TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
March 6, 2025
Starburst Galaxy Messier 94
Beautiful island universe Messier 94 lies a mere 15 million light-years distant in the northern constellation of the hunting dogs, Canes Venatici. A popular target for earth-based astronomers, the face-on spiral galaxy is about 30,000 light-years across, with spiral arms sweeping through the outskirts of its broad disk. But this Hubble Space Telescope field of view spans about 7,000 light-years or so across M94's central region. The sharp close-up examines the galaxy's compact, bright nucleus and prominent inner dust lanes, surrounded by a remarkable bluish ring of young, massive stars. The massive stars in the ring appear to be less than about 10 million years old, indicating the galaxy experienced a corresponding well-defined era of rapid star formation. As a result, while the small, bright nucleus is typical of the Seyfert class of active galaxies, M94 is also known as a starburst galaxy. Because M94 is relatively nearby, astronomers can explore in detail reasons for the galaxy's burst of star formation.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Intuitive Machines 2 Lunar Landing
March 6, 2025
Goes live in 48 minutes
Watch Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander, Athena, touch down on the Moon.
Athena will land at Mons Mouton, a lunar plateau near the Moon’s South Pole, delivering NASA science and technology to the Moon’s surface. Landing is slated for no earlier than 12:30 p.m. EST (1730 UTC).
The NASA tech aboard the lander will demonstrate resource utilization on the Moon by measuring the possible presence of volatiles or gases from lunar soil and give future spacecraft a permanent reference point on the lunar surface.
https://plus.nasa.gov/scheduled-video/intuitive-machines-2-lunar-landing/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOPL8nhmQU4
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/jpl/nasa-turns-off-2-voyager-science-instruments-to-extend-mission/
https://www.space.com/nasa-switches-off-voyager-instruments-to-extend-life-of-the-two-interstellar-spacecraft
NASA Turns Off 2 Voyager Science Instruments to Extend Mission
Mar 05, 2025
The farthest-flung human-made objects will be able to take their science-gathering even farther, thanks to these energy-conserving measures.
Mission engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California turned off the cosmic ray subsystem experiment aboard Voyager 1 on Feb. 25 and will shut off Voyager 2’s low-energy charged particle instrument on March 24.
Three science instruments will continue to operate on each spacecraft. The moves are part of an ongoing effort to manage the gradually diminishing power supply of the twin probes.
Launched in 1977, Voyagers 1 and 2 rely on a radioisotope power system that generates electricity from the heat of decaying plutonium. Both lose about 4 watts of power each year.
“The Voyagers have been deep space rock stars since launch, and we want to keep it that way as long as possible,” said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager at JPL.
“But electrical power is running low. If we don’t turn off an instrument on each Voyager now, they would probably have only a few more months of power before we would need to declare end of mission.”
The two spacecraft carry identical sets of 10 science instruments. Some of the instruments, geared toward collecting data during planetary flybys, were turned off after both spacecraft completed their exploration of the solar system’s gas giants.
The instruments that remained powered on well beyond the last planetary flyby were those the science team considered important for studying the solar system’s heliosphere, a protective bubble of solar wind and magnetic fields created by the Sun, and interstellar space, the region outside the heliosphere.
Voyager 1 reached the edge of the heliosphere and the beginning of interstellar space in 2012; Voyager 2 reached the boundary in 2018. No other human-made spacecraft has operated in interstellar space.
Last October, to conserve energy, the project turned off Voyager 2’s plasma science instrument, which measures the amount of plasma — electrically charged atoms — and the direction it is flowing.
The instrument had collected only limited data in recent years due to its orientation relative to the direction that plasma flows in interstellar space. Voyager 1’s plasma science instrument had been turned off years ago because of degraded performance.
Interstellar Science Legacy
The cosmic ray subsystem that was shut down on Voyager 1 last week is a suite of three telescopes designed to study cosmic rays, including protons from the galaxy and the Sun, by measuring their energy and flux.
Data from those telescopes helped the Voyager science team determine when and where Voyager 1 exited the heliosphere.
Scheduled for deactivation later this month, Voyager 2’s low-energy charged particle instrument measures the various ions, electrons, and cosmic rays originating from our solar system and galaxy.
The instrument consists of two subsystems: the low-energy particle telescope for broader energy measurements, and the low-energy magnetospheric particle analyzer for more focused magnetospheric studies.
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Both systems use a rotating platform so that the field of view is 360 degrees, and the platform is powered by a stepper motor that provides a 15.7-watt pulse every 192 seconds.
The motor was tested to 500,000 steps — enough to guarantee continuous operation through the mission’s encounters with Saturn, which occurred in August 1980 for Voyager 2.
By the time it is deactivated on Voyager 2, the motor will have completed more than 8.5 million steps.
“The Voyager spacecraft have far surpassed their original mission to study the outer planets,” said Patrick Koehn, Voyager program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
“Every bit of additional data we have gathered since then is not only valuable bonus science for heliophysics, but also a testament to the exemplary engineering that has gone into the Voyagers — starting nearly 50 years ago and continuing to this day.”
Addition Through Subtraction
Mission engineers have taken steps to avoid turning off science instruments for as long as possible because the science data collected by the twin Voyager probes is unique.
With these two instruments turned off, the Voyagers should have enough power to operate for about a year before the team needs to shut off another instrument on both spacecraft.
In the meantime, Voyager 1 will continue to operate its magnetometer and plasma wave subsystem. The spacecraft’s low-energy charged particle instrument will operate through the remainder of 2025 but will be shut off next year.
Voyager 2 will continue to operate its magnetic field and plasma wave instruments for the foreseeable future. Its cosmic ray subsystem is scheduled to be shut off in 2026.
With the implementation of this power conservation plan, engineers believe the two probes could have enough electricity to continue operating with at least one science instrument into the 2030s.
But they are also mindful that the Voyagers have been weathering deep space for 47 years and that unforeseen challenges could shorten that timeline.
Long Distance
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 remain the most distant human-made objects ever built. Voyager 1 is more than 15 billion miles (25 billion kilometers) away. Voyager 2 is over 13 billion miles (21 billion kilometers) from Earth.
