Hubbles

NASA and SpaceX have signed an agreement to study the possibility of using a Dragon spacecraft to lift the Hubble telescope to a higher orbit. The Hubble telescope's orbit decays over time due to atmospheric drag, and reboosting it to a more stable one could add more years to its life. SpaceX proposed the idea several months ago in partnership with the Polaris Program, the human spaceflight initiative organized by billionaire businessman, Jared Isaacman. If you'll recall, Isaacman funded Inspiration4, the first mission to…

NASA and SpaceX have agreed to study the feasibility of awarding Elon Musk's company a contract to boost the Hubble Space Telescope to a higher orbit, with a goal of extending its lifespan, the US space agency said Thursday.The renowned observatory has been operating since 1990 about 335 miles (540 kilometers) above Earth, in an orbit that slowly decays over time.Hubble has no on-board propulsion to counter the small but still present atmospheric drag in this region of space, and its altitude has previously been restored…

One of the most beautiful and spectacular regions of the night sky can be found in the constellation of Orion.Between the stars Alnitak, Saif, and Rigel, floats a vast, thick cloud of interstellar dust and gas. This is the Orion Nebula, a nest of material in which baby stars are being born and one of the most studied and photographed objects in the Milky Way.Spanning 24 light-years, it's so close and large that it's visible to the naked eye. Because of its relative proximity (around 1,344 light-years from the Sun), this…