NASA mission managers said Artemis II is targeting November 2024 as it goes through issues found from the Artemis I mission including an unexpected heat shield performance during the 5,000-degree reentry. The un-crewed Artemis I flight saw the successful launch…
Continue ReadingSpaceX launches astronauts to station for NASA
SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA in March 2023, including the first person from the Arab world going up for an extended month’s long stay. The Falcon rocket bolted from Kennedy Space Center shortly after…
Continue ReadingNASA working on nuclear-powered rocket to Mars
When NASA’s Orion spacecraft returned to Earth from its trip around the moon, it was moving blazingly fast, nearly 25,000 mph, or 32 times the speed of sound. On a trip to the moon, a mere 240,000 miles away, that’s…
Continue ReadingThe rare snowy owl won’t stay forever, but this California town is captivated
Nobody is quite sure why a snowy owl, usually found in Arctic regions, decided to relocate to sunny Cypress, Calif. Everyone you talk to has a theory. Some speculate that recent storms blew the bird off course; others think perhaps…
Continue ReadingHow to travel to space, Earth’s hottest new destination
The space just above our planet is booming. Off-world trips are rapidly increasing: 42 of the 51 commercial astronauts recognized by the Federal Aviation Administration left Earth within the past two years. The FAA predicts their ranks will balloon in…
Continue ReadingNuclear fusion is the energy source of the future
Nuclear fusion topped headlines around the world when scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California announced an essential milestone in developing this nascent technology. They achieved “ignition,” meaning more energy came out of a reaction than was needed to…
Continue ReadingThe Earth now weighs 6 ronnagrams – What is that?
The Earth can now be said to weigh about 6 ronnagrams, instead of 6,000 yottagrams. Jupiter can be described as having a mass of about 1.9 quettagrams, instead of 1.9 million yottagrams. And an electron’s weight is one rontogram, or…
Continue ReadingThe twilight of Africa’s glaciers
Africa is home to three glacier-capped mountains. Within decades, scientists say, the glaciers will be gone. Mount Kenya’s will be the first to go, with researchers predicting their disappearance as soon as 2030. The mountain would be among the first…
Continue ReadingNASA proves there’s a defense against killer asteroids
The stock market is dipping, inflation is on the rise and there is no end in sight to the war in Ukraine. But not all the news is bad: Our planet just got a bit safer, thanks to NASA. In…
Continue ReadingNobel Prize for 3 chemists who made molecules ‘click’
STOCKHOLM Three scientists were jointly awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for developing a way of “snapping molecules together” that can be used to design better medicines, including ones that target diseases such as cancer more precisely.…
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