ScientistPankaj: NASA chief Bill Nelson urges action after 'heavy weight' of mass shootings

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May 26, 2022

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The Launchpad

NASA chief Bill Nelson urges action after 'heavy weight' of mass shootings

(NASA/Bill Ingalls)

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson added his voice Wednesday to the chorus urging action to prevent mass shootings.

The former U.S. Senator (D-Fla.) and one-time space shuttle astronaut said he has been feeling a "heavy weight" following the news that at least 19 children and two adults died in a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday.

Full Story: Space (5/26)

Touchdown: Boeing's Starliner returns to Earth from space station

(Bill Ingalls/NASA/Getty Images)

Boeing's new astronaut taxi has landed safely back on Earth, wrapping up its long-anticipated and crucial demonstration mission to the International Space Station.

The Starliner capsule landed at White Sands Space Harbor, part of the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range (WSRM) in New Mexico, Wednesday at 6:49 p.m. EDT (2249 GMT). The touchdown brought Boeing's uncrewed Orbital Test Flight 2 (OFT-2) to a successful end.

Full Story: Space (5/25)

Mars lander InSight snaps dusty 'final selfie' as power dwindles

(NASA/JPL-Caltech)

NASA's InSight lander is completely caked with a thick layer of Martian dust in its latest selfie, which the agency says will likely be the last of the mission.

The solar-powered InSight lander is only working at about one-tenth of its landing capacity of 5,000 watt-hours, the agency said in a press conference May 17, and the new picture shows just how much regolith has piled up in the last three and a half Earth years.

Full Story: Space (5/25)

POLL QUESTION:

Space Quiz: NASA's Perseverance rover just made a new discovery on Mars. What was it?

(Learn the answer here.)

How water flows on the Mars surface.

How dust is blown into the atmosphere by winds and dust devils.

How life began on the Red Planet

Where to mine ice on Mars

Watch a huge asteroid zoom safely past Earth tonight

(Pixabay)

The space rock is known as asteroid 7335 (1989 JA) and is four times the size of the Empire State Building. While that's the largest asteroid flyby of 2022 yet, the rock will remain at a perfectly safe distance to our planet.

The Virtual Telescope Project will run a webcast of the flyby beginning at 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) on May 26 and again at 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT) on May 27; you can watch the flyby in the window above or directly through the project's website

Full Story: Space (5/26)

You can also see the moon near Venus in a live webcast

Venus and the moon will meet up in the sky Thursday (May 26) and you can catch their greetings online.

The two worlds will shine in a conjunction and the Virtual Telescope Project plans a broadcast starting at 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT on Friday, May 27); you can watch in the window above or directly through the project's website(opens in new tab).

Full Story: Space (5/26)

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Spaceflight

NASA praises Boeing's 'picture-perfect' Starliner mission despite hiccups

(Bill Ingalls/NASA/Getty Images)

Boeing's Orbital Flight Test 2 (OFT-2) is officially a success.

That's the verdict that leaders at NASA and Boeing gave during a press briefing on Wednesday night (May 25), a few hours after the aerospace giant's Starliner capsule returned to Earth to wrap up OFT-2, a crucial uncrewed demonstration mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

Full Story: Space (5/26)

Future moon astronauts using water ice may rely on ancient lunar volcanoes

(NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)

The lava from these ancient volcanoes turned into maria, the dark regions that cover the moon's lowlands. But those volcanoes also belched out water vapor. As it touched the frigid moon, the water vapor would have frozen solid, forming a layer of ice a few meters under the lunar surface, researchers reported in the new study. "We envision it as a frost on the moon that built up over time," lead study author Andrew Wilcoski, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder, said in a statement.

Full Story: Space (5/26)

Science & Astronomy

'Sharkcano' undersea volcano eruption spotted from space in satellite photo

(NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey)

Superheated, acidic water surrounds an underwater volcano dubbed "sharkcano" in fresh imagery from the Landsat 9 satellite.

Discolored water is visible from space in the zone around Kavachi Volcano in the Solomon Islands, a Pacific island nation east of Papua New Guinea, in an image from NASA's Earth Observatory website.

Full Story: Space (5/25)

Perseverance Mars rover hears changing alien soundscape

(NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

Cue Simon & Garfunkel - Mars is all about the sound of silence. NASA's Perseverance rover has been recording the ambient sounds on Mars for the past year, and scientists have trimmed those recordings to a five-hour "Martian playlist." The main takeaway? It's very quiet on Mars. In fact, the few natural noises on the Red Planet, including wind, are about 20 decibels quieter than the same noises on Earth.

Full Story: Space (5/26)

SpaceX

Elon Musk endorses tight background checks on gun buyers: report

(Jim Watson/Getty Images)

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said he believes that the right to bear arms is necessary to "safeguard" individuals against tyranny, but he also called for stricter background checks on gun purchases.

Musk made the comments in an email to CNBC a day after at least 19 children and two adults died in a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday.

Full Story: Space (5/26)

Technology

Asteroid-mining startup AstroForge raises $13 million, books test mission

(Astro Forge)

AstroForge is young and very ambitious.

The California-based startup, which was founded in January 2022, came out of stealth mode today, announcing that it aims to become the first-ever viable asteroid mining company. So far, it's raised $13 million in seed funding, developed and lab-tested new technology for processing asteroid material and booked a ride on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Full Story: Space (5/26)

Star Wars

Star Wars Celebration 2022: Everything to know & watch online

(starwars.com)

This will be a weekend long remembered with the latest announcements, trailers and news from that galaxy far, far away. Here's what you need to know to get the most of Star Wars Celebration 2022 online.

Full Story: Space (5/26)

'Star Wars' at 45: The Force is still with George Lucas's space opera

(Lucasfilm)

Whether you believe Han or Greedo shot first, we can all agree that director George Lucas's "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope" created an iconic entertainment dynasty 45 years ago today that's been unsurpassed in nearly a half-century.

P.S. - Han shot first.

Full Story: Space (5/25)