technical updates

Two astronauts will conduct history's sixth all-female spacewalk today (Sept. 1), and you can watch it live. NASA's Jessica Meir and Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency will venture outside the International Space Station (ISS) at around 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT) on an excursion expected to last about 6.5 hours. You can watch it here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the agency . Coverage will start at 7:00 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT). NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and the European Space Agency's Sophie Adenot work together inside the International Space Station’s Quest airlock during spacesuit fit and leak checks. (Image credit: NASA) During today's spacewalk , Meir and Adenot "will replace a retroreflector on the forward port of the space station's Harmony module to support spacecraft navigation during rendezvous and docking operations," NASA officials ...

NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is back to studying the universe after spending months in a low-drag configuration while awaiting an orbital rescue mission that ultimately fell short. Mission controllers restarted two of Swift's three science instruments — its X-ray Telescope (XRT) and Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) — on Aug. 26. Both instruments had been shut down in February as part of an effort to minimize atmospheric drag and keep the aging spacecraft in orbit long enough for another spacecraft to reach and boost it to a higher altitude, according to an Aug. 28 statement from NASA. Swift's third instrument, the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT), remains offline. Operations of the BAT were halted in April to conserve power, allowing controllers to position Swift's solar panels in a way that further reduced drag from its interaction with Earth's atmosphere . NASA say...

The SpaceX Falcon Heavy carrying NASA's Roman Space Telescope crosses the face o the sun as it launches to space from Pad 39A of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in this photo taken by Space.com's Josh Dinner from a Titusville Hobby Lobby parking lot. Here's how he did it. (Image credit: Space.com / Josh Dinner) CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Standing in the parking lot of the Titusville Hobby Lobby was maybe something I should have planned on before traveling to Florida for the launch of NASA's Nancy Roman Grace Space Telescope, but it was not where I expected to be until I was speeding there in my car. Rocket enthusiasts and locals around Florida's Space Coast gathered Sunday morning (Aug. 30) to watch SpaceX's latest Falcon Heavy launch. The triple-booster rocket launched NASA's newest flagship observatory , the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is now on its way...

Rocky planets may have been able to start forming just 100 million years after the Big Bang, thanks to enormous early supernovae that scattered planet-building elements across space. Simulations found enough solid material and water around a young star to suggest that Earth-like worlds could have appeared far earlier than previously believed. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/sGrklYM

Rocket Lab will launch a private Japanese radar satellite to orbit early Monday morning (Aug. 31), and you can watch the action live. An Electron vehicle is scheduled to lift off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site on Monday during a window that opens at 8:00 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT; midnight on Sept. 1 local New Zealand time). It's carrying a single Strix satellite for Synspective, a Tokyo-based Earth-imaging company. You can watch it live via Rocket Lab , beginning about 30 minutes before launch. Space.com will air the feed as well, if, as expected, Rocket Lab makes it available. Synspective is assembling a constellation of about 30 Strix satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). These spacecraft — which are named after a widespread genus of owl — use synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to study our planet both day and night, and in all weather conditions. The Strix constellation will "make it ...

CAPE CANAVAREL, Fla. — It was a bright and sunny morning here in Florida when the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope lifted off planet Earth against a magical blue sky. "What a glorious dawn launch," Jackie Townsend, the Roman Space Telescope 's project manager, said during a post-launch press conference on Sunday (Aug. 30). "The ride was magnificent — it put us right where we wanted to be. All of the deployments went great." Roman lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket right on cue at 7:26 a.m. EDT (1126 GMT), beginning its journey to revolutionize the way we see the universe. It will be able to do this thanks to the two stars of its toolkit, the Wide Field Instrument (WFI) and the Coronagraph Instrument. The former is meant to image extremely wide sections of the cosmos to capture tons of fleeting phenomena that are hard to catch — things like supernovas, fast radio...

Scientists have cracked a long-standing chemistry problem, creating nanocrystals from tough metal nitrides that were previously extremely difficult to produce at this scale. The breakthrough could turn familiar materials used in LEDs, implants, and superconductors into building blocks for flexible electronics, printable devices, and other technologies. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/nhlG3zm

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A new era of astronomy is about to begin after NASA's newest flagship observatory leaped from the terrestrial bounds of Earth into the vastness of space this morning. NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched today (Aug. 30) on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from the Kennedy Space Center here in Florida. Liftoff occurred at 7:26 a.m. EDT (1126 GMT) at Launch Complex-39A (LC-39A). Roman is NASA's newest orbital observatory designed to add to the wealth of research and discoveries we've received from the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope . "The scope is extraordinary," Roman senior scientist Julie McEnery said during live commentary. "We will do a survey of our own Milky Way galaxy and find 20 billion stars. That would make it the largest catalog of astronomical objects that's ever been produced." A SpaceX F...

