Sci-tech
Starship explodes upon landing after spectacular test flight
SpaceX's interplanetary rocket in-development Starship, which the company is developing for Mars missions, crashed in a fiery explosion during the test launch in Texas on Wednesday. He described the successful parts of the rocket's afternoon journey: departure, changing position on the plane and its (pre-explosive) precise landing path. [Full Article...]
Christmas 'Star' Celestial Event Visible This Week
Ron Kaitchuck, the previous director of the Brown Planetarium and professor emeritus. With the northern hemisphere's evening skies treated stargazers to a unique illusion Monday, the largest two planets in the solar system seemed to come closer in a celestial alignment which astronomers name " the Great Conjunction " - a type of planetary intimacy that won't recur until 2080. [Full Article...]
Personal ticket to space with NASA: US$55m each
Who are all these rich guys? While "fee-paying" space tourists visiting the space station is nothing new, the upcoming mission will be the first time a commercially built astronaut capsule will be used on such trips, The Verge noted. But Axiom insists that the mission is by no means a vacation. NASA astronaut Victor Glover dons his spacesuit and gets ready to exit the ISS for a spacewalk. [Full Article...]
Axiom sends first fully private crew to the ISS in 2022
Who are all these rich guys? Axiom's first customers include Larry Connor, a real estate and tech entrepreneur from Dayton, Ohio, Canadian financier Mark Pathy and Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe, a close friend of Israel's first astronaut Ilan Ramon, who was killed in the space shuttle Columbia accident in 2003. [Full Article...]
Full Wolf Moon over the UK - Thursday, January 28
The full moon won't be the only thing shining in the sky this week. "This is the length of time it takes for the Moon to go through one whole lunar phase cycle". On Thursday night, as evening twilight ends about 6:30 p.m., Mars will appear above the horizon in the south-southwest and will be the brightest object appearing close to directly overhead. [Full Article...]
Elon Musk: Amazon tries to ‘cripple’ SpaceX’s Starlink
It is clearly in SpaceX's interest to smother competition in the cradle if they can, but it is certainly not in the public's interest". This Sunday at 12pm, Elon Musk's company sent a total of 143 satellites to a Falcon 9. The aerospace company said the satellites can serve both residential and United States government users in hard-to-reach polar regions. A lower orbit allows for faster int... [Full Article...]
US Judge Blocks Biden's 100-Day Freeze On Deportations
It was not immediately clear on Tuesday what impact the Biden administration's expected moratorium would have on future oil leasing and development in the reserve. During Trump's presidency, Democrat-led states and other opponents of his immigration policies were able to thwart or delay many initiatives through legal challenges. [Full Article...]
Unique planetary system discovered
By the time the second planet from the star (first in the series) completes eighteen orbits, the third planet from the star (second in the series) has completed nine, and so on. Had the system been disrupted earlier in its history - for example, by a major impact - this vulnerable configuration of jobs would not have survived. [Full Article...]