ScientistPankaj: Watch Russia launch a fresh cargo ship to the International Space Station today

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February 14, 2022

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The Launchpad

Watch Russia launch a fresh cargo ship to the International Space Station today

(Roscosmos)

A new Russian cargo ship will blast off today (Feb. 14) with tons of supplies and equipment for the Expedition 66 crew of the International Space Station. Here's how you can watch it live. A Soyuz rocket from the Russian space agency Roscosmos is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:25 p.m. EST Monday (0425 GMT or 9:25 a.m. local time on Tuesday, Feb. 15). Coverage will start running at 11 a.m. EST (0400 GMT) on NASA Television, the NASA app, NASA social media and here at Space.com.

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Billionaire's 'Polaris Program' to set space records on SpaceX Dragon, Starship

(Polaris Program)

The billionaire commander of the first "all-civilian" space mission has now filed a new flight plan, underwriting a series of three SpaceX launches designed to rapidly advance human spaceflight capabilities while also raising funds and awareness for causes here on Earth. Jared Isaacman, the 39-year-old founder of Shift4, an online payment processing company, and the commander of last year's Inspiration4 mission, revealed his "Polaris Program" on Monday (Feb. 14), a trio of commercial spaceflights to begin on SpaceX's existing Dragon spacecraft as soon as November or December of this year and culminate in the first crewed launch of SpaceX's new Starship in the years to come.

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Spaceflight

India launches Earth-observing satellite and 2 others in first space mission of 2022

(ISRO)

India launched its first space mission of 2022 late Sunday (Feb. 13) to send a new Earth observation satellite to space alongside two smaller rideshare satellites. A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle built by the Indian Space Research Organisation launched the Earth Observation Satellite 4 (EOS-4) into orbit at 7:29 p.m. EST (0029 GMT or 6:29 p.m. local time Monday, Feb. 14) from a pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, off the Bay of Bengal.

Full Story: Space (2/13)

A new Chinese rocket company has raised more than $100 million

(Orienspace)

One of China's newest launch startups has been raising serious amounts of money for its range of increasingly complex "Gravity" launch vehicles. Orienspace was founded in 2020 and announced itself last year after securing initial funding of $65 million, detailing plans for a series of rockets. The firm has just secured a further $47 million, the company announced in January, making it one of the most well-backed Chinese launch startups despite its youth.

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Science & Astronomy

Cosmic robbery: New study explains how smaller galaxies lose their dark matter

(Moreno et al.)

Large galaxies may steal dark matter from smaller galaxies they nearly collide with, new research suggests. Scientists from the University of California, Irvine and Pomona College used computer models to simulate the evolution of a corner of the universe about 60 million light-years across. The new computer models, which weren't designed to do so, created seven galaxies deprived of dark matter, a sight that had previously puzzled scientists.

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Want to use the James Webb Space Telescope? Here's how scientists book time with the giant observatory.

(NASA GSFC/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez)

The hottest commodity in astronomy these days is time — specifically, time using NASA's brand-new, ultra-powerful observatory. The James Webb Space Telescope, also known as JWST or Webb, launched on Dec. 25, 2021, and is scheduled to begin science observations by this summer. Astronomers eagerly await that moment: Scientists believe that the telescope's sensitivity and infrared vision will give them data that helps them unravel countless mysteries of the cosmos.

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Moon group pushes for protection of ultraquiet lunar far side

(NASA)

The international scientific community has long been discussing the need to keep the far side of the moon free from human-made radio frequency intrusion. Doing so can make possible observations of the unexplored early epochs of the universe known as the dark ages and cosmic dawn, scientists say.

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SpaceX

FAA pushes back review of SpaceX's Starship to March 28

(SpaceX)

The first orbital launch of SpaceX's Starship Mars rocket has been pushed back by at least another month. SpaceX aims to launch that milestone test mission shortly after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) wraps up an environmental assessment of Starbase, the South Texas site where the company builds, tests and launches Starship vehicles.

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Meet the four private Polaris Dawn astronauts SpaceX will launch into orbit this year

(Polaris Program/John Kraus)

The billionaire commander of SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission is flying back to space again with a set of new crewmates. Shift4 CEO Jared Isaacman and SpaceX jointly announced Monday (Feb. 14) the creation of Polaris Dawn, a mission set to fly a Crew Dragon to high Earth orbit in late 2022. The mission will be the opening shot for the Polaris Program, which aims both to conduct human spaceflights and to fund causes on Earth.

Full Story: Space (2/14)

The out-of-control rocket about to hit the moon is not a SpaceX Falcon 9, astronomers now say: report

A rocket stage set to hit the moon March 4 might not be from SpaceX after all. The astronomer credited with discovering the forthcoming impact, Bill Gray, announced Saturday (Feb. 12) that he made an error in identifying the rocket as an old SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage that helped launch the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite in 2015. Rather, Gray suggests the stage could part of a Long March 3C rocket that launched China's moonbound Chang'e 5-T1 mission in October 2014.

Full Story: Space (2/13)

Entertainment

Send your valentine a spacey e-card, with NASA's help this Valentine's Day

(NASA)

You can give your valentine a card that's out of this world, thanks to NASA. The space agency has put together some freely available e-cards that feature iconic space photos with special Valentine's Day messages attached.

Full Story: Space (2/14)

'Star Trek: Discovery' season 4, episode 8 review: A not-awful installment for its TV return

(Paramount+)

It's been six weeks since we last saw the crazy antics the crew of the USS Discovery and we were left with something of a cliffhanger as Book (David Ajala) and Ruon Tarka (Shawn Doyle) departed the Discovery without authorization to build a bomb to destroy the dark matter anomaly and at the very least, risk provoking unknown species 10-C.

Full Story: Space (2/14)