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For the first time, we’re seeing an image from the record-breaking US military space plane while in Earth orbit. Over the weekend, the US Space Force shared a photo taken by the spacecraft X-37B during its most recent secret mission. It’s the first operational image shared while the space plane is in orbit. The image shows part of the space plane, the blue marble of Earth and the darkness of space. “An X-37B onboard camera, used to ensure the health and safety of the vehicle, captures an image of Earth while conducting experiments in HEO in 2024,” the US Space...

The chance that an asteroid capable of wiping out a city will hit Earth in eight years has been cut in half to around 1.5 percent, according to new calculations from NASA. The drop in odds had been widely anticipated by the global astronomical community, which now broadly expects the probability the asteroid will hit Earth on December 22, 2032 to fall down to zero. For more than 24 hours, the asteroid did have the highest probability of hitting Earth -- 3.1 percent -- of such a big space rock in modern forecasting. Updated calculations posted by NASA late Wednesday...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to President Trump’s latest rebuke, calling out Trump for living in a Russian “disinformation space.” “Unfortunately, President Trump, I have great respect for him as a leader of a nation that we have great respect for, the American people who always support us, unfortunately lives in this disinformation space,” Zelensky told reporters early Wednesday. His claim follows Trump’s news conference from his Mar-a-Lago resort Tuesday evening, where he criticized the Ukrainian leader and claimed his approval ratings were low. Zelensky also pressed Trump and U.S. officials to “be more truthful.” The request follows a high-stakes...

CEDAR PARK, Texas - Among the starry nights of Central Texas this week is a little bit of home. A company out of Cedar Park launched a spacecraft on the SpaceX Falcon 9 on Wednesday. The launch from Cape Canaveral was a success. "The work is just getting started, and we've got an exciting mission in front of us, about sixty days in front of us, and we're digging in hard in all that work," said Scholtes.

Tonight is the first launch attempt for Blue Origin's New Glenn orbital glass rocket. This is Blue Origin's first orbital attempt. They've been to the edge of space with their New Shepherd rocket.

Space travel has always hit a wall with slow speeds and massive fuel needs. Gravitic propulsion systems offer a game-changing solution by using gravity itself as a driving force. This blog breaks down 10 major advances in gravity-based space tech, from T. Townsend Brown's early work to today's cutting-edge research at aerospace labs. Ready to explore how we might zip through space without burning tons of rocket fuel? Scientists started exploring gravitic propulsion back in the 1920s through wild experiments with high-voltage capacitors and electromagnetic fields. T. Townsend Brown's work at the Gravity Research Foundation sparked major interest when he...

The distant galaxy has all the structure of a modern spiral galaxy (the object next to it is another galaxy in the foreground). Image credit: Xiao et al., arXiv 2024 (CC BY 4.0) It has been just over three years since JWST was launched into space and in that time, the telescope has dramatically expanded our understanding of the distant universe. Among the important findings is the discovery of very young galaxies that already looked like their more senior counterparts in the local universe, and a recent study has shown a spiral galaxy that already had everything modern ones do...

Two US astronauts stranded for months on the International Space Station will remain there at least until late March, NASA said Tuesday as it announced another delay in the mission to bring them home. Veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arrived at the ISS in June aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, and were due to spend eight days on the orbiting laboratory. But problems arose with the Starliner's propulsion system during the flight there, so NASA opted for a big change in plans. After weeks of intensive tests on the Starliner, the space agency decided to return it to Earth...

... Orion's reentry followed a sharply angled trajectory, during which the capsule fell at an incredible speed before deploying three red and white parachutes. As the mission finished its trip of over 270,000 miles (435,000 kilometers), it looked to those on the deck of the USS Portland like the capsule had made it home in a single piece. As the recovery crew lifted Orion to the carrier's deck, shock waves ruffled across the capsule's surface. That's when crew members started to spot big cracks on Orion's lower surface, where the capsule's exterior bonds to its heat shield. But why wouldn't...

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — United Launch Alliance (ULA) expects to gain Space Force certification for national security payloads within a few months, company CEO Tory Bruno told Breaking Defense in a recent interview.Speaking in California, Bruno said he expects certification “momentarily,” though he noted that “’momentarily,’ in our world, that means this month, next month, next few months.”He added that no further testing of the Vulcan Centaur will be needed to meet certification, saying the company has met all the requirements from the Pentagon.Two well-executed launches are requisite to achieve certification for carrying payloads under the Space Force’s National Security...

