The dispersion of launch costs has shrunk over the years. A new paper noted that three effects could be causing this phenomenon. Historically it has been documented how there is a high degree of trial and error in the early application of technologies, leading to a wide dispersion in productivity outcomes. Space exploration began in […]

  The Korea Aerospace Administration (KASA) has released the lunar impact observation data acquired by the country’s Moon-orbiting Danuri spacecraft. Danuri captured images of the pre-hit scene and after the impact of the roughly 4 ton upper stage of a SpaceX rocket. The upper stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket struck the area near […]

  The Rolling Stones: Lyrics from “Foreign Tongues” (2026) “Mr Charm”     When I was oh-so-young, I used to want to go to Mars And burn the rubber on the road And drive around in fancy cars When who would take you into space? Who would you really trust? Is it Boeing, is it […]

Scientists at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona report they detected a plume from the impact August 5 from that errant SpaceX rocket stage. “We can safely say that we measured a response from the rocket stage impact as a sodium and lithium gas plume a few 10’s of kilometers in size lasting between 5 […]

Planting boots on Mars is hard enough. But getting “breathing room” on the Red Planet without inhaling toxic dust is yet another issue. Given the outlook that future human crews will strut their right stuff across the Red Planet, NASA assembled earlier this year a Martian Dust Limit Working Group. Their task was to review […]

The Moon is in the cross-hairs of a SpaceX rocket stage, slamming into our celestial neighbor on August 5 at roughly 2:35:37.5 AM (US) Eastern Daylight Time reports astronomer, Bill Gray of Project Pluto. That high-speed impact “may produce potential observables,” according to research led by Benjamin Fernando at Los Alamos National Laboratory. — The […]

Meet the Neighbors – Life on Mars and How to Find It by Steven A. Benner; Allen Lane, (an imprint of Penguin Books); July 2026; 416 pages (Hardcover); $40.99 (Amazon). Talk about a “cold case” – nothing like dealing with life on Mars where the temperature can drop like a rock to roughly – 89°C at […]

What’s shaking about water ice deposits on the Moon? Turns out that assessing how seismic waves propagate on the Moon could be used to locate and map ice buried beneath the lunar surface. A new study by geologists at the University of Maryland (UMD), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Hawaii shows that […]

Dig this! An expansion of a partnership is expected to help establish a Moon Base by delivering autonomous mobility and heavy-duty excavation tools for a permanent settlement on the lunar surface. Interlune, a Seattle-based group, and the Vermeer Corporation of Pella, Iowa, have detailed the plan for development and delivery of subscale prototypes of lunar […]

Next week, Earth’s moon is due for a human-made, high-speed thumping of an identified flying object – a spent SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage. The event is a literal “dust up” on the lunar landscape. That Falcon 9 upper stage is a leftover from the launch that sent Firefly’s Blue Ghost-1 lander to the moon […]

If you have a dim view of the future, take a look at a new batch of NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program awards – all 18 of them But heads up – one of the bright idea awardees is suggesting how best to dim the Sun using a controllable dust cloud to reduce solar […]

It came from outer space, exploding high above the South Atlantic off the coast of Argentina. That incoming meteor — also termed as a bolide — was observed by a pair of civilian lightning imagers aboard geostationary weather satellites, thereby supplementing the use of space-based military surveillance satellites. The April 1 event was viewed by […]

That impending smash hit on the Moon next month of a SpaceX rocket stage has been reviewed by an international research team. The researchers put to question whether observers on Earth will see anything. Also, will the impact loft a sunlit plume and if so, how much lunar material will be purged, how high could […]

More bounce to the ounce! To be flown on China’s Chang’e-8 moon lander mission in 2029 is Africa’s first space exploration mission. Under the Africa2Moon venture, the Bounced African Low Lunar Sphere, or BALLS for short, is a technology demonstrator in which a trio of antennas will constitute a radio astronomy array at the moon’s […]

Last week, the SpaceX Starship lifted off from Starbase, Texas on its thirteenth flight test. This was the second flight of the Starship and Super Heavy V3 vehicles and the first Starship flight to deploy the next generation Starlink V3 satellites. Super Heavy In overview status, SpaceX has posted this statement regarding the Friday, July […]

Mars Guy takes a look at NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover. Its dust removal tool does the unexpected is discussed.  So too is a look at the rover’s wheels. “Curiosity doesn’t have an abrading tool like Perseverance [Mars rover] uses to expose fresh rock surfaces.  Instead, it uses a wire brush with a now twisted bundle […]

A new dual spacecraft mission has been green-lighted to augment operations at the Moon, including the build-up of an Artemis Moon Base. As operations at the Moon scale in quantity, foundational technologies such as autonomous navigation will be critical to enable safe and long-term operations. Advanced Space of Westminster, Colorado has announced a CAPSTONE 02 […]

SpaceX Starship Flight 13: The Video https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1AJEmmYdMDnJL