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NASA's Firefly Blue Ghost Robotic Moon Lander Mission 1: Early 2025 Launch
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission One lander, seen here, will carry 10 NASA science and technology instruments to the Moon’s near side when it launches from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative and Artemis campaign. A six-day launch window opens no earlier than mid-January 2025 for the first Firefly Aerospace launch to the lunar surface.
The company named the mission Ghost Riders in the Sky. It will land near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium, a more than 300-mile-wide basin located in the northeast quadrant of the lunar near side. The mission will carry NASA investigations and first-of-their-kind technology demonstrations to further our understanding of the Moon’s environment and help prepare for future human missions to the lunar surface, as part of the agency’s Moon to Mars exploration approach. This includes payloads testing lunar subsurface drilling, regolith sample collection, global navigation satellite system abilities, radiation tolerant computing, and lunar dust mitigation. The data captured also benefits humanity by providing insights into how space weather and other cosmic forces impact Earth.
Under the CLPS model, NASA is investing in commercial delivery services to the Moon to enable industry growth and support long-term lunar exploration. As a primary customer for CLPS deliveries, NASA aims to be one of many customers on future flights.
As part of its Artemis campaign, NASA is working with multiple U.S. companies to deliver science and technology to the lunar surface. These companies are eligible to bid on task orders to deliver NASA payloads to the Moon. The task order includes payload integration and operations and launching from Earth and landing on the surface of the Moon. Existing CLPS contracts are indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts with a cumulative maximum contract value of $2.6 billion through 2028.
For more information about NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, see:
Long March 12: Rollout of China's New Medium Lift Rocket | Wenchang Launch Site
After being transported to a launch pad at the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site on Tuesday, November 26, 2024, a new member of China's Long March carrier rocket family, the Long March-12, has been scheduled to undertake its first flight in the next few days.
Experts said due to its enhanced overall capacity, the new rocket, the country's first single-core liquid carrier rocket with a diameter of 3.8 meters, will gradually replace China's older 3.35-meter diameter series. With better reliability in attitude control, the Long March-12 is expected to become the basic model for future reusable rockets in China.
The rocket, developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, features a two-stage configuration. The first stage is powered by four liquid oxygen/kerosene engines, each with a thrust of 1,250 kilonewtons, while the second stage uses two liquid oxygen/kerosene engines with a thrust of 180 kilonewtons each, China Central Television reported.
Its payload capacity to low Earth orbit is no less than 10 tons, and its capacity to reach a 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit is no less than 6 tons. The rocket's fairing is standardly available in diameters of 5.2 meters and 4.2 meters, allowing for multi-size adaptation based on different missions, the report said.
Apart from the 5-meter diameter Long March-5 rocket, the "fatty" in the family, the Long March series typically features a diameter of 3.35 meters, while solid rockets are generally slimmer, with diameters usually below 3 meters.
The Long March-12 rocket represents a significant advancement in the country's space launch capabilities, as the increased diameter addresses the limitations of the previous 3.35-meter rockets, allowing for more powerful engines, enhanced payload capacity, and better expandability of rocket thrust. Therefore, the Long March-12 is expected to significantly improve overall launch capability compared to previous generations, gradually replacing the older 3.35-meter models, Chinese space analyst Song Zhongping told the Global Times on Tuesday.
According to CCTV, the pioneering shape of the Long March-12 is based on the improved development of China's new generation of main liquid oxygen/kerosene engines, the YF-100 series, and is the result of repeated verification, research, and testing.
This notable feature allows for both railway transportation to various launch sites and the optimization of compatibility between the rocket's diameter and the number of engines, facilitating capability expansion and thus laying the groundwork for future reusable rockets, experts said.
Song pointed to an important technical parameter for launch vehicles, the length-to-diameter ratio, which affects the rocket's stability during recovery.
"Theoretically, a more optimal length-to-diameter ratio enhances the stability of a reusable rocket. The previous 3.35-meter rocket was relatively slender and long, making it more challenging to control its attitude. By increasing the diameter, the length-to-diameter ratio can be reduced, making it easier to control the rocket's stability and facilitating recovery," he said.
