SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster successfully returned to the pad after liftoff to be caught by the launch tower’s mechanical arms in an incredible feat Sunday morning. The milestone came during the fifth flight of the company’s Starship, and is a huge step for the rocket’s planned reusability. Starship launched at about 8:25AM ET from SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas Starbase.
Landing rockets is nothing new for SpaceX, which has now been reusing its Falcon 9 workhorse for several years, but the company took a completely different approach for recapturing Super Heavy. Whereas Falcon 9 typically lands on a drone ship out in the ocean, Super Heavy returned to its launch site and had to navigate into the narrow opening between the launch tower’s outstretched “chopsticks.” The move risked destroying the tower if Super Heavy didn’t pull it off correctly. It did, though, and live footage from the flight test shows the booster neatly parking itself back at the tower to thunderous cheering from everyone watching from the viewing room.
Starship, meanwhile, continued on its flight for about an hour after separating from the booster and splashed down in the Indian Ocean as planned around 9:30AM ET. The entire Starship transportation system, consisting of the Super Heavy first stage and the Starship second stage, is designed to be reusable.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/spacex-successfully-catches-super-heavy-booster-after-launching-starships-fifth-flight-134404103.html?src=rss
The James Webb Space Telescope continues to capture images of space that are clearer and more detailed than what we've seen before. One of the latest images it has taken is of a "super star cluster" called Westerlund 1, and it shows an abundant collection of heavenly bodies, shining brightly like gemstones. Super star clusters are young clusters of stars thousands of times bigger than our sun that are all packed in a small area. Our galaxy used to produce more clusters billions of years ago, but it doesn't churn out as many stars anymore, and only a few super star clusters still exist in the Milky Way.
Westerlund 1 is the biggest remaining super star cluster in our galaxy, and it's also the closest to our planet. It's located 12,000 light-years away, made up of massive stars between 50,000 and 100,000 times the mass of our sun within a region that measures six light-years across. Those stars include yellow hypergiants that are around a million times brighter than our sun, as well. Since the stars populating the cluster have a comparatively short life, scientists believe it's only around 3.5 to 5 million years old. That's pretty young in the cosmic scale. As such, it's a valuable source of data that could help us better understand how massive stars form and eventually die. We won't be around to see it, but the cluster is expected to produce 1,500 supernovae in less than 40 million years.
Astronomers captured an image of the super star cluster as part of an ongoing survey of Westerlund 1 and another cluster called Westerlund 2 to study star formation and evolution. To take the image, they used Webb's Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam), which was also recently used to capture a gravitationally lensed supernova that could help shed light on how fast our universe is expanding.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/this-dazzling-nasa-image-shows-the-biggest-super-star-cluster-in-our-galaxy-120053279.html?src=rss
NASA and SpaceX are looking to undock the Crew-8 mission vehicle from the ISS on October 13, 3:05AM Eastern time. Crew-8's astronauts were originally scheduled to start making their way back to Earth on October 7, but since their spacecraft is going to splash down off the coast of Florida, NASA and SpaceX had decided to push it back "due to weather conditions and potential impacts from Hurricane Milton." They will hold another briefing on the situation on October 11 and could delay the mission's return further for the safety of everyone involved.
The Crew-8 mission launched on March 4 this year with four members: NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, as well as Roscosmos cosmonaut, Alexander Grebenkin. They conducted several experiments while on the International Space Station, such as sequencing the DNA of any antibiotic-resistant organism they could find on the ISS to look into how they adapted to the conditions out there. They also studied human brain organoids created with stem cells to look into Parkinson's disease and into how extended spaceflight affects the human brain. They printed human tissues, studied how microgravity affects drug manufacturing and worked with an Astrobee robot. NASA will most likely cover their flight back on a livestream.
While Crew-8 has yet to leave the space station, SpaceX's Crew-9 mission astronauts have been on board since September 29. That mission only flew with two crew members, because it will be coming back home with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams who originally flew to the ISS on the Boeing Starliner. NASA said Wilmore and Williams have already tried on and tested their SpaceX Intravehicular Activity spacesuits and have completed all the work required to fly back to Earth with the Crew-9 vehicle.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/spacex-crew-8-astronauts-are-leaving-the-iss-on-october-13-133027531.html?src=rss
I'd be cautious with your software updates if you’ve got a Galaxy phone with a 2019 vintage. An update rolling out from Samsung is reportedly bricking devices from the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note 10 series of phones. 9to5Google reported some users had the same issue with Galaxy M51 and A90 models. The Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ are five years old, running Android 12 and circling an age where they may not support updates.
