NASA has used the US military for astronaut rescue for decades. So why ask private companies for help now?

NASA astronauts performing 5th-ever all-female spacewalk | NASA is looking to privatize astronaut rescue services | Night sky, May 2025: What you can see this month [maps] Created for ceo.studentlike.spuniv@blogger.com | Web Version May 1, 2025 CONNECT WITH SPACE.COM       Something amazing every day. SIGN UP ⋅   WEBSITE   The Launchpad (NASA) NASA astronauts performing 5th-ever all-female spacewalk Two NASA astronauts are conducting the fifth all-female spacewalk in history today (May 1), and you can watch the action live. Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain will head outside the International Space Station (ISS) today at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT), kicking off a spacewalk expected to last about 6.5 hours. You can watch the extravehicular activity (EVA) live at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the agency. Coverage began at 6:30 a.m. EDT (1030 GMT). Watch Now (U.S. Space Force photo by Airman 1st Class Collin Wesso) NASA is looking to privatize astronaut rescue services NASA is asking private industry and academia for ideas for new rescue services for its astronauts on Earth in the event of emergencies during rocket launches, spacecraft free flight or landings. The agency published a request for information (RFI) on April 23 seeking information from "all interested parties," including private businesses and universities, for astronaut crew rescue services for NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP). Commercial crew is the program that pairs NASA astronaut crews (and Russian cosmonauts on seat swap assignments) with private launch providers like SpaceX or Boeing. Read More Skywatching (Space.com) Night sky, May 2025: What you can see this month [maps] Find out what's up in your night sky during May 2025 and how to see it in this Space.com stargazing guide. Gradually during May, Jupiter is relinquishing its dominance of the evening sky that it has held for these many months. Toward month's end, Jupiter will pair off with a narrow crescent moon just before it bids a fond adieu. The other evening planet, Mars, continues to fade as it moves away from Earth. Early in the month it is joined by the moon and on May 4, it will engage in a conjunction with the attractive Beehive Star Cluster; a lovely sight for binocular users. Venus dominates the early morning sky and teams with a much fainter Saturn early in the month. Saturn's rings are turned nearly edgewise to the sun and Earth and are all but invisible until May 6, when the sun begins to illuminate their southern side; they'll begin to reveal themselves as a thin line of light bisecting the disk of the planet. The only planet "out of the loop" so to speak, is Mercury which is aligned too close to the sun to be seen all month. Read More Spaceflight (Atmos Space Cargo) See photos from Europe's 1st private reentry capsule A European reentry capsule notched some important milestones on its first-ever spaceflight last week -- and took some photos to commemorate the trip. Phoenix 1, a prototype spacecraft built by German company Atmos Space Cargo, rode to the final frontier on April 21 via SpaceX's Bandwagon-3 rideshare mission. Phoenix 1 was tasked with demonstrating some key reentry tech, such as the capsule's inflatable heat shield. Atmos also aimed to collect information about the flight and record scientific data from the customer experiments that flew aboard Phoenix 1 as well. All of these objectives were indeed met during the flight, according to Atmos. Read More Science & Astronomy (Richard Teague and the exoALMA Collaboration) Sharpest images yet of planetary birth around distant stars Astronomers have captured the sharpest, most detailed images yet of young solar systems where planets are just beginning to take shape. Exquisite snapshots released on Monday (April 28) provide a rare glimpse into the earliest stages of planet formation in more than a dozen star systems, revealing where planets emerge, how quickly they form and what materials they're made from. Scientists say the data could help refine computer models of planetary formation and evolution, as well as shed new light on how these infant systems compare to the myriad of mature exoplanets already discovered. Read More Search for Life (ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser) Doubts mount further over signs of alien life on K2-18b Recently, a team of University of Cambridge-led astronomers made global headlines after announcing they'd found the "strongest evidence yet" of life beyond our solar system. Their claims were based on the detection of sulfur-based gases in an alien planet's atmosphere - gases typically linked to biological processes on Earth. However, a quick independent analysis of the data now casts doubt on the validity of these findings. Read More   Sign Up  |    Update Profile  |    Unsubscribe Privacy Policy  |    Cookies Policy  |    Terms and Conditions CONTACT US: FEEDBACK  |    ADVERTISE Future US LLC © Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY, 10036