In fact, due to this distance, it takes over 23 hours to get a radio signal from Earth to Voyager 1, and 19½ hours to Voyager 2.
“Every minute of every day, the Voyagers explore a region where no spacecraft has gone before,” said Linda Spilker, Voyager project scientist at JPL.
“That also means every day could be our last. But that day could also bring another interstellar revelation.
So, we’re pulling out all the stops, doing what we can to make sure Voyagers 1 and 2 continue their trailblazing for the maximum time possible.”
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The Next Full Moon is the Worm Moon
Mar 05, 2025
The next full moon is called the Worm Moon. Also, there will be a total lunar eclipse this full moon.
The Moon will be full early Friday morning, March 14, at 2:55 a.m. EDT, but will appear full for about three days around this time, from Wednesday evening into Saturday morning.
As the Moon passes opposite the Sun it will move through the shadow of Earth creating a total eclipse of the Moon.
The Moon will begin entering the partial shadow Thursday night at 11:57 p.m. EDT, but the gradual dimming of the Moon will not be noticeable until it starts to enter the full shadow Friday morning at 1:09 a.m.
The round shadow of Earth will gradually shift across the face of the Moon (from lower left to upper right) until the Moon is fully shaded beginning at 2:26 a.m.
The period of full shadow, or total eclipse, will last about 65 minutes, reaching the greatest eclipse at 2:59 a.m. and ending at 3:31 a.m. Even though it will be in full shadow, the Moon will still be visible.
The glow of all of the sunrises and sunsets on Earth will give the Moon a reddish-brown hue, sometimes called a "Blood Moon” — although this name is also used for one of the full moons near the start of fall.
From 3:31 a.m. until 4:48 a.m., the Moon will exit the full shadow of Earth, with the round shadow again shifting across the face of the Moon (from upper left to lower right).
The Moon will leave the last of the partial shadow at 6 a.m. ending this eclipse.
The Maine Farmers' Almanac began publishing Native American names for full moons in the 1930s, and these names are now widely known and used.
According to this almanac, the tribes of the northeastern U.S. called the full moon in March the Crow, Crust, Sap, Sugar, or Worm Moon.
The more northern tribes of the northeastern United States knew this as the Crow Moon, with the cawing of crows signaling the end of winter.
Other northern names were the Crust Moon, because the snow cover became crusted from thawing by day and freezing by night, or the Sap (or Sugar) Moon as this was the time for tapping maple trees.
The more southern tribes called this the Worm Moon after the earthworm casts that appeared as the ground thawed. It makes sense that only the southern tribes called this the Worm Moon.
When glaciers covered the northern part of North America they wiped out the native earthworms. After these glaciers melted about 12,000 years ago the more northern forests grew back without earthworms.
Most of the earthworms in these areas are invasive species introduced from Europe and Asia.
Continuing the tradition of naming moons after prominent phenomena tied to the time of year, a few years ago my friend Tom Van Wagner suggested naming this the Pothole Moon.
It may be a case of confirmation bias, but whether in my car or on my bicycle I've noticed more potholes lately.
Here are the other celestial events between now and the full moon after next with times and angles based on the location of NASA Headquarters in Washington:
cont.
https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/skywatching/the-next-full-moon-is-the-worm-moon/
SpaceX’s Crew-10 Launch Set for March 12 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
March 6, 2025
BREVARD COUNTY • FLORIDA — NASA will provide coverage of the upcoming prelaunch and launch activities for the agency’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station.
Liftoff is targeted for 7:48 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, March 12, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The targeted docking time is approximately 10 a.m., Thursday, March 13.
Coverage of the mission overview teleconference will be available on the agency’s website. The crew news conference, launch, the postlaunch news conference, and docking will be live on NASA+.
Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will carry NASA astronauts Anne McClain, commander; and Nichole Ayers, pilot; along with mission specialists JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov to the orbiting laboratory for a science mission of about four months.
This is the 10th crew rotation mission and the 11th human spaceflight mission for NASA to the space station supported by the Dragon spacecraft since 2020 as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.
NASA’s mission coverage is as follows (all times subject to change based on real-time operations):
Friday, March 7
2 p.m. – Crew arrival media event at NASA Kennedy with the following participants:
● Anne McClain, Crew-10 spacecraft commander, NASA
● Nichole Ayers, Crew-10 pilot, NASA
● Takuya Onishi, Crew-10 mission specialist, JAXA
● Kirill Peskov, Crew-10 mission specialist, Roscosmos
Watch live coverage of the crew arrival media event on NASA Kennedy’s social media accounts.
Follow @CommercialCrew and @NASAKennedy on X for the latest arrival updates.
5:30 p.m. – Mission overview teleconference at NASA Kennedy (or no earlier than one hour after the completion of the Flight Readiness Review) with the following participants:
● Ken Bowersox, associate administrator, Space Operations Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington
● Steve Stich, manager, Commercial Crew Program, NASA Kennedy
● Dana Weigel, manager, International Space Station Program, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston
● Meg Everett, deputy chief scientist, NASA’s International Space Station Program, NASA Johnson
● William Gerstenmaier, vice president, Build and Flight Reliability, SpaceX
● Junichi Sakai, manager, International Space Station Program, JAXA
NASA will provide audio-only coverage of the teleconference.
6:30 p.m. – Crew-10 crew news conference (or directly following the completion of the mission overview news conference) with the following participants:
● Anne McClain, Crew-10 spacecraft commander, NASA
● Nichole Ayers, Crew-10 pilot, NASA
● Takuya Onishi, Crew-10 mission specialist, JAXA
● Kirill Peskov, Crew-10 mission specialist, Roscosmos
cont.
https://spacecoastdaily.com/2025/03/spacexs-crew-10-launch-set-for-march-12-from-nasas-kennedy-space-center/
Storm Brings a Potpourri of Hazards to the U.S.
March 6, 2025
A powerful mid-latitude cyclone delivered a potpourri of weather hazards as it worked its way across the United States in March 2025.
Beginning on March 3, the low-pressure system fanned wildfires and blinding dust storms in the Southwest, spawned severe thunderstorms and tornadoes in the Southeast, fueled blizzards in the Great Plains and Midwest, and dropped heavy rain in the Northeast.
