ScientistPankaj: This Week In Space podcast: Episode 91

Monday, December 18, 2023

This Week In Space podcast: Episode 91 — 2023 Holiday Special!

This Week In Space: Episode 91 - 2023 Holiday Special! | Watch Blue Origin's 1st launch in 15 months this morning | NASA reveals 2 tomatoes after being lost for 8 months

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December 18, 2023

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The Launchpad

This Week In Space: Episode 91 - 2023 Holiday Special!

(TWiT)

This holiday special episode of This Week in Space covers a wide range of space topics from 2023, including asteroid sample return, China's space achievements, commercial lunar landers, Mars sample return challenges, UFO disclosure, and more.

Full Story: Space (12/16)

Watch Blue Origin's 1st launch in 15 months this morning

(Blue Origin)

Blue Origin will launch its first mission in more than 15 months this morning (Dec. 18), and you can watch the action live. Blue Origin's New Shepard suborbital vehicle is scheduled to lift off from the company's West Texas site today during a window that opens at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT; 9:30 a.m. local Texas time), slightly later than planned due to cold temperatures, the company has said.

Full Story: Space (12/18)

Spaceflight

NASA reveals 2 tomatoes after being lost for 8 months

(NASA)

While the find was a lighthearted moment for Rubio, who has since returned home from his one-year mission, NASA added that the real purpose of growing food on the ISS is to practice techniques that could be used during future moon and Mars exploration.

Full Story: Space (12/15)

Science & Astronomy

Decoding sun's miniflares: 'Just the tip of the iceberg'

(ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team)

Three months ago, scientists spotted tiny, short-lived energy jets surfacing from dark regions in the corona, the sun's outer atmosphere. 'It's not that we haven't seen them before. It's that we haven't seen as many.'

Full Story: Space (12/18)

SpaceX

SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch of X-37B targeted for Dec. 28

(SpaceX)

SpaceX's powerful Falcon Heavy rocket will fly again before the end of the year, if all goes according to plan. SpaceX is now targeting Dec. 28 for the launch of the U.S. Space Force's X-37B space plane, which will fly atop a Falcon Heavy from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. You can watch the action here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, when the time comes.

Full Story: Space (12/15)

Search for Life

Some UFO records must be released, US Congress says

(Getty Images/Phil Roeder)

The United States Congress just passed legislation that directs the U.S. government to release records related to UFOs. Some UFO records, anyway. According to new provisions in the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, the law that funds the U.S. military and related activities, the U.S. National Archives must collect for release all documents that "pertain to unidentified anomalous phenomena, technologies of unknown origin, and non-human intelligence."

Full Story: Space (12/16)

Entertainment

'For All Mankind' review: A storyline decades in the making

(Apple TV+)

Multi-season arcs are now the standard in prestige T.V., but most shows' stories don't unfold over multiple decades. Four seasons in, "For All Mankind"'s alternative history of the space race now stretches from the late-1960s into the early 21st century, and seeds that were planted 30 (fictional) years ago are now coming to spectacular -- and extremely satisfying -- fruition.

Full Story: Space (12/15)

Star Wars

Mace Windu honors Qui-Gon's in new 'Star Wars' novel

(Random House Worlds)

The skilled, purple-lightsabered warrior played by Samuel L. Jackson shines in "Star Wars: Mace Windu: The Glass Abyss," his very own solo novel coming next summer. The book sees Windu taking up arms to complete Qui-Gon Jinn's last mission in the Outer Rim following the tragic events of "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace."

Full Story: Space (12/16)