Just when you think humanity has the technology for a thorough probe of Uranus, abnormal winds is forcing scientists to rethink everything we thought we knew about this distant gaseous giant. New peer-reviewed research published in Nature Astronomy suggests that the atmosphere of the solar system’s seventh planet has “anomalous characteristics” caused by intense solar winds. The information analyzed by astronomers was collected during the 1986 flyby of Voyager 2, humanity’s only probe into the gaseous giant Uranus. “The data collected about Uranus was a little confusing and didn’t make sense,” said Max Gilbraith, planetarium coordinator for the University of...

Credit: Dawn Aerospace/Cover Images A rocket-powered aircraft has broken the sound barrier for the first time since Concorde, following a successful test flight in New Zealand. Dawn Aerospace’s MK-11 Aurora jet reached supersonic speeds, marking a milestone in the company’s mission to revolutionise daily space access and satellite launches. "This achievement signifies a major step toward operational hypersonic travel and daily space access, establishing rocket-powered aircraft as a new class of ultra-high-performance vehicles," the company said in a statement. The test flight on November 12 saw the uncrewed aircraft reach a speed of Mach 1.1 (844 mph) and climb to...

Former Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides is headed to Capitol Hill. Whitesides, who also has "NASA chief of staff" on his resume, won his U.S. House of Representatives race to represent California's 27th district, which covers a big chunk of land north of Los Angeles. "It's the honor of a lifetime to be elected to serve our district in Congress and deliver for Santa Clarita, the Antelope Valley and the San Fernando Valley," Whitesides wrote in a statement on X Monday night (Nov. 11). "In Congress, you can count on me to fight to create more good local jobs, lower...

NASA today insisted stranded astronaut Sunita Williams is safe and healthy amid growing public concern for her health. But the space agency again refused to give any details about four astronauts who were mysteriously hospitalized late last month after returning from a separate space mission... A doctor raised concerns about Williams this week after a photo showed her looking 'gaunt', suggesting she had lost a significant amount of weight after spending more than 150 days stuck on the International Space Station.... Concern over Williams came less than two weeks after the hospitalization of four NASA/SpaceX Crew-8 astronauts, who splashed down...

The new Tiangong team will carry out experiments with an eye to the space programme's ambitious goal of placing astronauts on the Moon by 2030 and eventually constructing a lunar base. The Shenzhou-19 mission is scheduled to take off with its trio of space explorers at 4:27 am Wednesday (2027 GMT Tuesday) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said. Among the crew is Wang Haoze, 34, who is China's only female spaceflight engineer, according to the agency. She will become the third Chinese woman to take part in a crewed mission....

Boeing is exploring a possible sale of its space business as its new CEO seeks to improve the embattled company's financial position, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The company is weighing a divestiture of its NASA business, including the problem-plagued Starliner vehicle, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Asked for a response, a Boeing spokesperson told AFP the company "doesn't comment on market rumors or speculation." Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg, who joined Boeing in August, said earlier this week he was reviewing company operations with an eye towards narrowing Boeing's profile. Boeing is better off "doing...

The 4-person crew had been delayed 2 months, staying at the International Space Station for 8 months ... A NASA astronaut remained hospitalized Friday evening following the delayed return of a four-person crew from the International Space Station earlier in the morning. The crew consisting of NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin splashed down off the coast of Pensacola, Florida, around 3:30 a.m. ET. Friday. All four were flown together to Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola in Florida for medical evaluation following splashdown, and one astronaut still remains, NASA said in a Friday...

China's state security ministry said foreign spy intelligence agencies have been trying to steal secrets from the country's space programme as the arms race in space intensifies and emerges as a new "battlefield for military struggle". Safeguarding space security had become a key strategy for China's future survival and development, the ministry said in a post on its official Wechat account on Wednesday (Oct 23). "In recent years, some Western countries have formed space combat forces, exercised space action capabilities and even regarded (China) as a major competitor in the space field," it said.

Some amazing huge mostly government funded fireworks.

In this era of Great Power Competition, it is imperative to not leave capability on the ground.'.. SpaceX just added another batch of launches to its already-busy manifest. The U.S. Space Force announced on Friday (Oct. 18) that it has awarded SpaceX $733.6 million, in the form of two "National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 Launch Service Task Orders." Together, the two task orders cover seven launches for the Space Development Agency (SDA) and one "mission set" for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), according to Space Force officials. "In this era of Great Power Competition, it is imperative...