Thick plumes of dust streamed across West Texas in this image, captured on March 4, 2025, by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite.
Clouds of dust appear to originate from arid landscapes in northern Mexico and West Texas, a region that spans the Chihuahuan Desert, cattle ranches and cotton farms, and gas and oil fields.
Exceptional drought has gripped West Texas for the past several months, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
The lack of rain has parched vegetation and dried the land surface, making the region particularly susceptible to erosion and dust storms.
Fierce winds and thick plumes of blowing dust led to traffic accidents, flight disruptions, school closures, power outages, and red and orange skies throughout the state and region, according to news reports.
One particularly severe dust storm on March 3 sharply reduced visibility and contributed to a 21-car accident near Roswell, New Mexico.
“This is a large event, but dust storms are typical in this region at this time of year,” said Santiago Gassó, a University of Maryland atmospheric scientist based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
“Unfortunately, we’re seeing longer droughts in the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico, so we can expect more of this type of event.”
Tools powered by NASA data and satellites are available to meteorologists, scientists, and others tracking the storm. The Worldview browser hosts timely data and imagery from several satellites.
A data viewer from NASA’s Short-term Prediction Research and Transition Center (SPoRT) provides access to rainfall, lightning, air quality, and other data, and NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office has tools for real-time weather analysis and reanalysis.
One of the newer data products comes from an experimental aerosol detection algorithm that NOAA’s AerosolWatch team is developing.
The algorithm makes it easier to distinguish between dust and smoke, both of which were present in the hazy plume over Texas on March 4, by merging data collected by the TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution) mission with ABI (Advanced Baseline Imager) observations from the GOES-19 satellite.
“The combination of TEMPO with GOES is very promising,” Gassó said.
“Both satellites make multiple observations each day, and given their combined observations at several spectral channels, we’re able to fully characterize smoke or dust in time, space, and concentration for the first time.”
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/154015/storm-brings-a-potpourri-of-hazards-to-the-us
https://twitter.com/AerosolWatch/status/1896967746753323253
How NASA is Using Virtual Reality to Prepare for Science on Moon
Mar 05, 2025
When astronauts walk on the Moon, they’ll serve as the eyes, hands, and boots-on-the-ground interpreters supporting the broader teams of scientists on Earth.
NASA is leveraging virtual reality to provide high-fidelity, cost-effective support to prepare crew members, flight control teams, and science teams for a return to the Moon through its Artemis campaign.
The Artemis III Geology Team, led by principal investigator Dr. Brett Denevi of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, participated in an Artemis III Surface Extra-Vehicular VR Mini-Simulation, or “sim” at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston in the fall of 2024.
The sim brought together science teams and flight directors and controllers from Mission Control to carry out science-focused moonwalks and test the way the teams communicate with each other and the astronauts.
“There are two worlds colliding,” said Dr. Matthew Miller, co-lead for the simulation and exploration engineer, Amentum/JETSII contract with NASA. “There is the operational world and the scientific world, and they are becoming one.”
NASA mission training can include field tests covering areas from navigation and communication to astronaut physical and psychological workloads. Many of these tests take place in remote locations and can require up to a year to plan and large teams to execute.
VR may provide an additional option for training that can be planned and executed more quickly to keep up with the demands of preparing to land on the Moon in an environment where time, budgets, and travel resources are limited.
Field testing won’t be going away. Nothing can fully replace the experience crew members gain by being in an environment that puts literal rocks in their hands and incudes the physical challenges that come with moonwalks, but VR has competitive advantages.
The virtual environment used in the Artemis III VR Mini-Sim was built using actual lunar surface data from one of the Artemis III candidate regions.
This allowed the science team to focus on Artemis III science objectives and traverse planning directly applicable to the Moon.
Eddie Paddock, engineering VR technical discipline lead at NASA Johnson, and his team used data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and planet position and velocity over time to develop a virtual software representation of a site within the Nobile Rim 1 region near the south pole of the Moon.
Two stand-in crew members performed moonwalk traverses in virtual reality in the Prototype Immersive Technology lab at Johnson, and streamed suit-mounted virtual video camera views, hand-held virtual camera imagery, and audio to another location where flight controllers and science support teams simulated ground communications.
The crew stand-ins were immersed in the lunar environment and could then share the experience with the science and flight control teams.
That quick and direct feedback could prove critical to the science and flight control teams as they work to build cohesive teams despite very different approaches to their work.
The flight operations team and the science team are learning how to work together and speak a shared language. Both teams are pivotal parts of the overall mission operations.
The flight control team focuses on maintaining crew and vehicle safety and minimizing risk as much as possible. The science team, as Miller explains, is “relentlessly thirsty” for as much science as possible.
Training sessions like this simulation allow the teams to hone their relationships and processes.
Denevi described the flight control team as a “well-oiled machine” and praised their dedication to getting it right for the science team.
Many members of the flight control team have participated in field and classroom training to learn more about geology and better understand the science objectives for Artemis.
“They have invested a lot of their own effort into understanding the science background and science objectives, and the science team really appreciates that and wants to make sure they are also learning to operate in the best way we can to support the flight control team, because there’s a lot for us to learn as well,” Denevi said.
“It’s a joy to get to share the science with them and have them be excited to help us implement it all.”
This simulation, Sparks said, was just the beginning for how virtual reality could supplement training opportunities for Artemis science.
In the future, using mixed reality could help take the experience to the next level, allowing crew members to be fully immersed in the virtual environment while interacting with real objects they can hold in their hands.
https://science.nasa.gov/uncategorized/how-nasa-is-using-virtual-reality-to-prepare-for-science-on-moon/
NASA SMD Research Programs Update
March 5, 2025
Esteemed Colleagues,
As you may be aware, the new Administration has issued Executive Orders (EOs) and implemented policy and guidance that may affect grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts. SMD, consistent with agency direction, is working diligently to comply with the requirements of the new policy and guidance, as well as court orders resulting from litigation related to EOs and guidance.
