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| NASA will pay Boeing three hundred fifty nine million dollars to return Starliner to flight and certify a new rocket. |
- Boeing Receives Three Hundred Fifty Nine Million Dollars for Starliner Return — Ars Technica
NASA will pay Boeing three hundred fifty nine million dollars to facilitate Starliner's return to flight. The funding will also help certify the Vulcan rocket for future missions in the twenty thirties. Boeing described itself as incredibly excited to serve as the nation's only astronaut transportation provider. A senior Boeing official joined a Starliner media call for the first time in two years. Source: arstechnica.com - NASA Plans Unpiloted Starliner Test Flight by Year End — Spaceflight Now
NASA plans an unpiloted Starliner test flight at the end of the year. If successful the agency and Boeing hope to launch a piloted Starliner flight in mid twenty twenty eight. The mission will incorporate redesigned propulsion system valves and more robust subsystems. These modifications are expected to prevent the failures that occurred in twenty twenty four. Source: spaceflightnow.com - Next Crewed Boeing Starliner Flight Delayed Until Twenty Twenty Eight — Space Policy Online
The next crewed Boeing Starliner flight will not occur until twenty twenty eight. Officials announced the timeline during a Monday update on commercial crew development plans. The schedule accounts for additional testing and system redesigns following earlier issues. Source: spacepolicyonline.com - Côte d’Ivoire Signs Artemis Accords Expanding African Participation — SpaceWatch.GLOBAL
Côte d’Ivoire has signed the Artemis Accords. The signing increases the total number of signatories to seventy six countries. African participation in the accords continues to expand with this addition. Source: spacewatch.global - New NASA+ Documentary Explores Asteroid Threat Response — NASA
NASA released a new documentary titled Planetary Defenders: This Is Not an Exercise. The film follows the story behind a recent real-world test of asteroid threat response procedures. It is now streaming for free on NASA+. Source: plus.nasa.gov - Direct Neutral Gas Detected in Galaxies Seven Hundred Million Years After Big Bang — Universe Today
Researchers have found direct evidence of neutral gas in galaxies that existed seven hundred million years after the Big Bang. The detection provides new insight into how the first stars and potentially planets formed and evolved. Scientists have worked to piece together events in the first billion years after the Big Bang. Source: universetoday.com - Crew Thirteen Could Reach International Space Station in Under Nine Hours — ScienceDaily
NASA’s Crew Thirteen mission could travel from Florida to the International Space Station in under nine hours. The crew will perform research technology demonstrations and maintenance aboard the orbiting laboratory. Source: sciencedaily.com - Astronomy Picture of the Day Features Shrimp Nebula — NASA
Today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day shows Sh2 one eight eight known as the Shrimp Nebula. Each daily image includes a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Source: science.nasa.gov - NASA Launches Human Lander Challenge — Technology Org
NASA issued the Human Lander Challenge to advance lunar landing technologies. The challenge invites solutions for human lander systems supporting future Artemis missions. Source: technology.org - Perseverance Rover Updates Resume on Mars — NASA
The Perseverance rover updates page has resumed after a long hiatus. The rover has spent time exploring the Charmes area on Mars. Regular updates will now continue with details on recent activities. Source: science.nasa.gov - Indigenous STEM Students Prepare for NASA Mission — space & defense
Indigenous STEM students are set to participate in a NASA mission. The program supports students in science technology engineering and mathematics fields. Source: spaceanddefense.io - Cornell Lightsail Experiments Advance Interstellar Concepts — Universe Today
Students in Cornell’s Space Systems Design Studio published results from two lightsail experiments. Alpha CubeSat and Sailing to the Stars were built by engineering students at Cornell University. The free flying light sails were successfully deployed in orbit. Source: universetoday.com - October Night Sky Notes Highlight Spooky Stargazing — NASA
October’s Night Sky Notes focus on spooky stargazing themes. The Ghoul star Algol in Perseus represents the blinking eye of the gorgon Medusa in Greek mythology. Viewers can spot the star along with Cassiopeia and Andromeda after nine PM during autumn months. Source: science.nasa.gov - NASA Armstrong Marks Eighty Years of Flight Innovation — NASA
NASA Armstrong celebrates eighty years of flight innovation on September thirtieth. Five National Advisory Committee of Aeronautics engineers arrived at Muroc Army Airfield in nineteen forty six to achieve supersonic flight. The X one aircraft flew faster than the speed of sound within two years. Source: nasa.gov - Juice Spacecraft Completes Earth Flyby for Jupiter Trajectory — ESA
The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer skimmed the outer edge of Earth’s atmosphere on September twenty eighth. The gravity assist altered its route to Jupiter using very little fuel. The maneuver improves the spacecraft’s course for its mission to the Jovian system. Source: esa.int
Cosmic Spotlight
The Cornell lightsail experiments demonstrate how student built spacecraft can test propulsion concepts for future interstellar travel. Two separate CubeSats deployed lightweight sails in orbit and collected data on their performance. These results show that small teams can contribute meaningful hardware to long term exploration goals. The work opens practical paths for testing materials and control systems that larger missions could later scale. Engineers at Cornell’s Space Systems Design Studio published their findings after the flights concluded. What deployment technique will the next student team attempt to refine further.
Cosmic Deep Dive: How Neutral Gas Reveals Early Galaxy Growth
Picture a volume of space the size of a large city block that contains only a few dozen atoms of hydrogen spread across hundreds of light years. That sparse material is what astronomers just detected directly in galaxies that formed when the universe was less than seven hundred million years old. The gas sits in vast reservoirs that have not yet been turned into stars so it remains invisible to optical telescopes but reveals itself through specific absorption lines in the light from even more distant quasars. Instruments on large ground based telescopes captured those faint signatures by staring at bright background objects for many hours and subtracting the foreground noise with extreme precision. The detection matters because neutral hydrogen is the raw fuel for the first generation of stars and its presence at such early times shows that galaxy assembly was already well underway. Yet no one knows exactly how this gas cooled and collapsed fast enough to form stars before the universe reached one billion years of age.
That's it for today's space news. | 