A team of private astronauts is scheduled on Thursday to perform the inaugural private spacewalk in orbit from a SpaceX capsule, evaluating a new series of spacesuits.The Polaris Dawn mission, SpaceX’s most recent and ambitious attempt to expand the limits of commercial spaceflight, launched from Florida on Tuesday. The crew, consisting of a billionaire entrepreneur, … Read more
Last Thursday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from the Vandenberg Space Launch Complex in California with a payload of 20 Starlink satellites. And like the preceding 325 times before, the launch seemed to go off without a hitch: the rocket reached space and the first stage returned, landing on a drone ship in the … Read more
The moon’s newest arrival, a privately owned vessel not carrying people, was said to be “alive and well” a day after making the first U.S. landing in half a century, but flight controllers were still trying to get a better handle on its bearings. Intuitive Machines reported Friday that it’s communicating with its lander, Odysseus, … Read more
A private lander touched down on the moon Thursday but managed just a weak signal back, as flight controllers scrambled to gain better contact with the first U.S. spacecraft to reach the lunar surface in more than 50 years. Tension mounted in the company’s command centre in Houston, as controllers awaited a signal from the spacecraft … Read more
This year, outer space is going to be a busy place. We’ve got the launch of the Europa Clipper, which will orbit one of Jupiter’s enigmatic moons and investigate whether it could harbour conditions suitable for life; we could cheer on the first Canadian to orbit the moon; and we’re getting a total solar eclipse that … Read more
2023 was a busy year in science. Here are 10 stories worth revisiting as we wind up the year. 1. Canadian Jeremy Hansen chosen to fly to the moon A Canadian astronaut was selected as part of the crew for NASA’s Artemis II mission to the moon. Jeremy Hansen and three crew mates will fly … Read more