A new flagship observatory is about to launch to space and join the ranks of its powerful predecessors, like the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. NASA's groundbreaking new Nancy Roman Grace Space Telescope is ready to lift off aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. It's scheduled to depart from Launch Complex-39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, bound for a gravitationally stable spot in space called Lagrange Point 2, or L2, nearly 1 million miles (1.6 million km) from Earth . The spacecraft's first window for launch is tomorrow (Aug 30) at 7:26 a.m. EDT (1126 GMT). Mission managers and launch administrators held a prelaunch briefing on Saturday (Aug. 29), confirming NASA and SpaceX's "go" to proceed toward tomorrow's lift off. Weather tomorrow currently poses a 50% chance of favorable launch conditions, according to launch weather officer Ju...

The Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ is one of the best telescopes for beginner-to-intermediate stargazers who want to view deep-sky objects and appreciate assistance in manually locating the targets. Right now, the Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ is 17% off, down to just $414.99 , its cheapest since Prime Day in June. In our Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ review , our expert tester Damian Peach awarded it an impressive 4 out of 5-star. Damian noted that it was an exquisite telescope for the beginner and added that the StarSense Explorer telescope was fully equipped, supplied with just about everything the skywatcher needs for a successful observing session under the stars. It only missed out on the perfect score as Damian felt it would benefit from additional high-powered eyepieces to achieve more detailed views. However, at this discounted price, it's one of the best begi...

The United States will soon have a new service academy — or something like it, anyway. President Donald Trump today (Aug. 28) signed an executive order creating the U.S. Space Academy, an institution of higher learning that will train students for a career studying, exploring, exploiting or helping to protect the final frontier. "It'll serve both the United States Space Force as well as NASA and the civilian spaceflight industry, and it'll attract, train and graduate the very very best of our nation," Trump said today during a ceremony at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, at which he awarded the Artemis II moon astronauts the nation's highest space honor. President Donald Trump awarded the four astronauts of NASA's Artemis II moon mission the Congressional Space Medal of Honor at Johnson Space Center on Aug. 28, 2026. They, in turn, gave him a flight jacke...

Warning: Potential "Silo" Spoilers Ahead! Get back in the Silo if you aren't up to date! Apple TV's " Silo" season 3 is nearing its final two episodes, depicting the Before Times’ doomsday silo project as well as the shakeup inside Silo 18 with Juliette’s memory returning. The ongoing tempest includes Camille Sims (Alexandria Riley) having to prevent a Safeguard extermination as the new Head of IT this year, and the revelation of ex-security chief Robert Sims (Common) regarding Bernard (Tim Robbins). With the married couple of Robert and Camille Sims careening off onto very different moral trajectories, Camille must confront troubling truths as her conscience plummets into the pits of Hades, while Robert is on a profound journey of salvation. "The writers are incredible on this show, and we were so excited when we first saw what they were going to do," Rile...

Beneath the rocky slopes of Mount Timpanogos lies far more ice than anyone walking across the surface might suspect. Researchers used gravity measurements to map the buried glacier in 3D and found it is about 83% ice, with enough frozen water to fill 600 Olympic swimming pools. Their findings suggest rock glaciers form as falling debris buries persistent snow and preserves it for thousands of years. Similar formations around the world may collectively store tens of gigatons of hidden water. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/CMwJP2n

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have studied 72 young, sun-like stars. As a result, they found that forming planets is a real race against time. This is because the material that serves as the building blocks for planets is constantly escaping the swirling platters of gas and dust, or protoplanetary disks , that wrap around infant stars. Some types of planets may find their formation window closing sooner than others. The team's research represents the most in-depth investigation yet into how matter escapes these protoplanetary disks and how this escape gives rise to different stages of planet formation around sun-like stars. All in all, the study helps paint a better picture of how and why our solar system took the shape it did around the infant sun around 4.6 billion years ago. "Gas giants like Jupiter must assemble their massive atmospheres while the disk...

Jonny Kim is leaving NASA to continue his military career. The 42-year-old astronaut, who has one of the most jaw-dropping resumes of any person alive, is departing today (Aug. 27) after nine years with the agency. He has one mission under his belt, a long-duration flight to the International Space Station (ISS). "Jonny has been an integral part of the agency, and his immeasurable impact will be felt for generations to come," Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, said in a statement today . "From advancing groundbreaking science to inspiring the next generation, Jonny has been an incredible source of inspiration to our nation. His exceptional talent, determination, and grit will leave a lasting legacy at NASA." NASA picked Kim as part of its 2017 astronaut class, the 22nd in the agency's history. He and his 11 fellow selectees nickn...