On Sunday, a company called Firefly Aerospace became the first private company to make a perfect landing on the moon. Firefly is working with NASA, and its spacecraft, Blue Ghost, is carrying out several experiments for the space agency.
Posts tagged as “space”
This week, people all over the world will have a chance to see an unusual sight in the evening sky – a "planetary parade" of the seven other planets in our Solar System. The next time seven planets will appear at one time like this won't be until 2040.
For the first time ever, a satellite made partly out of wood has been launched into space. The project is a test to see if wood could be a good building material for space. If the experiment works out, wooden satellites could someday help lower pollution in space.
On Sunday, SpaceX launched its Starship rocket for the fifth time. The real excitement came when the 20-story-tall booster rocket returned to the launch site and was caught in mid-air by two giant metal arms.
Last Thursday, astronauts on the Polaris Dawn mission completed a record-setting spacewalk. It was the first spacewalk ever managed by private companies instead of a government. The mission could mark an important shift in the way humans explore space.
When astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams blasted into space in June, they expected their trip to last 8 days. Now NASA has decided that the astronauts won't come home until February, 2025 - about 9 months after they left. For safety, they'll be taking a different spaceship home.
In September, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio returned from spending over a year in space. His record and his efforts were celebrated. But questions remained about a tomato that had gone missing while he was in space. Now, the mystery tomato has been found.
On Sunday, a capsule carrying samples of a distant asteroid landed safely in the desert in Utah. The samples, collected by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, are the largest amount of asteroid material ever returned to Earth.
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio has set a new record for the longest spaceflight by an American. As of today, he has been in space for a full year, working on the International Space Station. Dr. Rubio broke the old record of 355 days in early September.
India's space agency, ISRO, has successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon. It's the first time any country has safely landed at the moon's south pole. The landing is a huge success for India, which has been working on the project for years.
Imagine being able to use energy from the sun all the time, even when it's night. That's the idea that scientists at Caltech are exploring. They're working on collecting sunlight in space and sending its energy to Earth.