NASA’s CAPSTONE mission, which will chart a new orbit around the moon that will hopefully be used for a future crewed lunar space station, is underway after a successful launch on Tuesday morning. Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle delivered the CAPSTONE satellite, which is roughly the size of a large microwave oven, to Earth orbit for step one of its lunar journey.
With Space X mission of launching rockets more than 60 times in 2022 and conducting three launches within 36 hours span last week, China is also continuing its quest to carry out more than 50 orbital launches this year with a pair of missions lifting off within just over 24 hours of each other.
China on Sunday launched three astronauts into space as a part of its mission to complete assembly work on its permanent orbiting space station. The ‘Shenzhou 14’ crew blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert at 10:44 a.m. (02:44 p.m. CST). The three astronauts will spend the next six months on China’s Tiangong space station, which translates to “heavenly palace.”
According to NASA’s database for near-earth objects, a ‘potentially hazardous’ asteroid that’s more than a mile-long is headed our way and makes its closest pass by our planet in centuries on May 27, 2022. The nearest this rock will get to us is at 9:26 AM CST, Friday Morning. The asteroid is labeled ‘potentially hazardous’ because it is an Apollo asteroid meaning it crosses earth’s orbit.
The Starliner spacecraft is ready for its first voyage to space, according to Boeing and NASA, with a second uncrewed test mission set for May 19.
After bad weather disrupted a scheduled undocking Saturday, the world’s first all-private crew to the International Space Station are stuck there for at least another day.
The expedition, organized by Axiom Space in the United States, will be crewed by one veteran NASA astronaut who is now employed by the company and three wealthy entrepreneurs who will spend eight days on board the ISS.
