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    NASA, SpaceX launch US–European satellite to monitor Earth’s oceans

    November 18, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Environment/Geology

    NASA, SpaceX launch US-European satellite to monitor Earth's oceans
    The Sentinel-6B satellite lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in central California at 9:21 p.m. PST on Nov. 16.
    Credit: NASA/Carla Thomas

    About the size of a full-size pickup truck, a newly launched satellite by NASA and its partners will provide ocean and atmospheric information to improve hurricane forecasts, help protect infrastructure, and benefit commercial activities, such as shipping.

    The Sentinel-6B satellite lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in central California at 9:21 p.m. PST on Nov. 16. Contact between the satellite and a ground station in northern Canada occurred about 1 hour and 30 minutes later at 10:54 p.m...

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    Life on Mars? NASA discovers potential biosignatures in Martian mudstones

    September 12, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    An image of the rock named “Cheyava Falls” in the “Bright Angel formation” in Jezero crater, Mars collected by the WATSON camera onboard the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover.  The image shows a rust-colored, organic matter bearing sedimentary mudstone sandwiched between bright white layers of another composition.  The small dark blue/green to black colored nodules and ring-shaped reaction fronts that have dark rims, and bleached interiors are proposed to be potential biosignatures.  Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

    Data and images from NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover reveals that recently discovered rocks in Jezero crater are organic carbon bearing mudstones...

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    Moon or Mars? NASA’s future at a crossroads under Trump

    February 24, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A file photo taken 27 August 2003 by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows Mars snapped within minutes of the planet's closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years
    A file photo taken 27 August 2003 by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shows Mars snapped within minutes of the planet’s closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years.

    Is NASA still Moonbound, or will the next giant leap mean skipping straight to Mars?

    Speculation is mounting that the Trump administration may scale back or cancel NASA’s Artemis missions following the departure of a key official and Boeing’s plans to lay off hundreds of employees working on its lunar rocket.

    Late Wednesday, NASA abruptly announced the retirement of longtime associate administrator Jim Free, effective Saturday.

    No reason was given for Free’s departure after his 30-year rise to NASA’s top civil-service position...

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    University of Florida Professor to Fly Blue Origin New Shepard on Mission for NASA

    August 31, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Earth
    Credit: CC0 Public Domain

    University of Florida horticulture science professor Rob Ferl is going where some men have gone before, including William Shatner and Jeff Bezos, but he’s bringing along some experimental plant life for NASA.

    Ferl, a researcher within UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, is also the director of UF’s new Astraeus Space Institute. He is joining five other people on the launch of Blue Origin’s suborbital New Shepard rocket today for what will be its eighth human spaceflight. Dubbed NS-26, the capsule is set for liftoff as early as 9:00 a.m. EDT from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch facility.

    Along for the ride will be a species of plant called Arabidopsis thaliana. Ferl will be looking at how its genes adapt on the way to space.

    “Space is a c...

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