SMD currently oversees approximately 6,000 grants, cooperative agreements, contracts, interagency transfers, and internal NASA transfers; thus, as you can imagine, the process of implementing the new policy and guidance is taking some time and the turnaround time on actions will be longer than normal.
We ask for your patience. Please also realize that we are in a highly dynamic environment with multiple lawsuits being adjudicated each with the potential to impact policy and guidance affecting grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts.
SMD would like to provide the following brief updates:
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Unfortunately, Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES) 2025 was not released on Valentine’s Day as it has been in past years.
There are multiple reasons for this related to the increased workload on the SMD R&A Lead as well as everyone who works with Notices of Funding Opportunities. SMD is working diligently on ROSES-2025 and hope to release it soon.
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The Grants and Cooperative Agreement Manual (GCAM) is being revised to ensure compliance with new Executive Orders, policy, and guidance. We hope to have the revised GCAM released soon.
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The proposal creation function for the Topical Workshops, Symposiums, and Conferences (TWSC-2024) in Space and Earth Sciences and Technology solicitation, NNH24ZDA002N, is disabled on the NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System (NSPIRES). Previously submitted proposals will still be reviewed and selection decisions will be made.
This pause in accepting new proposals is needed to update the TWSC solicitation to be compliant with Executive Orders as well as to adapt it to the recent revision of the “Uniform Guidance” (2 CFR 200) that governs all grants and cooperative agreements.
The timeframe for when TWSC will be revised/replaced and open for new proposals cannot be predicted at this time. For more about TWSC visit: https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/funding-for-events/.
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Some websites that NASA hosts and supports may have been taken offline so that NASA can ensure the sites meet the policy and guidance of the new Administration.
We hope to have the websites, with any appropriate modifications, back online as soon as possible.
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In late January, NASA senior leadership decided to postpone the upcoming meeting of the NASA Advisory Committee (NAC), which had been scheduled for early February.
As the Science Committee reports to the NAC, SMD chose to mirror the direction to the NAC and pause the work of the Science Committee.
For consistency and given that the chairs of the six independent division-level advisory committees (DACs) serve on the Science Committee, this pause applies to the DACs as well.
For guidance from NASA’s Office of Procurement (OP), please visit https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-global-contractor-and-grantee-community-memos/.
For Grants and cooperative agreements ONLY, the section of the Grants Policy and Compliance webpage that provides updates on NASA’s implementation of recent Executive Orders that impact the Agency’s Federal financial assistance applicants and recipients is https://www.nasa.gov/grants-policy-and-compliance-team/#Regulations.
You may also seek guidance from SMD’s Program Officers; a list of program officers may be found at https://science.nasa.gov/researchers/sara/program-officers-list/.
Finally, you may always send questions to the Senior Advisors for Research and Analysis (SARA) Team at sara@nasa.gov.
Dr. Michael H. New
Deputy Associate Administrator for Research
Science Mission Directorate
NASA Headquarters
https://astrobiology.com/2025/03/nasa-smd-research-programs-update.html
NASA: A meteorite fell in Down East, Maine
Updated: 9:53 AM EST March 6, 2025
WASHINGTON COUNTY, Maine — NASA has reported that a meteorite fell in Washington County at the end of February.
A "low-mass meteorite fall" happened near Codyville around 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 21, according to NASA.
Eyewitness accounts reported hearing a "sonic boom," the agency said.
About 20 witness accounts were reported to the agency, stretching from Bangor to Down East and northeast to Prince Edward Island.
Video accounts shared with NASA, which they include on their website about the report, appears to show a bright burst in the sky.
A map of the meteorite's strewn field shows a sizable area where stones as small as 1 gram and as large as approximately 2 pounds may be found.
The area where the meteorite fell is heavily forested and may be tough to locate meteorites.
Multiple radar signatures were picked up from a radar located in Houlton, NASA said.
https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/tech/science/aerospace/nasa-meteorite-washington-county-maine-codyville/97-5d6cf3f3-1020-4f75-b201-d2878c7758a0
https://fireball.amsmeteors.org/members/imo_view/event/2025/1052
related to that pileup a couple days ago
https://watchers.news/2025/03/04/dust-storm-triggers-23-car-pileup-near-roswell-new-mexico/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14461291/Roswell-New-Mexico-dust-storm-car-crashes.html
Stranded NASA Astronauts Confirm Elon Musk's Offer To Bring Them Home Was Denied By Biden White House
Updated March 5, 2025 6:16 PM EST
Nine months into what was supposed to be just an eight-day trip to the International Space Station, two stranded NASA astronauts are finally scheduled to return to Earth in just a couple of weeks.
But it could have happened a lot sooner if the White House had accepted help from Elon Musk.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched on the first crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on June 5, 2024. Because of some thruster issues and helium leaks, though, things didn't go as planned.
On Feb. 20, Musk posted on X that his company, SpaceX, could have brought Wilmore and Williams home months ago when Joe Biden was still in office.
"I OFFERED THIS DIRECTLY to the Biden administration and they refused," Musk wrote. "Return was pushed back for political reasons."
On Tuesday, the two stranded astronauts participated from orbit in a news conference with reporters, during which they confirmed Elon's claim.
"I can only say that Mr. Musk, what he says, is absolutely factual," Wilmore said, according to a transcript of the press conference.
"We have no information on that, though, whatsoever: what was offered, what was not offered, who it was offered to, how that process went. That's information that we simply don't have."
Astronauts Praise Elon Musk, President Donald Trump
Wilmore described politics as "a part of life," but explained that he and Williams never intended to become caught up in a political storm.
There are things politicians don't understand about space exploration, he said, and there are things astronauts don't understand about politics.
"We understand that. And there's an important reason why we have a political system… and we're behind it 100 percent," Wilmore explained.
"We know what we've lived up here, the ins and outs, and the specifics that they may not be privy to. And I'm sure that they have some issues that they are dealing with, information that they have, that we are not privy to."
When asked directly, though, whether they believed politics had anything to do with their delayed return, Wilmore and Williams chose to remain neutral.
"From my standpoint, politics is not playing into this at all," Wilmore said. "From our standpoint, I think that they would agree, we came up prepared to stay long, even though we plan to stay short.