Affected devices were apparently trapped in a bootloop and could not fully turn back on. Don’t factory reset your device, though, as you’ll lose data.
Was this a dark plot to force you to buy a new Galaxy foldable? No. Samsung has now pulled the update and shared a newer version (2.2.03.1) without the issue — make sure you check that update number.
The lawsuit comes barely a month after the state enacted the law.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against TikTok, claiming the company violated a new child privacy law in the state. It’ll be the first test of Texas’ Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act. It requires social media platforms to verify the ages of younger users and offer parental control features, including the ability for parents to opt their children out of data collection.
Paxton alleges TikTok’s existing parental control features are insufficient, lacking “parental tools that allow them to control or limit most of a known minor’s privacy and account settings.”
The update will triple the length to three minutes.
Starting on October 15, YouTube is increasing Shorts video limits from one to three minutes. For reference, TikTok, arguably its biggest competitor, has allowed users to share 10-minute videos for over two years. The company is working on letting you pull clips from across YouTube through the Shorts camera and make remix clips. If Shorts aren’t your thing, it will also be easier to skip them as YouTube is introducing a tool to show fewer Shorts, although this is only temporary.
The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a supernova three times, at three different periods during its explosion, in one image. The image could help scientists better understand how fast the universe is expanding. One image, above, captures a streak of light with three distinct dots that appear brighter than the rest of it. As Dr Brenda Frye from the University of Arizona explained, those dots correspond to an exploding white dwarf star. It is also gravitationally lensed — there's a cluster of galaxies between here and the star, which bent the supernova’s light into multiple images.
The James Webb Space Telescope's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) captured a curious sight in a region 3.6 billion light-years away from Earth: A supernova that appears three times, at three different periods during its explosion, in one image. More importantly, this image could help scientists better understand how fast the universe is expanding.
A team of researchers chose to observe the galaxy cluster PLCK G165.7+67.0, also known as G165, for its high star rate formation that also leads to higher supernova rates. One image, which you can see above, captures what looks to be a streak of light with three distinct dots that appear brighter than the rest of it. As Dr. Brenda Frye from the University of Arizona explained, those dots correspond to an exploding white dwarf star. It is also gravitationally lensed — that is, there's a cluster of galaxies between us and the star that served as a lens, bending the supernova's light into multiple images. Frye likened it to a trifold mirror that shows a different image of the person sitting in front of it. To note, it is the most distant Type Ia supernova, which is a supernova that occurs in a binary system, observed to date.
Because of that cluster of galaxies in front of the supernova, light from the explosion travelled three different paths, each with a different length. That means the Webb telescope was able to capture different periods of its explosion in one image: Early into the event, mid-way through and near the end of it. Trifold supernova images are special, Frye said, because the "time delays, supernova distance, and gravitational lensing properties yield a value for the Hubble constant or H0 (pronounced H-naught)."
NASA describes the Hubble constant as the number that characterizes the present-day expansion rate of the universe, which, in turn, could tell us more about the universe's age and history. Scientists have yet to agree on its exact value, and the team is hoping that this supernova image could provide some clarity. "The supernova was named SN H0pe since it gives astronomers hope to better understand the universe's changing expansion rate," Frye said.
Wendy Freedman from the University of Chicago led a team in 2001 that found a value of 72. Other teams put the Hubble constant between 69.8 and 74 kilometers per second per megaparsec. Meanwhile, this team reported a value of 75.4, plus 8.1 or minus 5.5. "Our team’s results are impactful: The Hubble constant value matches other measurements in the local universe, and is somewhat in tension with values obtained when the universe was young," Frye said. The supernova and the Hubble constant value derived from it need for be explored further, however, and the team expects future observations to "improve on the uncertainties" for a more accurate computation.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasas-latest-supernova-image-could-tell-us-how-fast-the-universe-is-expanding-130005672.html?src=rss
The Polaris Dawn crew safely returned to Earth early Sunday morning, bringing the historic privately funded mission to a close. The Dragon capsule carrying the mission’s four astronauts — Jared Isaacman, Scott “Kidd” Poteet, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon — splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico around 3:30AM ET.
On Thursday, Isaacman and Gillis completed the first commercial spacewalk, each taking a turn to exit the craft and perform a series of spacesuit mobility tests. And with this mission, Gillis and Menon have now traveled farther from Earth than any women before. Polaris reached a peak altitude of about 870 miles, which is also the farthest any humans have ventured since the Apollo program.
