Located throughout the universe, there are billions — possibly even trillions — of exoplanets orbiting around stars of varying shapes, sizes, colors, and more. Like the stars they orbit, exoplanets also come in many different shapes, sizes, and colors, with scientists classifying exoplanets into one of four groups: gas giants, super-Earths, sub-Neptunes, and terrestrial. Interestingly, among the 5,000+ exoplanets that have been discovered and cataloged by NASA, ESA, and other agencies, there is a strange absence of exoplanets whose sizes are between 1.5 and two times the size of Earth (betwee ..read more

LandSpace, the company that launched the first methane-based rocket, ZhuQue-2, successfully to orbit, was all over the news in the last few weeks. Signs intensified about an imminent third launch of the methane rocket, while the company also detailed ZhuQue-3: its upcoming stainless steel rocket. ZhuQue-2 Launch 3 Signs of an upcoming launch of ZhuQue-2 started to appear as the company rolled out the pathfinder to its pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (JSLC) in China. Harry Stranger spotted the Pathfinder, which is usually used ahead of a launch campaign, on Nov. 11. This signaled a ..read more

For only the second time, VSS Unity, Virgin Galactic’s suborbital space plane, was transformed into a science laboratory. Galactic 05 successfully completed its mission on Nov. 2, but for Kellie Gerardi, Galactic 05 crewmember and Virgin Galactic Astronaut 021, the training and preparation for the flight goes back almost a decade. She sat down with NSF to detail what it takes to conduct commercial suborbital research. Gerardi said her training began two years before the flight, but unofficially started a decade ago. She volunteered as a coat checker at the Explorers Club in New York City whil ..read more

Following a busy week for SpaceX with the launch of two Starlink missions and the second launch of Starship, SpaceX is currently on track to meet its 100 launch goal of 2023. The first launch of the week will be on Wednesday, with a Falcon 9 placing 23 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO). On Thursday, ExPace is expected to launch an unknown payload on its Kuaizhou 1A rocket, followed shortly by Roscosmos launching a Bars-M payload on a Soyuz 2.1a. These launches will be the 187th through 189th orbital missions of 2023 — a pace that should ultimately see 210 total orbital launches t ..read more

In 2008, observations from NASA’s now-retired Spitzer infrared space telescope hinted at the presence of neon within the protoplanetary disk of Sun-like star SZ Chamaeleontis (SZ Cha). However, Spitzer’s instruments could not confirm whether this reading was correct. Over a decade after Spitzer’s results were published, the joint NASA, European Space Agency, and Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope observed SZ Cha and directly detected distinct amounts of neon in the protoplanetary disk of SZ Cha — confirming Spitzer’s observations from 2008. Webb’s observations, coupled with Spit ..read more

With the Federal Aviation Administration and US Fish and Wildlife Service approving the final signoff and license and SpaceX saying the rocket is ready, Starship is a go for its second test flight. Liftoff is targeted for a 20 minute launch window that opens on Nov. 18 at 7:00 AM CST, following a one day slip to fix an issue with Booster 9’s grid fin actuators. During Starship’s first test flight, which took place on April 20, 2023, SpaceX experienced several issues that led to the loss of control and, ultimately, the loss of Booster 7 and Ship 24. For this second flight, SpaceX made several ..read more

SpaceX has received the modified license No. VOL 23-129 Rev. 1, which will allow them to fly its Starship-Super Heavy vehicle for the second time. This came shortly after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) confirmed the completion of their investigation into the new deluge system at the orbital launch site in Starbase.  FWS environmental investigation On Oct. 19, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initiated an Endangered Species Act consultation with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). During this investigation, the agency had 135 days to issue an amended biological opinion ..read more

While the spaceflight world waits for the Starship Integrated Flight Test-2 (IFT-2) launch from Texas this week, three other launches have been scheduled, from China as well as both main coasts of the United States. One was a Chang Zheng-2C (CZ-2C) from China, and another is Starlink 6-28 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS), currently set for the evening of Nov. 17. There is also Starlink 7-7 from Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in California on the late evening of Nov. 17 to round out the week, aside from the Starship IFT-2 launch scheduled for earlier that day. Many Chinese l ..read more

After years of work, Sierra Space’s first Dream Chaser reusable spaceplane is almost ready to fly. The vehicle’s next step is a trip to NASA’s Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility in Ohio ahead of its first launch at the Kennedy Space Center currently scheduled for no earlier than March 2024. NSF was invited as part of a media event inside the company’s facility in Louisville, Colorado, to see the first flight article named Tenacity prior to departing for environmental testing. Dream Chaser is a reusable spaceplane that contains an expendable cargo module. That module also houses the vehicle’s sol ..read more

The European Space Agency (ESA) has released the first full-color images from Euclid, the agency’s latest space telescope designed to study the nature and distribution of dark matter and dark energy in the universe. During a video broadcast on Nov. 7, scientists, engineers, and agency officials unveiled the telescope’s first five images. The images reveal five targets at different distances, with the furthest, the Perseus Cluster of galaxies, being released first, followed by spiral galaxy IC 342, irregular galaxy NGC 6822, globular cluster NGC 6397, and finally the Horsehead Nebula. These ta ..read more