ScientistPankaj: Astra test-fires rocket ahead of 1st Florida launch (video)

Thursday, January 27, 2022

Astra test-fires rocket ahead of 1st Florida launch (video)

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January 26, 2022

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The Launchpad

Astra test-fires rocket ahead of 1st Florida launch (video)

(John Kraus/Astra)

Astra took another step forward in preparing for its first-ever launch of operational satellites. The California company performed a "static fire" test with its Rocket 3.3 vehicle at Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Saturday (Jan. 22), briefly igniting the launcher's first-stage engines while keeping it anchored to the pad.

Full Story: Space (1/26)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage will slam into the moon on March 4

SpaceX will reach the surface of the moon a bit ahead of schedule, it turns out. Elon Musk's company is providing the landing system for the first crewed touchdown of NASA's Artemis lunar exploration program, a milestone that the agency hopes to achieve in 2025. But a piece of SpaceX hardware will hit the gray dirt far sooner than that — in just five weeks or so.

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Spaceflight

Perseverance rover does the 'twist' on Mars to shake loose stuck rocks

(NASA/JPL-Caltech)

A quick twist and shake relieved NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars of the last two pebbles clogging its sampling system. The trouble began during the rover's sixth Red Planet rock sample, on Dec. 29. Pebbles got stuck along the rover's bit carousel, which passes rock samples into the spacecraft's internal handling system for processing. After a few weeks of analysis, the Perseverance rover attempted to get rid of the final pesky pebbles by reversing up onto some nearby rocks. Perched on top of the rocks, the rover did a twist with one foot to shake loose the debris.

Full Story: Space (1/26)

Saturn's 'Death Star' moon could have a secret underground ocean

Scientists have found "compelling evidence" that Saturn's "Death Star" moon is hiding an ocean just beneath its surface, furthering the search for possible life in our solar system. Researchers say that Mimas, Saturn's smallest, innermost moon — whose resemblance to Star Wars' infamous battle station inspired its nickname — revealed the first clue that it could be a "stealth ocean world" after NASA's Cassini probe spotted a strange wobble in the moon's rotation.

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Science & Astronomy

5,000 possible alien worlds in less than 4 years for NASA planet-hunting mission

(NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center)

It's been a busy four years for NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the scientists who seek planets in its data. The mission just hit a major discovery milestone, passing 5,000 of what the team calls TESS Objects of Interest, or TOIs, which include exoplanet candidates and other intriguing signals. Astronomers select objects from these TOIs to study in more detail and with other instruments in order to better understand what TESS may have seen.

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Eta Carinae's epic star explosion comes to life in new visualization

A new visualization shows the power of an epic star explosion erupting in deep space. The video shows the famous explosion in the Eta Carinae star system that briefly made it the brightest object in the sky in the year 1843. More than 170 years later, the two lobes of the nova are still expanding into space, providing a rich trove of data to gather.

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Technology

Meteorite hunters rejoice: Antarctica probably harbors 300,000 undiscovered space rocks

(Field team of the BELARE 2019-2020 meteorite recovery expedition on the Nansen Ice Field)

An artificial intelligence program suggests there may be hundreds of thousands of meteorites left for scientists to discover on the icy fields of Antarctica and reveals what may be the most likely places to unearth them, a new study finds.

Full Story: Space (1/26)

Could a spacecraft 'catch up' to interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua in just 26 years?

A group of volunteer researchers from the Institute for Interstellar Studies (i4is), a U.K.-based nonprofit company, has proposed sending a spacecraft to 'Oumuamua with what they call Project Lyra. The project began very soon after 'Oumuamua was discovered with the intent to determine if it was even possible to send a craft to the object and, in following work, the team has investigated different possible ways to study the rock up close.

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Entertainment

Former astronaut Mae Jemison drops by 'Sesame Street' on Thursday (exclusive sneak peek video)

(Sesame Workshop)

The "Sesame Street" friends got a pretty good guide to lead them on their latest space adventure. Former NASA astronaut Mae Jemison guest stars on the latest episode of "Sesame Street," which airs Thursday (Jan. 27) on HBO Max. She appears in an 11-minute clip that also features "Sesame Street" residents Elmo, Cookie Monster and Abby Cadabby. The Muppet trio team up to play a space video game, which requires their cartoon avatars to complete a moon quest laid out by a cartoon version of Jemison.

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'Resident Alien' returns to Syfy with Season 2 premiere tonight!

Sci-fi fan-favorite Alan Tudyk is here to save humankind with pizza. Tudyk is returning to his role as Harry Vanderspiegel, the alien posing as a local doctor, in the second season of "Resident Alien," premiering tonight (Jan. 26) on Syfy. In the new season, fans will finally get to see what happens with Harry, his newfound human friends (including co-star Sara Tomko who plays Astra Twelvetrees) in Patience, Colorado and his pressing mission to wipe out humanity.

Full Story: Space (1/26)