Daily News update on – Science

Spaceflight Now

NASA’s Orion spacecraft parachuted to a gentle splashdown in the Pacific Ocean Sunday west of Baja California, ending an unpiloted test flight to the moon that spanned 25-and-a-half days and 1.4 million miles, proving out a new rocket and capsule to …

Space.com

Following launch, the highlight reel then follows Orion on its 25.5-day journey for Artemis 1, demonstrating it could fly in a distant retrograde orbit around the moon and safely come back to Earth again. The …

The New York Times

Scientists studying fusion energy at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California announced on Tuesday that they had crossed a major milestone in reproducing the power of the sun in a laboratory. Scientists for decades have said that fusion, …

Space.com

This is largely considered one of the best meteor showers of the year, but tonight’s viewing conditions will be tricky.

Space.com

“While initial checkout operations continue in ispace’s Mission Control Center (MCC), we have also received the first images taken by our lander-mounted camera! This is an image of the Earth about 19 hours after separation from the launch vehicle,” ispace …

CNN

Dust devils, or dust whirlwinds, are common on Mars, and they’re part of the weather patterns on the red planet. Other missions have gathered images, weather data and dust measurements of these …

Phys.Org

They included a successful launch atop the Space Launch System rocket, maneuvers during lunar orbit and ultimate return of Orion that featured a record-setting reentry for a human-rated spacecraft hitting 24,464 mph that generated temperatures near 5,000 …

CNN

The Geminids, known for bright, intensely colored meteors, have been streaking across the night sky since late November, and the shower will peak the night of December 13 through December 14, according to the American Meteor Society.

Space.com

An Arianespace rocket will send three satellites to orbit today (Dec. 13), and you can watch the whole thing live for free. An Ariane 5 rocket will launch no earlier than 3:30 p.m. EST (2030 GMT or 5:30 p.m. local time) from the Guiana Space Center in …

Florida Today

Officials are still reviewing data from the nearly 26-day mission that began with liftoff of the Space Launch System rocket from Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 16, but progress is continuing for Artemis II, III, and beyond.