Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is assessing damage to its Florida launch pad after a rocket exploded during a test firing. The company fueled the massive New Glenn rocket Thursday night, hoping to briefly ignite the engines ahead of a satellite launch next week. But the 321-foot rocket blew up, taking part of the pad with it. Emergency officials are warning the public to avoid any wreckage that might wash ashore and instead call 911. New Glenn is the rocket that Blue Origin plans to use to launch landers to the moon for NASA.
NASA is already ordering landers, rovers and drones for a sprawling moon base, less than two months after the Artemis II mission. The space agency outlined the first phase of its moon base plans on Tuesday, awarding hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to U.S. companies. Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin will provide the landers that will deliver a pair of moon buggies to the lunar surface at a spot near the moon's south pole. Those will be built by Astrolab and Lunar Outpost. Firefly Aerospace will get drones to the moon. All this hardware should arrive ahead of the first Artemis astronauts' landing, which is planned for as early as 2028.
The Artemis II astronauts are on track for a splashdown in the Pacific to close out humanity's first voyage to the moon in more than half a century. The tension in Houston's Mission Control is mounting as the miles melt away between the four returning astronauts and Earth. Their Orion capsule is expected to hit 32 times the speed of sound as it reenters the atmosphere Friday. It's a blistering blur not seen since NASA's Apollo moonshots of the 1960s and 1970s. The recovery ship is already in position, awaiting the crew's arrival, along with military planes and helicopters.
The Artemis II astronauts are tidying up their lunar cruiser for Friday's "fireball" return to Earth. They're also reflecting on their historic journey around the moon, describing it as surreal and profound. The three Americans and one Canadian are now under 150,000 miles from home. Humanity's first lunar explorers in more than a half-century, they set a new distance record during Monday's lunar flyby. Artemis II is aiming for a splashdown in the Pacific off the San Diego coast.
The Artemis II astronauts are chatting it up with their friends aboard the International Space Station. Still aglow from their triumphant lunar flyby, the three Americans and one Canadian put in a call to their station colleagues Tuesday while heading home from the moon. It's the first such moonship-to-spaceship radio linkup ever. "We have been waiting for this like you can't imagine," the commander Reid Wiseman said. NASA's Apollo moonshots had no off-the-planet company back in the 1960s and 1970s. For Artemis II's Christina Koch and the station's Jessica Meir, it was a joyous space reunion despite being 230,000 miles apart. The two teamed up for the world's first all-female spacewalk in 2019.
The Artemis II astronauts have kicked off their record-breaking trip around the moon that already is providing unprecedented views of the far side. Monday's lunar journey comes after the three Americans and one Canadian broke Apollo 13's distance record, the farthest that humans have ever traveled from Earth. During the hourslong flyby, Artemis II will temporarily lose contact with Mission Control as the capsule passes behind the moon without stopping. Astronauts will split into pairs and take turns capturing the magnificent lunar scenes with cameras. They'll also don special glasses to witness a total solar eclipse.
The Artemis II astronauts have captured Earth's brilliant blue beauty as they zoom ever closer to the moon. NASA released the crew's first downlinked images Friday, 1 1/2 days into the first astronaut moonshot in more than half a century. The first photo taken by commander Reid Wiseman shows a curved slice of Earth in one of the capsule's windows. The second shows the entire globe with the oceans topped by swirling white tendrils of clouds. It even includes a pale green aurora. As of midday Friday, the crew was 100,000 miles from Earth and quickly gaining on the moon.
On March 3, 1991, motorist Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers after a high-speed chase in a scene captured on amateur video that sparked public outrage. (The subsequent acquittal of four officers of felony assault and other charges in April 1992 triggered days of rioting and dozens of deaths in Los Angeles.)
NASA's Lucy spacecraft will soon swoop past a small asteroid. It will be the second asteroid encounter for Lucy, launched in 2021 on a quest that will take it to 11 space rocks. Its ultimate destination is the unexplored swarms of asteroids out near Jupiter. NASA considers Sunday's flyby a dress rehearsal for 2027 when Lucy reaches its first so-called Trojan asteroid near Jupiter. Looking on from Mission Control in Colorado will be paleontologist Donald Johanson, who discovered the Lucy fossil 50 years ago. The asteroid is named for him.
A NASA spacecraft will make its second close brush with the sun. The Parker Solar Probe made its record-breaking first pass within 3.8 million miles of the scorching sun in December, flying closer than any object sent before. Parker will attempt the journey again on Saturday. Scientists hope the data from Parker will help them better understand the sun's outer atmosphere and what drives the solar wind. Parker was launched in 2018 to get a close-up look at the sun and is the fastest spacecraft built by humans.
