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  • Stratolaunch gets mystery new owner
    Stratolaunch, the venture founded by the late Paul Allen to develop an air-launch system, has “transitioned” ownership, but the company is not disclosing who the new owner is.SpaceNews.com
    - 2 days ago 12 Oct 19, 3:46pm -
  • Op-ed | Priority-one for space policy should be to protect U.S. satellites
    Should dominance be our immediate space security priority? The short answer is no. SpaceNews.com
    - 2 days ago 12 Oct 19, 9:14am -
  • Descartes Labs raises $20 million to create Earth’s digital twin
    Descartes Labs, a company that specializes in applying machine learning to geospatial datasets, raised $20 million in a Series B-2 bridge financing round.SpaceNews.com
    - 2 days ago 12 Oct 19, 12:32am -
  • Pence added to IAC 2019 opening ceremony
    U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to speak during the opening ceremony of the 70th International Astronautical Congress here Oct. 21, the IAC’s organizers announced this week.SpaceNews.com
    - 2 days ago 11 Oct 19, 11:29pm -
  • NASA and SpaceX agree commercial crew development is the “highest priority”
    LAS CRUCES, N.M. — NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk eased two weeks of tension between them Oct. 10, saying they were on the same page regarding development of commercial crew systems. Bridenstine toured Spa…
    - 2 days ago 11 Oct 19, 11:24pm -
  • Astroscale, ClearSpace aim to make a bundle removing debris
    Within a year, Astroscale plans to begin a complex series of demonstrations to show the startup’s spacecraft can grab a piece of space debris and dispose of it in the atmosphere.SpaceNews.com
    - 2 days ago 11 Oct 19, 11:12pm -
  • NASA considering purchase of additional Soyuz seats
    LAS CRUCES, N.M. — NASA expects to buy at least one more Soyuz seat from Russia to provide assured access to the International Space Station should commercial crew vehicles suffer additional delays. In a media briefing after a visit to SpaceX hea…
    - 3 days ago 11 Oct 19, 5:51pm -
  • NASA official hints first SLS launch could slip to mid-2021
    While NASA continues to wait to set a new official date for the first launch of its Space Launch System, an agency official said Oct. 10 that the launch could slip as late as the middle of 2021.SpaceNews.com
    - 3 days ago 11 Oct 19, 4:18pm -
  • Kirk Pysher out as president of ILS
    WASHINGTON — The president of International Launch Services is out a day after the company’s successful Proton launch. Khrunichev, the owner of ILS, announced Oct. 10 that Kirk Pysher was no longer president, but did not give a reason for his d…
    - 3 days ago 11 Oct 19, 3:47pm -
  • Pegasus launches ICON space science mission
    A long-delayed NASA space science satellite finally reached orbit Oct. 10 on a Pegasus rocket, a launch vehicle with an uncertain future.SpaceNews.com
    - 3 days ago 11 Oct 19, 1:06pm -

Human Spaceflight (Google News)

Space Business (Google)