The expert anticipates that the Long March-12 rocket will become the basic model for future reusable rockets in China, while allowing for the development of various configurations based on it. This standardization will be crucial for the future of rocket recovery and reuse, Song noted.
Previous media reports said the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site will be equipped with two liquid rocket launch pads. The first launch pad will be dedicated to the Long March-8 carrier rocket, while the other launch pad will provide launch services for the Long March-12 vehicle.
Video Credit: China National Space Administration (CNSA)
Canadarm2's DEXTRE: Robotic 'Hands' at Work | International Space Station
NASA Astronaut Don Pettit: "Payload package deployment from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) airlock using the [Canadian Space Agency's] Canadarm2 with the Special Purpose Dexterious Manipulator (SPDM). This timelapse shows the two smaller arms on SPDM grappling a materials exposure payload (MISSE) and moving it away. I especially like the sun angles moving around the window frame like a 16-hour sundial. This time exposure represents about 10 hours."
The International Space Station's Dextre, also known as the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM), is the fine-tuned robotic hand, attached to the Canadarm2 robotic arm.
The 17-meter-long (55+ feet) Canadarm2 robotic arm and the 3.7m (12 feet) high Dextre fine-tuned robotic hand are part of Canada's contribution to the International Space Station (ISS). Canadarm2 was extensively involved in the assembly of the orbiting laboratory.
Dextre tackles the tough or routine jobs that need to be done in the harsh environment of space. The Station's robotic assistant allows astronauts to spend more time doing scientific experiments instead of performing risky spacewalks.
Dextre's body was designed to move in many different ways. Each of its arms has seven joints that can move up and down, go from side to side, and rotate. This large range of motion means Dextre can actually carry out more complex movements than a human arm. Each hand has a retractable motorized wrench, a camera and lights for close-up viewing, and a retractable connector to provide power, data and video connection.
The robot can carefully grip delicate equipment without causing damage. For example, it can successfully manipulate small safety caps, cables and wires with minute precision—all while being controlled from Earth, hundreds of kilometers away. Dextre can can ride on the end of Canadarm2 to move from each worksite or be ferried on the Mobile Base System to work almost anywhere on the ISS.
The robot is operated by ground control teams at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) headquarters outside Montreal, Quebec, and at NASA.
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the ISS. The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.
Video details: Nikon Z9, Nikon 8mm f2.8 fisheye, timelapse assembled by Chris Getteau of NASA/JSC
Video Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)/D. Pettit
The Sombrero Galaxy: New Close-up View | James Webb Space Telescope
The NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged the Sombrero galaxy with its Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), resolving the clumpy nature of the dust along the galaxy’s outer ring.
The mid-infrared light highlights the gas and dust that are a feature of the star formation taking place among the Sombrero galaxy’s outer disc. The rings of the Sombrero galaxy produce less than one solar mass of stars per year, in comparison to the Milky Way’s roughly two solar masses a year. It is not a particular hotbed of star formation.
The Sombrero galaxy is around 30 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo.
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb) Duration: 30 seconds Release Date: Nov. 25, 2024
The Sombrero Galaxy in Virgo: Webb & Hubble Space Telescope Views
This image compares the view of the famous Sombrero Galaxy in mid-infrared light (top) and visible light (bottom). The James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) reveals the smooth inner disk of the galaxy, while the Hubble Space Telescope’s visible light image shows the large and extended glow of the central bulge of stars.
Both the Webb and Hubble images resolve the clumpy nature of the dust that makes up the Sombrero galaxy’s outer ring.
Image Description: A two panel image. The top image is Webb’s view of the Sombrero galaxy, the bottom image is Hubble’s view. In the Webb view, the galaxy is a very oblong, blue disk that extends from left to right at an angle (from about 10 o’clock to 5 o’clock). The galaxy has a small bright core at the center. There is a clear inner disk that has speckles of stars scattered throughout. The outer disk of the galaxy is whiteish-blue, and clumpy, like clouds in the sky. In the Hubble view, the galaxy is an oblong, pale white disk with a glowing core over the inner disk. The outer disk is darker and clumpy.