That's what we do in human spaceflight. That's what your nation's human space flight program is all about, planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies."
The two, however, had nothing but nice things to say about Musk and President Trump.
"I can tell you at the outset, all of us have the utmost respect for Mr. Musk, and obviously, respect and admiration for our President of the United States, Donald Trump," Wilmore said.
"We appreciate them. We appreciate all that they do for us, for human space flight, for our nation."
Because they couldn't return home as originally planned, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams joined Crew 9 on the ISS.
Once their replacements (Crew 10) arrive next week, they'll soon be cleared to return home.
https://www.outkick.com/analysis/stranded-nasa-astronauts-confirm-elon-musk-offer-denied-biden-white-house
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1892036911969321283
Lunar Ice Breakthrough: A New Discovery That Could Fuel Space Exploration
March 6, 2025
Could the Moon be hiding more ice than we thought? New data from India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission suggests just that.
Researchers discovered that slight variations in surface temperature, influenced by slope angles, could allow ice to exist just below the surface in many more places than expected—especially in the polar regions.
This revelation could be game-changing for future lunar missions, making water more accessible for astronauts.
With NASA’s Artemis program targeting the south pole, these findings may shape the future of lunar exploration and even habitation.
Hidden Ice: More Widespread Than Expected
New data suggests that ice may exist just a few centimeters beneath the Moon’s surface in more areas of the lunar polar regions than previously believed.
This is due to significant but highly localized variations in surface temperatures.
The findings, published today (March 6) in Communications Earth & Environment, are based on direct surface measurements taken in 2023 by India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission.
The presence of ice is crucial for future long-term exploration and potential human habitation of the Moon, as it could provide a local source of water.
Ice formation is directly influenced by surface temperatures, but until now, the only direct temperature readings from the Moon came from the Apollo missions in the 1970s.
However, those missions landed near the equator — thousands of kilometers from the proposed sites for future crewed missions — where the terrain is relatively flat and less affected by temperature variations.
Chandrayaan-3’s Groundbreaking Findings
Durga Prasad and colleagues analyzed temperature readings from Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander, which carried the ChaSTE temperature probe.
The lander touched down near the Moon’s south pole (around 69° south) and recorded surface and subsurface temperatures down to a depth of 10 centimeters.
They found that on a Sun-facing slope angled at 6°, temperatures reached a peak of 355 Kelvin (82°C) during the day and dropped to 105 Kelvin (-168°C) at night.
However, a flat region just one meter away from the lander recorded a lower peak temperature of 332 Kelvin (59°C), suggesting that even small differences in terrain can significantly affect lunar temperatures.
How Lunar Slopes May Hold More Ice
The authors used the collected data to derive a model of how slope angle affects surface temperature at high lunar latitudes similar to the landing site.
The model indicated that, for slopes facing away from the Sun and towards the nearest pole, a slope with a greater than 14° angle may be cool enough for ice to accumulate close to the surface.
This is similar to conditions at the lunar poles, including those at the proposed landing sites for NASA’s manned Artemis missions near the lunar south pole.
The authors therefore suggest that areas on the Moon where ice can form may be more numerous and easier to access than previously thought.
https://scitechdaily.com/lunar-ice-breakthrough-a-new-discovery-that-could-fuel-space-exploration/
https://phys.org/news/2025-03-potential-ice-moon.html
EPA removes hazardous waste from NASA Marshall Space Flight Center site
Updated: 9:54 AM CST March 6, 2025
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Thursday a significant milestone in the environmental restoration of the USARMY/NASA Redstone Arsenal Superfund site.
According to the agency, cleanup has been successfully completed for 5.3 acres of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center portion of the site, which has now been removed from the National Priorities List (NPL).
The EPA stated that this area no longer poses a threat to human health or the environment, making it available for infrastructure development to support future NASA missions at the facility, which employs approximately 7,000 people.
“Superfund NPL sites encompass the nation’s most contaminated land that threaten human health and the environment, and cleaning them up yields real health, environmental and economic results,” said EPA Southeast Regional Administrator Kevin J. McOmber.
“The successful cleanup and deletion of this portion of the Marshall Flight Space Center from the NPL will help NASA to continue to support future space flight missions – work that employs thousands and will benefit the Huntsville community for generations to come.”
The cleanup process involved excavating and disposing of 9,366 cubic yards of contaminated soil and sediment from the five-acre area.
The contaminants removed included polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides such as DDT and toxaphene, and various metals.
The EPA stated that by removing these contaminated materials and implementing land use controls, the risks associated with the site have been eliminated, ensuring a safer environment for the community.
https://www.rocketcitynow.com/article/news/local/epa-removes-hazardous-waste-redstone-arsenal-superfund-nasa-marshall-site-cleanup/525-0216f5b5-2fa0-4714-8486-313c0e9b184d
Meet Chun Wang, the first Maltese citizen in space
March 5, 2025
Chun Wang had never travelled beyond his hometown of Tianjen until he hit his early 20s but, two decades on, he is set to become the first Maltese citizen in space.
The 42-year-old Chinese-born crypto entrepreneur will take to the skies in late March, commanding a four-person space capsule as part of Elon Musk’s SpaceX programme.
The capsule will circle the earth from north to south, making them the first people in history to fly directly over earth’s polar regions.
Golden visa
Wang became a Maltese citizen in August 2023, purchasing citizenship through the controversial golden visa scheme five years after his first trip to Malta in 2018.
Describing Malta as “a great country”, Wang says he first applied for citizenship in 2020, a few months before first moving to Malta from South Korea.
Now on his 30th trip to the country (“every time I land here I feel happy,” he says), Wang says he was in Malta when he first reached out to SpaceX to discuss the possibility of buying a ticket to travel into space.
Wang eventually bought more than just a ticket, commissioning an entire four-person space flight, at a cost that experts estimate could top $55 million for each seat.
Around the world in 93 minutes
Named Fram2, after the ship used by Norwegian polar explorers at the turn of the 20th century, this will be the third-ever civilian-manned spaceflight, after 2021’s Inspiration4 and the Polaris Dawn mission late last year.