NASA Watch Headlines

  • newAbout That Asteroid Mining Thing
    That Giant Asteroid of Gold Won't Make Us Richer "Rejoice, people of Earth! News outlets are reporting that NASA is planning to visit an asteroid made of gold and other precious metals! At current prices, the minerals contained in asteroid...
    - 8 hours ago 13 Oct 19, 10:06pm -
  • That Other Rich Guy Who Is Also Space Crazy
    Jeff Bezos's Master Plan, The Atlantic "Bezos is unabashed in his fanaticism for Star Trek and its many spin-offs. He has a holding company called Zefram, which honors the character who invented warp drive. He persuaded the makers of the...
    - 2 days ago 12 Oct 19, 2:12am -
  • Doing Something Again For The First Time
    Keith's note: I first published this two years ago. Yesterday both Jim Bridenstine and Elon Musk noted that they were not alive when humans walked on the Moon - so they do not have memories of that event. Alas,...
    - 2 days ago 12 Oct 19, 12:23am -
  • MSFC's Impossible Propulsion Research
    NASA engineer's 'helical engine' may violate the laws of physics, New Scientist "Burns has worked on his design in private, without any sponsorship from NASA, and he admits his concept is massively inefficient. ... I know that it risks being...
    - 2 days ago 11 Oct 19, 10:34pm -
  • Sometimes Things Happen Exactly The Way They Should
    It speaks well of @ElonMusk & @JimBridenstine & @NASA / @SpaceX that they can have a difference in opinion & then work to quickly resolve those differences and do so with openness and transparency - and speak to common goals,...
    - 3 days ago 10 Oct 19, 10:22pm -
  • Restructuring NASA's Planetary Research Program
    Restructuring NASA's Planetary Research Program For ROSES 2021 "In 2014, NASA announced the reorganization of the planetary research and data analysis programs to align them by subject area to Planetary Science Division strategic goals. A number of d…
    - 3 days ago 10 Oct 19, 7:59pm -
  • About That SpaceX/NASA Thing On Thursday
    Keith's 10 Oct update: I just got an answer from NASA PAO that there will be no media dial-in for offsite news media. It took them 3 days to respond. NASA Administrator to Visit SpaceX Headquarters "Following the tour,...
    - 4 days ago 10 Oct 19, 3:00pm -
  • Hooray - Expensive Space Rides Are On The Way For The Rich
    With all the happy talk about cool personal spaceflight there are two things you almost certainly will not hear at #ISPCS20191. how much the tickets will cost 2. when the rest of us non-rich people will get to fly pic.twitter.com/gs9VpVleFP—...
    - 5 days ago 9 Oct 19, 5:58pm -
  • NASA Just Can't Stop Doing Web Stuff Twice UPDATE: Three Times
    Keith's 7 October update: Today NASA JPL issued a press release "NASA's Curiosity Rover Finds an Ancient Oasis on Mars" It includes the text: "For more about NASA's Curiosity Mars rover mission, visit: https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/ https://nasa.gov/msl"…
    - 6 days ago 8 Oct 19, 12:02am -
  • NASA's Confusing ICESAT-2 Websites
    Keith's note: If you go to the NASA GSFC website you will see this release "Laser Precision: NASA Flights, Satellite Align Over Sea Ice". In the release you will see this at the bottom: "For more information, visit: nasa.gov/icesat-2...
    - 7 days ago 6 Oct 19, 6:35pm -
  • Making Pluto A "Planet" By Going Around Scientists
    Keith's note: The 'Pluto is a planet fan club' has been howling about the demotion of Pluto from a "planet" to "dwarf planet" status after an IAU vote for more than a decade. Despite their outrage no one has...
    - 8 days ago 6 Oct 19, 2:28am -
  • AIAA Moves Toward Diversity And Inclusion - Old Mindsets Persist
    Keith's note: Looks like AIAA is making a positive step in terms of inclusion and diversity according to a post by AIAA President Dan Dumbacher on the AIAA members messaging system about using "crewed" and "human" instead of "manned"...
    - 10 days ago 4 Oct 19, 3:05pm -
  • CASIS Update
    Keith's note: According to LinkedIn CASIS has a new Director of Programs and Partnerships - Gary Rodrigue. Based on his LinkedIn page Rodrigue apparently has zero space experience. No surprise. CASIS hires lots of people with no space experience...
    - 12 days ago 2 Oct 19, 1:50am -
  • Mars 2020 Rover: Sloppy Reporting, Lazy Websites, Quaint Opinions
    When -- or if -- NASA finds life on Mars, the world may not be ready for the discovery, the agency chief says, CNN "NASA's next mission to Mars will be its most advanced yet. But if scientists discover there...
    - 12 days ago 1 Oct 19, 8:57pm -
  • That NASA/SpaceX Thing
    Elon Musk: Crew Dragon spacecraft for NASA could fly astronauts in 3 to 4 months, CNN "SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule could be ready to fly NASA astronauts in three to four months. It would mark the first time humans have...
    - 12 days ago 1 Oct 19, 8:19pm -

