ScientistPankaj: SpaceX rivals challenge Starship launch license in Florida over environmental, safety concerns

Wednesday, July 10, 2024

SpaceX rivals challenge Starship launch license in Florida over environmental, safety concerns

SpaceX rivals challenge Starship launch license in Florida | Space Quiz! What aids astronomers in their observations of distant celestial objects hidden behind closer, larger cosmic masses, like a galaxy? | The James Webb Space Telescope finds a jeweled ring

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July 10, 2024

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The Launchpad

SpaceX rivals challenge Starship launch license in Florida

(Space.com / Josh Dinner)

SpaceX's plans to launch its Starship-Super Heavy two-stage rocket 44 times per year from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida have come under fire from its two main rivals: United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.

Full Story: Space (7/10)

Space Quiz! What aids astronomers in their observations of distant celestial objects hidden behind closer, larger cosmic masses, like a galaxy?

Learn the answer here!

Long exposure photography

Gravitational lensing

Orbital mechanics

Ambient light diffraction

The James Webb Space Telescope finds a jeweled ring

(ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Nierenberg)

A sparkling jeweled ring, created through a cosmic phenomenon called gravitational lensing, has been imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope. The new image captures a distant quasar known as RX J1131-1231, which lies about 6 billion light-years from Earth. The powerful gravitational field of a nearby elliptical galaxy, located in the foreground of the image, warps the light of the quasar - which is an extremely luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN) - creating a bright arc and duplicate views of the object, ultimately procuring a visual that looks like gemstones on a ring.

Full Story: Space (7/9)

Skywatching

Saharan dust outbreak lingers across some US states

(NOAA)

From the late spring to early fall, the Saharan Air layer, a large plume of super dry and very dusty air that originates over the Saharan Desert in Africa makes a trek more than 5,000 miles (8,047 kilometers) across the Atlantic toward the United States.

Full Story: Space (7/9)

Spaceflight

Europe's new Ariane 6 rocket launches on debut mission

(JODY AMIET/AFP via Getty Images)

At long last, the Ariane 6 has left the ground. Europe's new Ariane 6 rocket has finally taken flight, carrying the hopes of a continent on its broad back. The Ariane 6 launched for the first time ever today (July 9), lifting off from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at 3:01 p.m. EDT (1901 GMT). There was a lot riding on this debut: It came a year after the retirement of Ariane 6's predecessor, the workhorse Ariane 5, left Europe unable to launch big satellites on homegrown rockets.

Full Story: Space (7/9)

Science & Astronomy

Uranus 'traffic jams' may solve radiation belt mystery

(NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI)

Scientists may have solved a lingering mystery surrounding the ice giant Uranus and its weak radiation belts. It's possible the belts' weakness is linked to the planet's curiously tilted and lopsided magnetic field; the field could be causing "traffic jams" for particles whipping around the world.

Full Story: Space (7/9)

SpaceX

Super Heavy booster rolls to pad ahead of 5th test flight

(SpaceX)

SpaceX is gearing up for the fifth test flight of its Starship megarocket, which could take place in the next few weeks. The company just rolled Starship's giant first-stage booster, known as Super Heavy, out to the launch pad at Starbase, its facility in coastal South Texas. SpaceX documented the move via social media, posting four photos and a 30-second video on X on Tuesday.

Full Story: Space (7/10)

Entertainment

'Futurama' trailer teases fresh new interplanetary antics

(Hulu)

Good news, everyone! Hulu's recent reboot of the witty sci-fi animated series "Futurama" has been greeted with much love, nostalgia, and fanfare and now after last summer's wild Season 11, we're about to board the Planet Express once again for more zany adventures with Fry, Leela, Bender, Professor Farnsworth and the whole 31st century crew.

Full Story: Space (7/9)