And this will be the first time that non-Americans participate in a civilian spaceflight, with Wang, the mission commander, joined by crewmates from Norway, Germany and Australia.
Wang says that the quartet have undergone two months of gruelling training at the SpaceX headquarters in California in preparation for the mission.
“It’s the same kind of training that NASA astronauts carry out,” Wang says.
Travelling in a small 10m3 spacecraft – “around the size of two SUVs put together”, Wang says – the four crew members will spend three and a half days circling the earth.
They plan to launch from SpaceX’s launch pad 39A in Cape Canaveral, Florida (“the same one used by Apollo 11,” Wang says) sometime in late March although, as is frequently the case with space travel, the launch date could be postponed because of technical hitches.
Just over half an hour after launch, they will be in the South Pole, ready for their first trip around the globe.
Travelling at speeds of up to 7.8km per second, it will take 93 minutes to fully circle the earth, Wang explains.
“If conditions are good, we will circle the earth around 55 times,” he says. “That should take three and a half days but we can extend it to over five days, if we need to”.
‘Pioneers of commercial space travel’
Fram2 will reportedly be studying the earth’s polar regions throughout its mission, taking the unusual route of circling the earth from one pole to another.
“Previous missions all took a route from east to west,” Wang says. “So we will be the first to fly over the north and south pole.”
But, for Wang, the mission’s value lies in what it means for the future of space travel.
Wang describes himself and his crewmates as “pioneers of commercial space travel”, saying that his goal is to “make space travel economically sustainable”.
“I always dreamt of flying into space, now I want to see people travel to Mars,” he says.
Bitcoin bonanza
But Wang didn’t always have the travel bug, spending the first two decades of his life in the Chinese city of Tianjen, never leaving the country until a visit to Nepal shortly after his 28th birthday.
“My parents don’t travel at all and I never travelled more than 150km from my home until I was in my early 20s,” he says.
Wang spent much of his 20s bouncing around software programming jobs in China, having dropped out of university, before discovering Bitcoin in 2011.
But things changed when he borrowed $40,000 from his father, a small business owner, which he invested in some of the cryptocurrency’s initial ventures.
“The first few months were a disaster,” Wang recalls. “The market crashed, and I was broke.”
But, by 2013, Wang had struck gold, cashing out on some of his initial investments and co-founding one of China’s earliest Bitcoin mining platforms, F2Pool.
In just a few months, F2Pool had become arguably the world’s largest Bitcoin platform.
Other investments followed, including the launch of Stakefish, another crypto platform, in 2018. Although Wang’s net worth remains undisclosed, some have estimated his Bitcoin assets at over $300m.
Today, Wang spends much of his time travelling, meticulously documenting each trip on X. “I’ve travelled to 128 countries or independent territories so far” Wang says. “There lots more to go.
https://timesofmalta.com/article/meet-chun-wang-first-maltese-citizen-space.1106102
The US will 'plant the American flag on the planet Mars and even far beyond,' Trump tells Congress
March 5, 2025
President Donald Trump told lawmakers that U.S. astronauts will one day carry the American flag to Mars and beyond during a speech before the joint session of Congress late Tuesday (March 5).
"We are going to conquer the vast frontiers of science, and we are going to lead humanity into space and plant the American flag on the planet Mars and even far beyond," Trump told Congress during his speech to a joint Senate and House of Representatives on Tuesday night.
"And through it all, we are going to rediscover the unstoppable power of the American spirit, and we are going to renew unlimited promise of the American dream," Trump said.
Trump's comments, which closed a nearly two-hour speech to Congress, echoed his past calls to send astronauts to Mars on the campaign trail.
He also celebrated the space feats of SpaceX and its founder Elon Musk during his election night victory speech in November, and hailed the Red Planet again during his inauguration, when he said the United States would pursue its "manifest destiny into the stars."
Musk, who is overseeing dramatic federal cost-cutting efforts for Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), attended Tuesday night's speech and waved as Trump recognized him for his DOGE efforts.
The SpaceX CEO has long said sending astronauts to Mars is a primary goal for his spaceflight company.
SpaceX currently flies NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station and is building the giant Starship megarocket to land Artemis astronauts on the moon by 2027.
During Tuesday night's speech, Trump also called on Congress to approve the funding needed for a new missile defense shield to defend the country against future threats.
"As commander in chief, my focus is on building the most powerful military of the future," he told Congress.
"As a first step, I am asking Congress to fund a state-of-the-art golden dome missile defense shield to protect our homeland, all made in the U.S.A."
Such a missile defense system could be similar to the Iron Dome system Israel uses to defend against incoming ballistic missiles.
Trump said a new "golden dome" system for the United States would realize the missile defense goals of the so-called "Star Wars" program proposed by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.
"Ronald Reagan wanted to do it long ago, but the technology just wasn’t there, not even close. But now we have the technology.
It’s incredible, actually," Trump said. "This is a very dangerous world. We should have it."
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/us-will-plant-american-flag-on-mars-trump-tells-congress
Private Blue Ghost lander spotted on the moon by NASA lunar orbiter
March 5, 2025
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured an exciting view of Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander following its recent touchdown on the moon.
Blue Ghost successfully landed on the moon on Sunday (March 2), touching down in Mare Crisium ("Sea of Crises") — a large impact basin about 345 miles (555 kilometers) wide.
The spacecraft sits near a volcanic cone called Mons Latreille within the basin, which is located in the northeast region of the moon's near side.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spotted the lander among the moon's cratered surface in photos taken using the spacecraft's Narrow Angle Cameras.
The photos, which NASA shared March 5 in a post on X (formally Twitter), were taken when the orbiter was roughly 109 miles (175 km) east of the Blue Ghost landing site.
Blue Ghost is a robotic lunar lander built and operated by the Texas-based company Firefly Aerospace.
The lander flew to the moon as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which contracts private landers to deliver science and technology instruments to the lunar surface in support of the agency's Artemis program. Blue Ghost carried 10 such demonstration instruments with it to the moon.
The photos taken by LRO, which has been surveying the moon since 2009, show the Blue Ghost lander as a single bright pixel casting a shadow over the volcanic terrain.
Since the images were taken from lunar orbit, it's hard to spot the little lander.
