Astronomy

The wait until nightfall can make observing cosmic wonders all the sweeter.

The post Why We Look Up: Anticipation appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Boeing's Starliner capsule arrived at the ISS on its second try today (June 6), overcoming a problem with several of its reaction-control system thrusters.

SpaceX’s Starship earned high marks today in its fourth uncrewed flight test, making significant progress in the development of a launch system that’s tasked with putting NASA astronauts on the moon by as early as 2026.

The Super Heavy booster blasted off from SpaceX’s Starbase complex in South Texas at 7:50 a.m. CT (12:50 p.m. UTC), rising into the sky with 32 of its 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines blazing. Super Heavy is considered the world’s most powerful launch vehicle, with 16.7 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.

Minutes after launch, the rocket’s upper stage — known as the Ship — separated from the first stage, firing up its own set of six Raptor engines. Meanwhile, Super Heavy flew itself to a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

The soft splashdown marked a new achievement for Starship. During the third flight test, which took place in March, only a few of Super Heavy’s engines were able to light up again for a crucial landing burn. As a result, the booster hit the water with an uncontrolled splat.

Eventually, SpaceX plans to have the Super Heavy booster fly itself back to its base after doing its job.

The upper stage reached orbital-scale altitudes in excess of 200 kilometers (125 miles), but completing a full orbit wasn’t part of today’s plan. Instead, SpaceX aimed to have Ship make its own soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

Streaming video, relayed via SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network, showed the rocket’s protective skin glowing with the heat of atmospheric re-entry. Burning debris broke off from one of Ship’s control fins, damaging the camera’s lens — but the fuzzy view nevertheless confirmed that the spacecraft successfully hit the mark. That represented another advance over the third test, when the Ship broke up during its descent to the ocean.

“Despite loss of many tiles and a damaged flap, Starship made it all the way to a soft landing in the ocean!” SpaceX founder Elon Musk exulted in a posting to his X social-media platform.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson added his congratulations on X, and noted that the successful test was a plus for the space agency’s Artemis moon program. “We are another step closer to returning humanity to the moon through Artemis — then looking onward to Mars,” he wrote.

A customized version of Ship is slated to serve as the lunar lander for Artemis 3, which would mark the first crewed mission to the moon’s surface since Apollo 17 in 1972. That mission is currently scheduled for 2026, but the timing depends in part on when the Starship system will be ready.

SpaceX’s uncrewed flight tests are following a step-by-step path to get Starship in shape for a wide variety of missions — including the deployment of hundreds of Starlink satellites, point-to-point travel between spaceports on Earth, and crewed odysseys to the moon, Mars and beyond.

Starship rockets aren’t carrying payloads for these early tests. “We said it before, we’re going to say it 9,000 times: The data is the payload,” SpaceX commentator Dan Huot said during today’s flight test.

But as the development program proceeds, the envelope for the flight tests will be widened to include multi-orbit operations, payload deployments and precision touchdowns on landing pads. Before today’s test, SpaceX and the Federal Aviation Administration worked out an arrangement that’s expected to streamline the regulatory process for future flights.

The post Success! SpaceX’s Starship Makes a Splash in Fourth Flight Test appeared first on Universe Today.

A genetic analysis of ancient horses reveals that breeding techniques developed by people in the Pontic-Caspian steppes enabled the rapid spread of horse-powered travel

A genetic analysis of ancient horses reveals that breeding techniques developed by people in the Pontic-Caspian steppes enabled the rapid spread of horse-powered travel

The dark skies of the new moon of June 2024 will allow some of the naked eye planets to stand out late in the night after midnight.

Scientists say it’s likely that at least one of the next five years will exceed an average increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures

Why are bears both adorable and deadly? Scientific American investigates why these apex predators are “friend-shaped”

The UK government has set limits on the capabilities of quantum computers that can be exported from the country and has declined to explain these limits on the grounds of national security. Experts say this make no sense

The UK government has set limits on the capabilities of quantum computers that can be exported from the country and has declined to explain these limits on the grounds of national security. Experts say this make no sense

The Light and Darkness saga of Destiny 2, which contains the first ten years of Destiny, is ending with The Final Shape. This is everything we know about it.

SpaceX's Starship has been to orbit and back in its fourth flight test, with both rocket stages soft landing in the ocean, though parts of the spacecraft appeared to be damaged during descent

SpaceX's Starship has been to orbit and back in its fourth flight test, with both rocket stages soft landing in the ocean, though parts of the spacecraft appeared to be damaged during descent

Elon Musk’s SpaceX made a much-anticipated fourth test flight of the world’s most powerful rocket, Starship, a vehicle designed to power human flight to the moon and Mars

Another record-breaker: Two galaxies date to only 300 million years after the Big Bang. How did they grow so big and bright so quickly?

The post Webb Telescope Finds Strangely Bright Galaxies at Cosmic Dawn appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

SpaceX launched its giant Starship rocket for the fourth time ever this morning (June 6) in a dramatic and nail-biting liftoff.

More people Googled 'northern lights' in May 2024 than in any other month in Google's history. Here we explore the science behind the search trends and uncover why May saw such a spike in sun-related searches.

The two spacecraft of the Chang'e 6 mission met and docked in orbit over the moon on Thursday (June 6) to transfer samples the moon's far side. They'll now be returned to Earth.