The crew also performed a number of science experiments, and was able to complete a 40-minute video call to Earth and send files in a major test for Starlink’s space communications capabilities. That included a video recorded during the mission of Gillis, an engineer and violinist, playing the violin in space. “A new era of commercial spaceflight dawns, with much more to come,” Polaris posted on X Sunday morning.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/the-polaris-dawn-crew-is-back-on-earth-after-a-historic-mission-142028997.html?src=rss
NASA confirmed on Friday that it’s developing a new lunar time system for the Moon. The White House published a policy memo in April, directing NASA to create the new standard by 2026. Over five months later (government time, y’all), the space agency’s confirmation states it will work with “U.S. government stakeholders, partners, and international standards organizations” to establish a Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC).
To understand why the Moon needs its own time zone, look no further than Einstein. His theories of relativity say that because time changes relative to speed and gravity, time moves slightly faster on our celestial neighbor (because of its weaker gravity). So, an Earth clock on the Moon would gain about 56 microseconds a day — enough to throw off calculations that could put future missions requiring precision in danger.
“For something traveling at the speed of light, 56 microseconds is enough time to travel the distance of approximately 168 football fields,” said Cheryl Gramling, NASA timing and standards leader, in a press release. “If someone is orbiting the Moon, an observer on Earth who isn’t compensating for the effects of relativity over a day would think that the orbiting astronaut is approximately 168 football fields away from where the astronaut really is.”
NASA
April’s White House memo directed NASA to work with the Departments of Commerce, Defense, State and Transportation to plot the course for LTC’s introduction by the end of 2026. Global stakeholders, particularly Artemis Accords signees, will play a role. Established in 2020, the agreements include a growing collection of 43 countries committed to norms expected to be honored in space. Notably, China and Russia have refused to join.
NASA’s Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) program will lead the initiative. One of LTC’s goals is to be scalable to other celestial bodies in the future, including Mars. The time standard will be determined by a weighted average of atomic clocks on the Moon, although their locations are still up for debate. Such a weighted average is similar to how scientists calculate Earth’s Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
NASA plans to send crewed missions back to the Moon through its Artemis program. Artemis 2, scheduled for September 2025, plans to send four people on a pass around the Moon. A year later, Artemis 3 aims to land astronauts near the Moon’s South Pole.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasa-confirms-its-developing-the-moons-new-time-zone-165345568.html?src=rss
A concerning report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) expresses some serious concerns about the future of America’s space exploration agency.
The NASEM report was written by a panel of aerospace experts and lays out what it sees as a possible "hollow future” for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It addresses issues of underfunding due to “declining long-term national emphasis on aeronautics and civil space,” an assertion that NASA itself is aware of and agrees with. The report also notes that NASA’s problems extend far beyond having enough funding to carry out its missions and operations.
Some of the report’s “core findings” suggest areas of concern that could affect the space agency’s future. These include a focus on “short-term measures without adequate consideration for longer-term needs and implications,” reliance on “milestone-based purchase-of-service contracts” and inefficiency due to “slow and cumbersome business operations.” The report also raised concerns about the current generation of talent being siphoned off by private aerospace companies, and the next generation of engineers not receiving an adequate foundation of knowledge due to our underfunded public school systems. Finally the report states bluntly that NASA’s infrastructure “is already well beyond its design life.”
These and other issues could lead to even more serious problems. Norman Augustine, a former Lockheed Martin chief executive and the report’s lead author, told The Washington Post that reliance on the private sector could further erode NASA's workforce, reducing its role to one of oversight instead of problem-solving.
Congress could allocate more funds to NASA to address these concerns but that’s not likely since it’s constantly struggling to prevent government shutdowns. Instead, Augustine says NASA could focus on prioritizing its efforts on more strategic goals and initiatives.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/a-new-report-raises-concerns-about-the-future-of-nasa-184643260.html?src=rss
A SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying the four private astronauts of the Polaris Dawn mission has launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the early hours of September 10 after a few weeks of delays. The mission was scheduled to lift off at the end of August but was postponed first due to technical issues, then because of poor weather conditions forecasted for the crew’s return. On board are Jared Isaacman — the billionaire who funded the mission — retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Scott “Kidd” Poteet, and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. They’ll attempt several firsts during the five-day flight, including the first-ever commercial spacewalk.