However, the base of Mons Latreille can be seen in the lower left corner of the image and used as a guide to find Blue Ghost, which landed within 330 feet (100 meters) of the volcanic feature.
The spacecraft is already hard at work, deploying its payloads, sampling lunar soil (or regolith) and taking photos of its surroundings.
It will spend one lunar day, or about two Earth weeks, studying the moon and conducting technology demonstrations before the sun sets over Mare Crisium on March 16 and the solar-powered lander shuts down.
If all goes according to plan, the data obtained by Blue Ghost will provide insight to help prepare for future crewed Artemis missions and a more sustained human presence on the moon.
https://www.space.com/the-universe/moon/private-blue-ghost-lander-spotted-on-the-moon-by-nasa-lunar-orbiter-photo
Thats all I could think of while posting it
https://spacenews.com/space-force-general-golden-dome-missile-shield-requires-manhattan-project-scale-effort/
Space Force general: ‘Golden Dome’ missile shield requires Manhattan Project-scale effort
March 5, 2025
A missile-defense initiative launched by President Donald Trump to protect the U.S. homeland will require a whole-of-government effort comparable to the Manhattan Project, according to a senior Space Force official.
Gen. Michael Guetlein, vice chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force, said the ambitious project known as Golden Dome represents a significant challenge that demands unprecedented collaboration across defense and intelligence agencies.
“We are in full planning mode,” Guetlein said March 5 at the National Security Innovation Base Summit hosted by the Ronald Reagan Institute.
“We owe an answer back to the White House by the end of the month on what our thoughts are.”
Golden Dome would be a comprehensive shield to protect the U.S. from an array of threats, including ballistic, hypersonic, and advanced cruise missiles.
The system’s core components would include space-based sensors and missile interceptors, leveraging orbital vantage points for early detection and rapid response.
Additionally, terrestrial and maritime platforms would provide layered defense, complemented by advanced communication networks to ensure seamless data-sharing and swift decision-making.
“We’re spending a lot of time really talking about architectures,” Guetlein said. “What might the different levels of architecture look like depending on the threat that we want to protect and defend the United States against.”
Cross-agency collaboration
Guetlein emphasized that organizational integration represents perhaps the greatest challenge, requiring coordination across traditional bureaucratic boundaries.
“We are not accustomed to having to integrate at the level that’s going to be required,” he said. This is “on the magnitude of the Manhattan Project,” he added.
“It’s going to take a concerted effort from the very top of our government. It’s going to take national will to bring all this together. It’s going to be a heavy lift across all the organizations that are going to be participating.
And what we’ve got to really push back on are the organizational boundaries and the cultures that are going to try to slow us down or to prevent us from working together.
While the Missile Defense Agency has substantial expertise in ballistic missile defense, Guetlein indicated that leadership of the project has yet to be determined.
The Space Force will play a crucial role due to its space-based capabilities, including low Earth orbit satellites for communications, proliferated sensors for global awareness, and missile warning systems already in orbit.
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The National Reconnaissance Office, which operates the nation’s spy satellites, will also be a key partner.
“They also have capabilities on orbit that we want to bring to bear for the protection of the homeland,” Guetlein noted.
However, there will be hurdles to integrating defense and intelligence operations governed by different sections of U.S. law — specifically Title 10 and Title 50 authorities.
“Without a doubt, our biggest challenge is going to be organizational behavior and culture to bring all the pieces together,” Guetlein said.
Beyond current capabilities
Golden Dome represents a significant leap from the current Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system, which was designed primarily to counter a limited number of ballistic missiles from North Korea.
While GMD relies on ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California, Golden Dome envisions a broader, multi-layered defense against hypersonic and cruise missile threats, incorporating space-based interceptors and advanced tracking technologies.
Guetlein said planning for Golden Dome is being informed by recent operations in the Middle East.
Following Iran’s missile attacks last year against Israel, U.S. forces in the region, including warships and aircraft, helped intercept many incoming threats while providing real-time intelligence and early warning to Israel.
Space Force units in Colorado operating missile warning satellites played a crucial role, alerting U.S. and allied forces and providing data to interceptor platforms “so we could take those missiles out before they caused harm,” Gen. Guetlein said.
“These are threats that we’re seeing every single day,” he added.
Policy hurdles remain
Guetlein also noted that the Space Force’s ability to support Golden Dome could be strengthened with expanded on-orbit training and testing capabilities, which he said are currently constrained by policy restrictions.
“If I were to ask for one authority for the Space Force, it would be the authority to do on-orbit training and testing that we’re not capable of doing today,” he said.
“It’s a very constrained set of authorities that we have today, and we would ask that that open up so that we can increase the readiness of our forces on the front line.”
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>>22714240
Silicon Valley players aim to follow SpaceX’s disruptive path in defense sector
Mar 5, 2025
SpaceX in just a few years upended the military launch business, capturing contracts that were once the exclusive domain of United Launch Alliance, the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture.
Now, as a new wave of commercial tech firms pushes into the defense sector, industry executives see an opportunity for Silicon Valley’s biggest players to challenge traditional prime contractors across defense and space programs.
The shifting business landscape under the Trump administration was a major topic discussed March 5 at the National Security Innovation Base Summit organized by the Ronald Reagan Institute.
With dominant commercial players like SpaceX, Palantir, and Anduril — led by figures with close ties to the White House — gaining influence, some wondered whether commercial firms are on a path to become the new primes.
Joe Lonsdale, venture capitalist and co-founder of Palantir, acknowledged that while Silicon Valley tech firms are gaining ground, they remain far from toppling incumbents such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman.
“This is really a question for 10 or 20 years from now,” said Lonsdale, who is also the founder and managing partner of 8VC, an early-stage venture capital firm. He was an early investor in Anduril and other defense-focused startups.
Processes still too complex
The procurement process, Lonsdale noted, remains too complex for most commercial firms to navigate easily.
Even a simple piece of military equipment comes with hundreds of pages of technical specifications, creating significant barriers to entry.
According to a recent report by the Financial Times, Palantir and Anduril are in talks with companies including SpaceX, OpenAI, Saronic, and Scale AI to form a consortium aimed at bidding on Pentagon contracts.