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Release Date: Nov. 25, 2024
Journey to The Sombrero Galaxy: View NASA Webb's New Image
This video takes the viewer on a journey through space to the Sombrero Galaxy, also known as Messier 104 (M104). The NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged the Sombrero galaxy with its Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), resolving the clumpy nature of the dust along the galaxy’s outer ring.
The mid-infrared light highlights the gas and dust that are a feature of the star formation taking place among the Sombrero galaxy’s outer disc. The rings of the Sombrero galaxy produce less than one solar mass of stars per year, in comparison to the Milky Way’s roughly two solar masses a year. It is not a particular hotbed of star formation.
The Sombrero galaxy is around 30 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo.
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, ESO/IDA/Danish 1.5 m, DSS 2, The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb), R. Gendler and J.-E. Ovaldsen, E. Slawik, N. Risinger & M. Zamani (ESA/Webb) Duration: 1 minute, 30 seconds Release Date: Nov. 25, 2024
The Sombrero Galaxy: New Webb versus Hubble & Spitzer Space Telescope Views
This video compares images of the Sombrero Galaxy, also known as Messier 104 (M104). The first image is in infrared light, and was captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope. The second image shows the Webb Space Telescope’s mid-infrared look at the galaxy using the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIDI). The final image shows visible light observed by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.
The NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged the Sombrero galaxy, resolving the clumpy nature of the dust along the galaxy’s outer ring.
The mid-infrared light highlights the gas and dust that are part of star formation taking place among the Sombrero galaxy’s outer disk. The rings of the Sombrero galaxy produce less than one solar mass of stars per year, in comparison to the Milky Way’s roughly two solar masses a year. It is not a particular hotbed of star formation. The Sombrero galaxy is around 30 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo.
Webb Image Description: Image of a galaxy on the black background of space. The galaxy is a very oblong, blue disk that extends from left to right at an angle (from about 10 o’clock to 5 o’clock). The galaxy has a small bright core at the center. There is an inner disk that is clearer, with speckles of stars scattered throughout. The outer disk of the galaxy is whiteish-blue, and clumpy, like clouds in the sky. There are different colored dots, distant galaxies, speckled among the black background of space surrounding the galaxy.
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency, Space Telescope Science Institute
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites constantly monitor the ocean for tropical activity. As the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season comes to a close on Nov. 30, we are looking back at its above-average activity, with a record breaking ramp up following a peak-season lull.
So far, eighteen tropical depressions have formed, and all of them were named storms. Eleven storms became hurricanes, of which five strengthened into major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale). Of those storms, five made landfall in the continental U.S., with two making landfall as major hurricanes. Although the season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, tropical and subtropical cyclone formation can occur at any time.
NOAA uses geostationary operational environmental satellites (GOES) and polar-orbiting, non-geosynchronous, environmental satellites called the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS).
The Journey of Blue Origin's NS-28 Crew | New Shepard Human Spaceflight Mission
Here is the remarkable journey of the NS-28 crew to space and back. On November 22, 2024, Blue Origin successfully completed its ninth sub-orbital human spaceflight and the 28th flight for the New Shepard program. The astronaut crew included: Emily Calandrelli, Sharon Hagle, Marc Hagle, Austin Litteral, James (J.D.) Russell, and Henry (Hank) Wolfond. Sharon and Marc Hagle both flew for the second time. "Including [this] crew, New Shepard has now flown 47 people to space (three people have flown twice)."
Emily Dawn Calandrelli is an "American science communicator, engineer, author, commercial astronaut, and television presenter. She was the host and an executive producer of Xploration Outer Space and Emily's Wonder Lab."