That attempt will also mark the first spacewalk from a Dragon capsule. Among Polaris Dawn's other goals is to send its crew farther than anyone has traveled since the Apollo program, targeting an altitude of about 870 miles from Earth. The journey will take the capsule and its crew briefly into the Van Allen radiation belt.
The @PolarisProgram’s Polaris Dawn mission will be the first crew to perform a spacewalk from Dragon, fly higher in Earth’s orbit than anyone since the Apollo program, test laser-based @Starlink communications, and conduct research to help provide insight on human health during… pic.twitter.com/RW387QWShY
Polaris Dawn is meant to be the first of three human spaceflight missions under Isaacman’s Polaris Program. Its crew will put SpaceX’s new Extravehicular Activity space suit to its most important test yet, as they’ll all wear it for protection against the vacuum of space when the Dragon’s doors open for the spacewalk. The spacewalk will take place at an elliptical orbit roughly 435 miles above Earth’s surface, and two crew members will leave the capsule.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/polaris-dawn-is-finally-headed-to-space-for-its-groundbreaking-civilian-mission-093346616.html?src=rss
Boeing's Starliner capsule has undocked from the ISS at 6:04PM Eastern time on September 6 and has safely and gently landed at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico at 12:01AM on September 7. Calypso, as the capsule is called, didn't have a crew onboard despite flying to the ISS with astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore. NASA decided in late August that the astronauts will come home on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in February for safety reasons. Wilmore and Williams merely provided support for the capsule's trip back home and watched the coverage of its re-entry and landing. "You have got this. We have your backs, and you've got this. Bring her back to Earth," Williams told ground control.
The astronauts flew on the Starliner as part of its first crewed flight meant to prove that the spacecraft is ready to regularly ferry humans to the ISS alongside the SpaceX Crew Dragon. They were only supposed to stay on the orbiting laboratory for eight days, but the spacecraft's service module started leaking helium on their way there. Some of the module's thrusters had malfunctioned, as well. The Starliner uses helium to pressurize its fuel tanks and to push propellant to its thrusters that maneuver the spacecraft. Over the past three months, engineers on the ground conducted tests on Starliner with help from the astronauts, but NASA ultimately decided to have the Starliner fly back home uncrewed because it didn't have confidence with the certainty of the thrusters' performance.
During the Starliner's post-landing press conference, Boeing was noticeably absent, and three NASA officials talked about the landing instead. When asked why Boeing wasn't there and if the relationship between the agency and the company was affected by Starliner's issues, the representatives said that Boeing deferred to NASA to represent the mission. They said that all three of them talked to Boeing's managers and that the company is committed to working with the agency. Steve Stich, the manager for Commercial Crew Program at NASA Kennedy, also added that while all of them were happy with the landing, a part of them still wishes it would've gone the way they'd planned, with the astronauts coming home aboard the Calypso.
Stitch, Joel Montalbano (NASA's deputy associate administrator for Space Operations Mission Directorate) and Dana Weigel (NASA's manager for the International Space Station) all praised the Starliner for its successful docking and "bullseye landing." They said they learned a lot from the mission, which apparently achieved 85 to 90 percent of its objectives, and stressed that it's important to remember that things don't always go as planned when it comes to test flights.
It'll take around two weeks to get the Calypso back to NASA grounds and around a week after that to get all the data from the capsule. NASA and Boeing are planning to analyze the data the spacecraft gathered across its systems from its time in orbit until its undocking, reentry and landing. They will then use that information to design improvements for the spacecraft.
Unfortunately, they wouldn't be able to inspect the thrusters that malfunctioned on the flight to the ISS, as well as the "doghouses" that contained the spacecraft's propellant system where the helium had leaked. They had always planned to discard the service module that contained those elements upon re-entry, and it's now at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. NASA previously said that the issues cropped up because the propulsion equipment got hotter that expected while flying, causing container seals to loosen and to leak helium. In case of the thrusters, the heat apparently caused seals to bulge and restrict propellant flow, leading to outages.
Stitch said he wouldn't call those problems insurmountable — they just need some time to address them. They also can't tell at the moment if Starliner's next flight would have a crew onboard. For now, the agency is preparing for other missions. By the end of September, the SpaceX Crew-8 mission vehicle is scheduled to undock and come back to Earth, while the SpaceX Crew-9 mission is expected to launch. Crew-9 will fly with two astronauts instead of four to make room for Wilmore and Williams for its return flight in February.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/boeings-starliner-is-back-without-the-astronauts-it-flew-to-the-iss-110013469.html?src=rss