The goal: to provide more efficient and cost-effective solutions compared to traditional defense programs.
But for commercial firms to gain substantial ground, Lonsdale argued, “the processes have to be transparent and open and fair.
And if Anduril and Palantir are gonna win because they have the best product, I think that’s fair.”
Anduril, founded by Oculus co-creator Palmer Luckey, has built battlefield-ready AI-powered surveillance systems that the Pentagon has eagerly adopted.
The company is focused on the mass manufacturing of autonomous drones and munitions and is also eyeing the military space market, exploring the development of proliferated space sensor networks to enhance real-time battlefield awareness and threat detection.
Palantir, long a vocal critic of the traditional procurement process, has successfully wrested major data analytics contracts from legacy firms.
But Lonsdale noted that technological prowess alone is not enough. The defense industry is as much about bureaucratic navigation as it is about innovation.
Some of today’s major defense firms may have started out trying to operate like commercial businesses, but over time they became bureaucratic and captured the market by basically operating like an arm of the government, he said.
“I think that’s actually not great, and that’s how it works right now. So I think we need some reform there.”
Challenges for defense industrial base
Christian Brose, president and chief strategy officer of Anduril Industries, echoed those concerns, saying that as the U.S. military seeks to modernize, demand will rise for artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and other capabilities where commercial tech firms excel.
Yet, the Department of Defense remains heavily reliant on the traditional defense industrial base, which maintains highly specialized suppliers and workforces that make them difficult to displace outright.
Brose pointed to challenges within the current defense industrial base, including its reliance on unique supply chains, specialized workforces, and critical minerals sourced from other countries.
Companies like Anduril, he said, are actively working to eliminate those dependencies.
There’s an opportunity for the Pentagon to leverage commercial supply chains and reduce its dependence on scarce assets, Brose said.
“It’s outside of the traditional industrial base where you really see incredibly resilient commercial supply chains” that could help meet defense needs.
Brose argued that the Pentagon has the tools and funding needed to innovate but it takes strong leadership to drive meaningful change.
“You have plenty of incredibly well-meaning people in the bureaucracy who absolutely know what the problem is, but they don’t have the authority to fix it,” he said.
He cited former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall as an example of a senior leader who successfully pushed through procurement reforms.
https://spacenews.com/silicon-valley-players-aim-to-follow-spacexs-disruptive-path-in-defense-sector/
Starship's Eighth Flight Test
Mar 6, 2025 5:30 p.m. CT
The eighth flight test of Starship is preparing to launch Thursday, March 6. The launch window will open at 5:30 p.m. CT.
A live webcast of the flight test will begin about 30 minutes before liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the X TV app.
As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change, so be sure to check in here and stay tuned to our X account for updates.
After completing the investigation into the loss of Starship early on its seventh flight test, several hardware and operational changes have been made to increase reliability of the upper stage. You can read the full summary of the mishap investigation here.
The upcoming flight will fly the same suborbital trajectory as previous missions and will target objectives not reached on the previous test, including Starship’s first payload deployment and multiple reentry experiments geared towards returning the upper stage to the launch site for catch.
The flight also includes the launch, return, and catch of the Super Heavy booster.
Extensive upgrades to Starship’s upper stage debuted on the previous flight test, focused on adding reliability and performance across all phases of flight.
Starship’s forward flaps have been upgraded to significantly reduce their exposure to reentry heating while simplifying the underlying mechanisms and protective tiling.
Redesigns to the propulsion system, including a 25 percent increase in propellant volume over previous generations, add additional vehicle performance and the ability to fly longer duration missions.
And the vehicle’s avionics underwent a complete redesign, adding additional capability and redundancy for increasingly complex missions like propellant transfer and ship return to the launch site.
During the flight test, Starship will deploy four Starlink simulators, similar in size to next-generation Starlink satellites, as the first exercise of a satellite deploy mission.
The Starlink simulators will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship and are expected to demise upon entry. A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space is also planned.
The flight test includes several experiments focused on enabling Starship’s upper stage to return to the launch site. A significant number of tiles have been removed from Starship to stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle.
Multiple metallic tile options, including one with active cooling, will test alternative materials for protecting Starship during reentry.
On the sides of the vehicle, non-structural versions of Starship’s catch fittings are installed to test the fittings’ thermal performance, along with a section of the tile line receiving a smoothed and tapered edge to address hot spots observed during reentry on Starship’s sixth flight test.
Starship’s reentry profile is designed to intentionally stress the structural limits of the upper stage’s rear flaps while at the point of maximum entry dynamic pressure.
Finally, several radar sensors will once again be tested on the launch and catch tower’s chopsticks with the goal of increasing the accuracy when measuring distances between the chopsticks and a returning vehicle.
The Super Heavy booster for this flight features upgraded avionics, including a more powerful flight computer, improved power and network distribution, and integrated smart batteries.
Distinct vehicle and pad criteria must be met prior to the return and catch of the Super Heavy booster, requiring healthy systems on the booster and tower and a final manual command from the mission’s Flight Director.
If this command is not sent prior to the completion of the boostback burn, or if automated health checks show unacceptable conditions with Super Heavy or the tower, the booster will default to a trajectory for a soft splashdown in the Gulf of America.
We accept no compromises when it comes to ensuring the safety of the public and our team, and booster return will only take place if conditions are right.
The returning booster will slow down from supersonic speeds, resulting in audible sonic booms in the area around the landing zone.
Generally, the only impact to those in the surrounding area of a sonic boom is the brief thunder-like noise with variables like weather and distance from the return site determining the magnitude experienced by observers.
Developmental testing by definition is unpredictable. But by putting flight hardware in a flight environment as frequently as possible, we’re able to quickly learn and execute design changes as we seek to bring Starship online as a fully and rapidly reusable vehicle.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUnbnm7OKCw
AWAITING IMAGES - IM-2 Nova-C Lunar Landing
March 6, 2025
Join us as we await the first images as Intuitive Machines attempts to land on the lunar surface for the second time with their IM-2 lunar lander.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljBuaaMi8Qc
yeah, kinda weird