Comet C2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) with Triple Star System Theta Serpentis
Theta (θ) Serpens, Alya, is a binary star, pale yellow and gold yellow, the terminal star in the Snake’s tail. It lies southwest of Aquila, in a comparatively starless region between the two branches of the Milky Way. Theta Serpentis (θ Serpentis, abbreviated as Theta Ser, θ Ser) is a triple star system in the constellation of Serpens. It consists of a binary pair designated Theta Serpentis AB. Its components are designated Theta1 Serpentis or Theta Serpentis A (officially named Alya, the traditional name for the entire system) and Theta2 Serpentis or Theta Serpentis B, together with a third visual companion Theta Serpentis C. Based upon parallax measurements obtained during the European Space Agency's Hipparcos Mission, θ Serpentis AB is approximately 160 light-years, and θ Serpentis C is approximately 86 light-years, from the Sun.
The ancient Arabic name for Alya is Al-Alyah, “The fatty tail of a sheep”. In the early days of Arab astronomy a space in the heavens, coinciding with parts of Hercules, Ophiuchus, and Serpens, was the Raudah, or Pasture. The ancient Chinese knew it as Sen, one of their districts.
C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) is a comet from the solar system's Oort cloud discovered by the Purple Mountain Observatory east of Nanjing, China, on January 9, 2023, and independently found by the automated Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in South Africa on February 22, 2023. ATLAS is funded by NASA's planetary defense office, and developed and operated by the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy. C/2023 A3 passed perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) at a distance of 0.39 AU (58 million km; 36 million miles) on September 27, 2024.
The Oort cloud is theorized to be a vast cloud of icy planetesimals surrounding the Sun at distances ranging from 2,000 to 200,000 AU (0.03 to 3.2 light-years).
Image Details: Quattro 200/800 et ASI1600MC : 9x60s. Traitement SIRIL et Photoshop
Close-up Views of Spiral Galaxy NGC 2090 in Columba | Hubble Space Telescope
In this new NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope picture is the spiral galaxy NGC 2090, located in the constellation Columba.
This galaxy is notable as a part of the group of galaxies studied in Hubble’s Extragalactic Distance Scale Key Project. It aimed to determine a new state-of-the-art value for the Hubble constant, one of the then-new telescope’s primary science goals. The contribution of NGC 2090 was in calibrating the Tully-Fisher (TF) distance method, by observing Cepheid variable stars in the galaxy. The Cepheid-based measurement from that study in 1998 put NGC 2090 as 37 million light-years away; the newest measurement from 2020, using the TF method, has NGC 2090 slightly farther away, at 40 million light-years.
Before and since that project, NGC 2090 has been well studied as a very prominent nearby example of star formation. It has been described as a flocculent spiral, meaning a spiral galaxy with a patchy, dusty disc and arms that are flaky or not visible at all. This Hubble image shows well why NGC 2090 earned that description, but its spiral arms do appear among the dust as winding lanes of light.
NGC 2090 is a galaxy still full of activity, with clusters of star formation at various stages of evolution spread across the disc. Examining star formation and the movement of matter in galaxies was the motivation for these Hubble observations, taken in October 2024.
Image Description: A spiral galaxy with a wide, oval-shaped disc. It has a shining spot at the center that is surrounded by a whirl of dark threads and patches of dust, all atop a luminous disc. Brighter lanes curving through the disc indicate the galaxy’s spiral arms. The glow of the disc fades smoothly into a dark background where faint, extended patches of stars can be seen, as well as foreground stars.
Spiral Galaxy NGC 2090 in Columba | Hubble Space Telescope
In this new NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope picture is the spiral galaxy NGC 2090, located in the constellation Columba.
This galaxy is notable as a part of the group of galaxies studied in Hubble’s Extragalactic Distance Scale Key Project. It aimed to determine a new state-of-the-art value for the Hubble constant, one of the then-new telescope’s primary science goals. The contribution of NGC 2090 was in calibrating the Tully-Fisher (TF) distance method, by observing Cepheid variable stars in the galaxy. The Cepheid-based measurement from that study in 1998 put NGC 2090 as 37 million light-years away; the newest measurement from 2020, using the TF method, has NGC 2090 slightly farther away, at 40 million light-years.
Before and since that project, NGC 2090 has been well studied as a very prominent nearby example of star formation. It has been described as a flocculent spiral, meaning a spiral galaxy with a patchy, dusty disc and arms that are flaky or not visible at all. This Hubble image shows well why NGC 2090 earned that description, but its spiral arms do appear among the dust as winding lanes of light.
