Originally Published: 26 JUN 23 18:08 ET By Ashley Strickland, CNN Editor’s note: Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. (CNN) — Astronomers have detected a crucial carbon molecule in space for the first time using the James Webb Space Telescope. The compound,
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SPACEPORT AMERICA, New Mexico (KVIA) — Virgin Galactic successfully landed its Unity 25 test flight, marking a triumphant conclusion to a mission that showcased the company’s steady progress in advancing commercial space tourism. The Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo vehicle, VSS Unity, touched down smoothly after a successful round trip to suborbital space. With this mission, Virgin
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SPACEPORT AMERICA, New Mexico (KVIA) — Virgin Galactic is blasting off from southern New Mexico once again. The Unity 25 crew was just announced on twitter today. Chief Astronaut Instructor Beth Moses, Instructor Luke Mays, and Mission Specialists Christopher Huie and Jamila Gilbert will all be on board. Gilbert is a Las Cruces native. The
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EL PASO, Texas – Yvonne Villegas-Aguilera, born and raised in El Paso, is a trailblazer within the NASA community. She’s the first member of her family to graduate college, she was a McNair Scholar and has not one, but two degrees- a bachelor’s in chemistry and a master’s in aerospace engineering. Now, Villegas-Aguilera is the
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EL PASO, Texas – The 2022 El Paso Space Festival ended with a bang! On Saturday, space and rocket enthusiasts, alongside both young and old generations had the opportunity to build model rockets and shoot them high in the sky. Rocket after rocket fired a few hundred feet up in the sky, which awed the
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EL PASO, Texas – All week long, local space enthusiasts both young and old have been able to unite and share their love for science. On Friday, with a new partnership between Insights- the company that puts on the El Paso Space Festival, and the International Airport, a family-friendly event took place in the short-term
Continue ReadingCNN’s Kristin Fisher explains the issues that led to NASA calling off the Artemis I launch for a second time.
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NASA’s newest telescope has captured the first image of a planet outside our solar system, also known as an exoplanet and this one is named HIP 65426 b. It’s what’s known as a gas giant, and has 6-to-12 times the mass of Jupiter. The planet is also an interstellar baby at only 15-to-20 million years
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UPDATE: The Artemis I launch has been scrubbed after the team was unable to work through an issue on one of the rocket’s four engines. “Launch controllers were continuing to evaluate why a bleed test to get the RS-25 engines on the bottom of the core stage to the proper temperature range for liftoff was
Continue ReadingBy Britley Ritz, CNN When it comes to launching Artemis I — the next generation of spacecraft to explore the moon and beyond — forecasting the weather is a crucial part of its success. Meteorologists can accurately forecast up to three days in advance, and even then, things can change. Launch dates that are set
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TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, New Mexico — Southern New Mexico is getting a new astronaut camp built by Virgin Galactic. The new camp will be built near Spaceport America in Truth or Consequences. The new building will have training facilities, accommodations for astronauts, an observatory, and even a wellness center. The company has yet to set
Continue ReadingVAN HORN – Blue Origin announced Thursday night that the 20th flight of the New Shepard has been moved to March 29. Due to the change in dates Saturday Night Live Comedian Pete Davidson will no longer be able to be part of the crew on that mission. The flight was originally scheduled to take
Continue ReadingBy Jackie Wattles, CNN Business When future generations write about the history of space travel, 2021 may well get its own chapter. “The year of the billionaires,” it might be called. Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson each took supersonic joy rides to the edge of space, finally bringing their competing private-sector spacecraft into operation after
Continue ReadingThe James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s premier space observatory of the next decade, successfully launched from French Guiana. Webb will peer into the very atmospheres of exoplanets, some of which are potentially habitable, and it could uncover clues in the ongoing search for life outside of Earth.
Continue ReadingClick here for Complete Coverage of the Race To Space UPDATE #3: VAN HORN, Texas — Football star and TV celebrity Michael Strahan caught a ride to space with Jeff Bezos’ rocket-launching company Saturday, sharing the trip with the daughter of America’s first astronaut. “TOUCHDOWN has a new meaning now!!!” he tweeted after landing. Blue
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VAN HORN, Texas — Michael Strahan is still going to space, but he needs to wait a little bit longer. Blue Origin announced Wednesday that the ABC “Good Morning America” co-anchor’s scheduled flight aboard New Shepard was rescheduled from Thursday to Saturday due to forecasted winds. Launch is now scheduled for Saturday at 7:45 a.m.
