Bill Nelson

A TV documentary crew seeking the wreckage of a World War II-era aircraft has discovered an artefact from the destroyed space shuttle Challenger that killed seven astronauts aboard, including a school teacher, in 1986.Divers noticed a large 'human made' object covered partially by sand on the seafloor.The proximity to the Florida Space Coast in the US, along with the item's modern construction and presence of 8-inch square tiles, led the documentary team to contact NASA, which confirmed the finding.Read Also"While it has…

China’s Long March 5B launching from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in South China. Photo: LIU HUAIYU (AP)Less than a week after China’s Long March 5B rocket performed an uncontrolled reentry through Earth’s atmosphere, a Chinese official revealed plans to amp up the launch rate of theserocket within the next few years.07:33The Dead Friends Society Audiobook Clip22 minutes agoDuring an interview with local media, the director of the general design department at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, Liu…

LICIACube image showing the plumes of debris streaming from Dimorphos shortly after the DART impact on September 26. “Each rectangle represents a different level of contrast in order to better see fine structure in the plumes,” according to the European Space Agency.Image: ASI/NASA/APLEarlier this week, NASA announced that its DART spacecraft successfully moved an asteroid by a few dozen feet. This raises a valid question: How the heck did scientists figure this out,given that Dimorphos is nearly 7 million miles away?…

The US space agency has confirmed that when its spacecraft smashed into an asteroid last month, it altered its orbit by 32 minutes, calling it a "watershed moment" for planetary defence.This marks humanity's first time purposely changing the motion of a celestial object and the first full-scale demonstration of asteroid deflection technology.After 10 months of flying in space, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) -- the world's first planetary defence technology demonstration -- successfully impacted its…

DART’s view of Dimorphos shortly before impact. Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins APLThe results are in from NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, which attempted to deflect an asteroid: NASA has forever reshaped the Didymos-Dimorphos system. The successful test points to a possible planetary defense strategy for protecting Earth against hazardous near-Earth objects.Who Wants DC’s Canceled Batgirl Movie? | New York Comic Con 2022NASA’s 1,340-pound spacecraft smashed into the moonlet on September 26 following a 10…

A SpaceX Falcon 9 launches from Kennedy Space Center on October 5, as part of the company’s Crew-5 mission for NASA.Photo: NASA/Kim ShiflettA Falcon 9 rocket blasted off yesterday under Florida’s gorgeous blue skies. The views of the Crew-5 launch, both on Earth and in space, were truly spectacular, as these images attest. Yesterday’s Crew-5 launch was SpaceX’s fifth commercial crew mission for NASA and the company’s eighth crewed launch to space overall. The private company’s crewed flights to space are starting to feel…

After flying in space for 10 months, a NASA spacecraft successfully crashed into an asteroid in a first-of-its-kind mission to test whether space rocks that might threaten Earth in the future could be nudged safely out of the way, the US space agency said. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) - the world's first planetary defence technology demonstration -- targeted the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos, a small body just 160 metres in diameter. Dimorphos orbits a larger 780-metre asteroid called Didymos. Neither…

Bill Nelson was sworn in as NASA administrator in May 2021.Photo: John Raoux (AP)NASA Administrator Bill Nelson seems to have come around to the private space industry. In an interview with Newsweek, Nelson praised SpaceX for its progress in the spacefaring realm while criticizing Boeing for its much-delayed Starliner spacecraft.“I think the private space industry is extremely beneficial,” Nelson told Newsweek in an article published last week. “Just look at what SpaceX has already accomplished.”Well now, this is…

An artist’s illustration of an astronaut stepping off a Moon lander and onto the lunar surface as part of an upcoming Artemis mission. Illustration: NASANASA, through its upcoming Artemis program, is planning to make frequent trips to the lunar surface, requiring multiple Moon lander options. The space agency is now reaching out to U.S. companies for potential solutions. NASA has officially put out the call for Moon lander proposals, as it seeks a second human landing system for the Artemis era. The space agency…

US Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the National Space Council on Friday/Photo: Marie D. De Jesús (AP)While speaking at the National Space Council meeting on Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that the U.S. will introduce a resolution at the United Nations General Assembly to call on other countries to refrain from conducting anti-satellite missile tests.Harris announced the self-imposed ban on anti-satellite (ASAT)missile tests at Vandenberg Space Force Base in April, vowing that the U.S. would no…