaceX is targeting Tuesday (Aug. 27) for the launch of its Polaris Dawn mission, which will take a Crew Dragon spacecraft to its highest orbit and feature the first-ever private spacewalk. Here's how you can watch the historic action live. Spoiler alert: You'll need to be on X.
SpaceX is gearing up for more-frequent launches of its Starship megarocket. The company currently sends Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, aloft from an orbital launch mount at Starbase, its site near the South Texas border city of Brownsville. But SpaceX is working to install a second launch pad at the facility, and it recently notched a big milestone toward this goal.
The 1,351-piece Lego Star Wars Millennium Falcon is on sale for 20% off. It's by far the best budget-friendly option to the 7000-plus-piece model and features in our best Lego Star Wars sets guide.
Polaris Dawn: Meet the crew of 1st commercial spacewalk | Jupiter's JUICE probe slingshots by Earth on way to Venus | Astrophotographer captures Saturn behind the moon
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Strapped into the same Crew Dragon that launched Inspiration4, Jared Isaacman, the mission's commander, will ride a Falcon 9 rocket to orbit alongside fellow Polaris Dawn crewmember Scott "Kidd" Poteet, a retired United States Air Force (USAF) Lieutenant Colonel serving as mission pilot, with Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, both Lead Space Operations Engineers at SpaceX - and the first employees to launch to space on one of the company's rockets - serving as mission specialists.
The European Space Agency's JUICE spacecraft - which stands for Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer - has completed a historic, first-of-its-kind flyby of Earth and the moon. The craft, which launched on April 14, 2023, is now heading toward a flyby of Venus, the second planet from the sun, which will ping it back to Earth for more gravity assists in 2026 and 2029. After those flybys, JUICE will be on to Jupiter and its moons, set to reach its ultimate target in July 2031.
Photographer Josh Dury was up bright and early to capture the event from his location in Somerset, U.K. "I have waited years to see a lunar occultation of Saturn. What can be more majestic than one of the most famous planets of the solar system being obscured by the moon?" Dury told Space.com in an email.
"If successful, this mission will be the first private mission to land on another body outside of our Earth-moon system and will move us closer to realizing our mission of making off-world resources accessible to all humankind," AstroForge wrote in an update.
Thankfully, actual black holes and stars can't be smashed together in the lab! However, scientists can use advanced supercomputer modeling to simulate a black hole ripping apart and devouring a star in a so-called "tidal disruption event" or "TDE." Doing just that, a team of researchers led by Danel Price from Monash University has discovered that the answer to our opening question is "things get messy."
These two Dragons are getting ready to spread their wings. SpaceX just gave us a look at the Crew Dragon capsules that will fly on the Polaris Dawn and Crew-9 astronaut missions, which are set to launch on Aug. 27 and Sept. 24, respectively.
Imagine trying to land an SUV-sized rover on another world. That's definitely enough of a challenge on its own, but picture doing so while the rover hangs perilously beneath a hovering sky crane, connected by just a handful of clothesline-like nylon cables.
The universe should either be crowded with life or harbor hardly any life at all, according to a new study that revamps the Drake equation using probabilistic logic.