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VAN HORN, Texas — Good Morning America’s Michael Strahan has arrived in Van Horn, and training has began for the space flight he and his fellow crew mates, Lane and Cameron Bess, Evan Dick, Dylan Taylor and Laura Shepard Churchley – who is the daughter of Alan Shepard, the first American in space – will
Continue ReadingNASA launches rocket with goal of crashing it into an asteroid to see if it can change its course.
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VAN HORN, Texas (KVIA) — Blue Origin announced its crew for its upcoming Dec. 9 flight into space. ABC’s Good Morning America anchor Michael Strahan will be part of the six-person crew. Laura Shepard Churchley, the eldest daughter of Alan Shepard, who was the first American to fly to space, will also be part of
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By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The executive director of New Mexico’s spaceport says operations are ramping up at the desert outpost, and he needs the Legislature to allocate another $2 million in annual funding to keep momentum going. Scott McLaughlin testified before a legislative committee Monday. Without the funding, he
Continue ReadingBy Kristin Fisher and Pete Muntean, CNN Business One of Blue Origin’s newest astronauts, 49-year-old Glen de Vries, survived a ride to space in October alongside actor William Shatner. But less than a month later, he was killed in a small plane crash on Thursday in New Jersey. “Our thoughts and support go out to
Continue ReadingBy Jackie Wattles, CNN Business A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts approached the International Space Station, which orbits more than 200 miles above Earth, and made a gentle in-orbit meet-up, kicking off the astronauts’ six-month stay at the space station. This mission, called Crew-3, is the fourth mission in a partnership between SpaceX
Continue ReadingCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — SpaceX has launched four astronauts to the International Space Station. The flight comes just two days after SpaceX brought four other astronauts home, and lifts the number of people who have reached space past the 600 mark. The Falcon rocket blasted off Wednesday night from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. The three
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EL PASO, Texas– Last Saturday’s football game against UTSA brought more than 30,000 fans to the Sun Bowl and garnered enough attention to be nationally televised on ESPN 2. Also in attendance that night was UT System Chancellor James B. Milliken, who spent time with ABC-7 talking about the vision for the university. Milliken is
Continue ReadingBy Jackie Wattles, CNN Business Four astronauts splashed down off the coast of Florida aboard their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, capping off their six-month stay in space. Their journey kicked off Monday just after 2 pm ET when the astronauts strapped into the Crew Dragon capsule, which had remained attached to the International Space Station
Continue ReadingBy MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — High wind off the Florida coast has prompted SpaceX to delay the return of four space station astronauts. They were supposed to leave the International Space Station on Sunday, with their capsule splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday morning. But with
Continue ReadingBy Ashley Strickland, CNN It’s the space taco party of your dreams. The International Space Station hosted a taco bash for astronauts on Friday as they celebrated the harvest of the first chile peppers grown in space. The crew finally had a chance to taste test the peppers after initially kicking off the plant experiment
Continue ReadingBy Jackie Wattles, CNN Business Issues with the toilet on board SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule will leave a group of four astronauts without a bathroom option during their hours-long trip back home from the International Space Station aboard the 13-foot-wide capsule this month. Instead, the crew will have to rely on “undergarments,” Steve Stich, NASA’s
Continue ReadingBy Jackie Wattles, CNN Business A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule is slated to take a group of professional astronauts to space this weekend. But first, NASA must look over and approve some changes SpaceX made to address some issues with a key component — the toilet. A problem with the Crew Dragon toilet was first
Continue ReadingBy Jessie Yeung and Steven Jiang, CNN China’s three-person crew arrived at its new space station Saturday morning — a major step for the country’s young space program, which is rapidly becoming one of the world’s most advanced. The three astronauts had lifted off on the Shenzhou-13 spacecraft just past midnight local time, launched by
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