Commercial Space Watch

    SpaceRef

    • newRevealing the Milky Way's Center
      The center of our Milky Way galaxy is hidden from the prying eyes of optical telescopes by clouds of obscuring dust and gas....
      - 6 hours ago 14 Oct 19, 12:22am -
    • River Relic Spied By Mars Express
      Mars may seem to be an alien world, but many of its features look eerily familiar - such as this ancient, dried-up river system that stretches out for nearly 700 kilometres across the surface, making it one of the longest...
      - 3 days ago 11 Oct 19, 4:10am -
    • Ice On The Lunar South Pole May Have More Than One Source
      The discovery of ice deposits in craters scattered across the Moon's south pole has helped to renew interest in exploring the lunar surface, but no one is sure exactly when or how that ice got there....
      - 3 days ago 11 Oct 19, 4:07am -
    • Orbital View As Typhoon Hagibis Heads For Japan
      Typhoon Hagibis is headed towards Japan's main island of Honshu, where it is expected to make landfall over the weekend. Japan is bracing for potential damage from strong winds and torrential rain....
      - 3 days ago 11 Oct 19, 4:01am -
    • Milky Way Raids Intergalactic 'Bank Accounts'
      Our Milky Way is a frugal galaxy. Supernovas and violent stellar winds blow gas out of the galactic disk, but that gas falls back onto the galaxy to form new generations of stars....
      - 3 days ago 11 Oct 19, 3:58am -
    • Liquifying A Rocky Exoplanet
      Rocky exoplanets that are around Earth-size are comparatively small, which makes them incredibly difficult to detect and characterise using telescopes....
      - 4 days ago 10 Oct 19, 3:05am -
    • Global Analysis Of Submarine Canyons On Earth May Shed Light On Martian Landscapes
      Submarine canyons are a final frontier on planet Earth....
      - 4 days ago 10 Oct 19, 3:02am -
    • Physicists Have Found A Way To 'Hear' Dark Matter
      Physicists at Stockholm University and the Max Planck Institute for Physics have turned to plasmas in a proposal that could revolutionise the search for the elusive dark matter....
      - 4 days ago 10 Oct 19, 3:00am -
    • Japan's HTV-8 Hangs Above The World
      The Kounotori H-II Transfer Vehicle 8 (HTV-8) from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency...
      - 5 days ago 9 Oct 19, 2:44am -
    • Pressure Runs High At The Edge Of Our Solar System
      Out at the boundary of our solar system, pressure runs high....
      - 5 days ago 9 Oct 19, 2:35am -
    • Space Launch System Core Stage Pathfinder Is In The VAB
      The Space Launch System Core Stage pathfinder is being moved to the north end of the transfer aisle inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 3, 2019....
      - 5 days ago 9 Oct 19, 2:30am -
    • Post-tropical Cyclone Lorenzo Affecting Ireland
      NASA's Terra satellite passed over the eastern North Atlantic Ocean early on Oct. 3 and captured a visible image of Post-tropical Cyclone Lorenzo as it neared Ireland. Lorenzo's eastern side is already affecting Ireland, and both Ireland and the Unit…
      - 5 days ago 9 Oct 19, 2:26am -
    • Orbital View As Seasonal Colors Spread Across New York State
      The shortening daylight and cooling temperatures of late summer triggers changes in the Northern Hemisphere--changes that can be viewed from space....
      - 5 days ago 9 Oct 19, 2:23am -
    • Saturn Surpasses Jupiter After Discovery of 20 New Moons
      A team led by Carnegie's Scott S. Sheppard has found 20 new moons orbiting Saturn. This brings the ringed planet's total number of moons to 82, surpassing Jupiter, which has 79....
      - 6 days ago 8 Oct 19, 12:22am -
    • NASA Smallsats Can Aid Hurricane Forecasts with GPS
      Eight briefcase-size satellites flying in a row may be key to improving forecasts of a hurricane's wind speed -- detecting whether it will make landfall as a Category 1 or a Category 5....
      - 6 days ago 8 Oct 19, 12:17am -

    NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Andromeda before PhotoshopAndromeda before Photoshop
    Andromeda before Photoshop
    Andromeda before Photoshop
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    A Stellar Jewel Box: Open Cluster NGC 290A Stellar Jewel Box: Open Cluster NGC 290
    A Stellar Jewel Box: Open Cluster NGC 290
    A Stellar Jewel Box: Open Cluster NGC 290
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    Interplanetary EarthInterplanetary Earth
    Interplanetary Earth
    Interplanetary Earth
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    Planet Earth at Blue HourPlanet Earth at Blue Hour
    Planet Earth at Blue Hour
    Planet Earth at Blue Hour
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    Mid-Air Meteor and Milky WayMid-Air Meteor and Milky Way
    Mid-Air Meteor and Milky Way
    Mid-Air Meteor and Milky Way
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    NGC 7714: Starburst after Galaxy CollisionNGC 7714: Starburst after Galaxy Collision
    NGC 7714: Starburst after Galaxy Collision
    NGC 7714: Starburst after Galaxy Collision
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