"Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools."
--1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work.

"Correction: It is now definitely established that a rocket can function in a vacuum. The 'Times' regrets the error."
NY Times, July 1969.

— New York Times

Astronomy

The Science of ‘3 Body Problem’: What’s Fact and What’s Fiction?

Scientific American.com - Thu, 05/02/2024 - 1:00pm

The hit sci-fi show’s adviser and two other researchers discuss its portrayal of scientists and their technologies

Categories: Astronomy

Watch ULA assemble Atlas V rocket ahead of Boeing Starliner astronaut test flight (video)

Space.com - Thu, 05/02/2024 - 1:00pm
United Launch Alliance's new video highlight's how the Atlas V launch vehicle for Boeing's Starliner was stacked and mated to the spacecraft.
Categories: Astronomy

NASA's Hubble Telescope is back in action — but its TESS exoplanet hunter may now be in trouble

Space.com - Thu, 05/02/2024 - 12:37pm
Both the Hubble Telescope and TESS exoplanet hunter went into safe mode on April 23. Hubble is back on, but TESS remains off.
Categories: Astronomy

The Poetic Lives of Lost Women of Math and Science

Scientific American.com - Thu, 05/02/2024 - 12:30pm

When poet Jessy Randall saw that so many female scientists weren’t getting their due, she got mad. And then she decided to write poems for as many as she could

Categories: Astronomy

NASA selects Rocket Lab for back-to-back climate change research launches

Space.com - Thu, 05/02/2024 - 12:00pm
NASA's PREFIRE mission will deploy a pair of satellites from twin launches aboard Rocket Lab's Electron rockets that will contribute to climate change studies in the Arctic and Antarctica.
Categories: Astronomy

Orangutan is first non-human seen treating wounds with medicinal plant

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Thu, 05/02/2024 - 12:00pm
A male Sumatran orangutan chewed the leaves of a plant used in Indonesian traditional medicine and placed them on a wound on his face
Categories: Astronomy

Orangutan is first non-human seen treating wounds with medicinal plant

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Thu, 05/02/2024 - 12:00pm
A male Sumatran orangutan chewed the leaves of a plant used in Indonesian traditional medicine and placed them on a wound on his face
Categories: Astronomy

Ariane 6 stands tall for launch

ESO Top News - Thu, 05/02/2024 - 12:00pm
Video: 00:02:59

Last week, Ariane 6’s central core – the main body of the rocket – was stood tall at the launch zone and connected to its two solid-fuel boosters. This exciting moment means only one thing: it’s the start of the first launch campaign.

The main stage and upper stage make up the core stage, and they were autonomously driven at 3 km/h from the rocket assembly building to the launch pad, 800 m away. Then lifted by a crane, the Ariane 6 core was stood upright on the launch table.

The two boosters were transported to the launch pad on a specially designed truck and then configured with the rocket body, now holding it upright.

Ariane 6 is due to launch in summer 2024. The heavy-lift rocket will inaugurate a new era of autonomous European space transportation, powering Europe into space to realise its ambitions on the world stage. It will lift off from a modern launch complex at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, carrying with it not just a variety of spacecraft, but also European goals for prosperity and autonomy.

Categories: Astronomy

SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites in 2nd half of spaceflight doubleheader (video)

Space.com - Thu, 05/02/2024 - 11:30am
SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink internet satellites on Thursday (May 2), on the second half of a planned spaceflight doubleheader.
Categories: Astronomy

Some planets 'death spiral' into their stars and scientists may now know why

Space.com - Thu, 05/02/2024 - 11:00am
WASP-12b is a planet on a date with a fiery destiny, doomed to plunge into its sun-like star. Scientists may finally know why some hot Jupiters eventually death spiral into their stars.
Categories: Astronomy

Wild Orangutan Uses Herbal Medicine to Treat His Wound

Scientific American.com - Thu, 05/02/2024 - 11:00am

Researchers say this may be the first observation of a nonhuman animal purposefully treating a wound with a medicinal plant

Categories: Astronomy

NASA inspector general finds Orion heat shield issues 'pose significant risks' to Artemis 2 crew safety

Space.com - Thu, 05/02/2024 - 10:36am
NASA's inspector general writes that the Artemis 1 test flight of the Orion spacecraft revealed anomalies that "pose significant risks to the safety of the crew."
Categories: Astronomy

Restored Atlas rocket erected on display as Mercury astronaut's ride to orbit

Space.com - Thu, 05/02/2024 - 10:30am
Sixty-one years after it stood ready to send NASA's last one-man mission into orbit, the Mercury-Atlas 9 rocket is standing again. A replica is on display at the National Museum of the US Air Force.
Categories: Astronomy

NASA picks 9 companies to develop Mars 'commercial services' ideas

Space.com - Thu, 05/02/2024 - 10:00am
NASA has selected nine companies to develop concepts that could agency science missions to Mars down the road.
Categories: Astronomy

Collapsing Sheets of Spacetime Could Explain Dark Matter and Why the Universe ‘Hums’

Scientific American.com - Thu, 05/02/2024 - 10:00am

Domain walls, long a divisive topic in physics, may be ideal explanations for some bizarre cosmic quirks

Categories: Astronomy

MMR vaccines may not always give lifelong immunity against measles

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Thu, 05/02/2024 - 9:00am
Levels of protection measles provided by the MMR jab fall by a small amount every year, according to mathematical modelling
Categories: Astronomy

MMR vaccines may not always give lifelong immunity against measles

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Thu, 05/02/2024 - 9:00am
Levels of protection measles provided by the MMR jab fall by a small amount every year, according to mathematical modelling
Categories: Astronomy

The Famine Developing in Gaza Follows a Clear Pattern

Scientific American.com - Thu, 05/02/2024 - 9:00am

Famine is affecting an increasing number of people in Gaza, Sudan, Haiti and elsewhere around the globe, and its development follows a clear pattern

Categories: Astronomy

Politicians can use social media ads to buy votes for €4 per person

New Scientist Space - Cosmology - Thu, 05/02/2024 - 8:22am
An analysis of the 2021 German federal elections has found that for every 200,000 times a politician's social media adverts were viewed, their vote share increased by 2.1 per cent - a potentially low-cost way of swinging elections
Categories: Astronomy

Politicians can use social media ads to buy votes for €4 per person

New Scientist Space - Space Headlines - Thu, 05/02/2024 - 8:22am
An analysis of the 2021 German federal elections has found that for every 200,000 times a politician's social media adverts were viewed, their vote share increased by 2.1 per cent - a potentially low-cost way of swinging elections
Categories: Astronomy