ScientistPankaj: William Shatner says he's 'terrified' days ahead of flight with Blue Origin

Saturday, October 9, 2021

William Shatner says he's 'terrified' days ahead of flight with Blue Origin

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October 8, 2021

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The Launchpad

Draconid meteor shower peaks tonight!

(Mike Lewinski/Flickr)

The annual Draconid meteor shower peaks tonight (Oct. 8), just after dusk, and the moon will be dim enough for skywatchers to catch a good view. The Draconid meteor shower occurs every year in early October, when the Earth passes through a stream of dust from the periodic Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner. This year's Draconid meteor shower will be active from Oct. 6 through Oct. 10, but will reach its peak soon after dusk tonight (Oct. 8), offering the best viewing opportunity for skywatchers.

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William Shatner says he's 'terrified' days ahead of flight with Blue Origin

Days after news broke that William Shatner would reach space with Blue Origin on Oct. 12, the "Star Trek" actor admitted that he's experiencing some pre-flight jitters. During a panel on Thursday evening (Oct. 7) at New York Comic Con, Shatner shared his feelings ahead of the Blue Origin mission and talked about the importance of civilian space initiatives like these suborbital flights. Shatner is due to blast off from Blue Origin's west Texas launch site aboard a New Shepard vehicle in just four days; you can follow the mission live with Space.com.

Full Story: Space (10/8)

Spaceflight

China rolls out rocket for its longest crew mission yet

(CMSA)

China has rolled out a rocket to the pad to send three astronauts from the desert up to its new Tianhe space station core module, although the launch date remains a mystery. A 203-feet-high (62 meters) Long March 2F rocket was vertically transferred to the pad at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert early on Thursday (Oct. 7).

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NASA spacecraft will crash into an asteroid at 15,000 mph. Will it make a dent?

NASA has announced the launch date for an upcoming mission to punch an asteroid in the face with a high-speed spacecraft. The mission, called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), is scheduled to launch at 10:20 p.m. PST (7:20 p.m. EST) on Nov. 23, and it could help the world's space agencies figure out how to divert potentially lethal asteroids from impacting Earth.

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Science & Astronomy

Pluto's atmosphere is starting to disappear, scientists find

(NASA)

Pluto's atmosphere is going through a strange transformation, scientists are finding. The icy dwarf planet, which lies over 3 billion miles (4.8 billion kilometers) away from Earth in the Kuiper Belt, caught astronomers' attention as it passed in front of a star back in 2018. With the star backlighting Pluto, the team of researchers was able to make observations of the dwarf planet and its atmosphere. With this unique view, they came to a surprising conclusion, which they describe in a new study.

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Hawaiian volcanic eruption glows in gorgeous satellite photos

Incredible images from space show a Hawaiian volcanic eruption glowing in the dark. Maxar Technologies' WorldView-3 and WorldView-2 satellites captured gorgeous night-time imagery of lava spewing from Hawaii's Kīlauea volcano on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, respectively. The photos, two of which the company shared on Twitter Oct. 1, show an eerie glow emanating from the volcano.

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Skywatching

Look up! The moon and 3 planets will gather after sundown this week

(Starry Night)

Between Saturday and Thursday evenings (Oct. 9 to Oct. 14), the moon will visit not one but three bright planets: Venus, Saturn and Jupiter. Venus will pair off with a slender crescent moon, while Saturn and Jupiter will join with a waxing gibbous moon the following Thursday. Here are the specifics of each gathering.

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Entertainment

Trailer for 'Lost in Space' Season 3 promises epic conclusion to beloved series

(Netflix)

The first — and probably only — trailer for the third and final season of "Lost in Space" just arrived, and it looks like the story is going in a really interesting direction. If you haven't watched Netflix's "Lost in Space," go and do so this instant. Put down your half-caf decaf oat milk latte, forget about that PowerPoint presentation and log on to Netflix. You'll thank us.

Full Story: Space (10/8)

'Among the Stars' director Ben Turner captures raw emotion in new Disney Plus space documentary (Q&A)

Disney Plus's new high-flying space docuseries "Among the Stars" chronicles NASA's two-year quest to replace the failing cooling pumps on a pricey piece of cosmic ray detecting equipment installed on the International Space Station.

Full Story: Space (10/8)