NGC 2090 is a galaxy still full of activity, with clusters of star formation at various stages of evolution spread across the disc. Examining star formation and the movement of matter in galaxies was the motivation for these Hubble observations, taken in October 2024.
Image Description: A spiral galaxy with a wide, oval-shaped disc. It has a shining spot at the center that is surrounded by a whirl of dark threads and patches of dust, all atop a luminous disc. Brighter lanes curving through the disc indicate the galaxy’s spiral arms. The glow of the disc fades smoothly into a dark background where faint, extended patches of stars can be seen, as well as foreground stars.
NASA Artemis II Moon Rocket Stacking | Kennedy Space Center
Engineers and technicians with the Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) Program attach an overhead crane to the left aft assembly, or bottom portion of the solid rocket boosters for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. The crane will lift the aft assembly on top of mobile launcher 1 followed by the right aft assembly and stack the remaining booster segments for the Artemis II mission.
Down the transfer aisle from the Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) core stage, engineers and technicians with the Exploration Ground Systems Program attach an overhead crane to the left aft assembly, or bottom portion of the solid rocket boosters for the SLS rocket inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. The crane will lift the aft assembly on top of the mobile launcher 1 followed by the right aft assembly and stack the remaining booster segments for the Artemis II mission.
Engineers and technicians with the Exploration Ground Systems Program attach an overhead crane to the left aft assembly, or bottom portion of the solid rocket boosters for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. The crane will lift the aft assembly on top of mobile launcher 1 followed by the right aft assembly and stack the remaining booster segments for the Artemis II mission.
Engineers and technicians with the Exploration Ground Systems Program stack the first Moon rocket segment – the left aft assembly for the Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) solid rocket booster onto mobile launcher 1 inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. The first of 10 booster segments to be stacked, the boosters will help support the remaining rocket components and the Orion spacecraft during final assembly of the Artemis II Moon rocket and provide more than 75 percent of the total SLS thrust during liftoff from NASA Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B.
Down the transfer aisle from the Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) core stage, engineers and technicians with the Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) Program attach an overhead crane to the left aft assembly, or bottom portion of the solid rocket boosters for the SLS rocket inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. The crane will lift the aft assembly on top of the Mobile Launcher 1 followed by the right aft assembly and stack the remaining booster segments for the Artemis II mission.
The Artemis II test flight will be NASA’s first mission with crew under the Artemis campaign, sending NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Reid Wiseman, as well as Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back.
Artemis II will launch no earlier than September 2025.
In this video, take a flight through millions of galaxies mapped using coordinate data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) on NOIRLab's Mayall Telescope in Arizona. Researchers have used DESI to map nearly six million galaxies across 11 billion years of cosmic history, allowing them to study how galaxies clustered throughout time and investigate the growth of the cosmic structure.
This complex analysis of DESI’s first-year data provides one of the most stringent tests yet of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. DESI is a state-of-the-art instrument that can capture light from 5,000 galaxies simultaneously. It was constructed, and is operated, with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.
DESI is mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, a Program of the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab. The program is now in its fourth of five years surveying the sky and is set to observe roughly 40 million galaxies and quasars by the time the project ends.
The DESI project is an international collaboration of more than 900 researchers from over 70 institutions around the world and is managed by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).
In this video, take a flight through millions of galaxies mapped using coordinate data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) on NOIRLab's Mayall Telescope in Arizona. Researchers have used DESI to map nearly six million galaxies across 11 billion years of cosmic history, allowing them to study how galaxies clustered throughout time and investigate the growth of the cosmic structure.
This complex analysis of DESI’s first-year data provides one of the most stringent tests yet of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. DESI is a state-of-the-art instrument that can capture light from 5,000 galaxies simultaneously. It was constructed, and is operated, with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.
DESI is mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, a Program of the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab. The program is now in its fourth of five years surveying the sky and is set to observe roughly 40 million galaxies and quasars by the time the project ends.
The DESI project is an international collaboration of more than 900 researchers from over 70 institutions around the world and is managed by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).
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