Tag: nasa

How the ‘NASA Nazis’ helped transform sleepy Alabama farming town into America’s ‘Rocket City’ and win the Space Race – but dark legacy of ‘our Germans’ led by former SS officer remains divisive

Huntsville, Alabama, is fiercely proud of its Rocket City nickname – earned for its crucial role in America’s space race success.

The city, which transformed in the 1950s from a cotton market town to the world’s foremost hub for space travel research, is home to NASA‘s Marshall Space Flight Center, which led development of the Saturn rockets that put the first man on the moon.

But there is a dark side to the story of these epic achievements: many of the men who led the groundbreaking work were Nazis – recruited through a top secret operation after the Second World War.

The fascinating, and troubling, reality is often omitted from lessons about America’s victory in the space race against the Soviet Union. It is also something Huntsville continues to grapple with today.

There are those who say the ‘greater good’ outweighed the moral cost of recruiting members of an evil regime, allowing them to avoid justice in the process.

But others say bringing these men to the US was an inexcusable decision – compounded by the fact their Nazi backgrounds go largely unmentioned in lessons about America’s space history.

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NASA captures ‘eerie’ holes in clouds over Florida that have been linked to UFO reports and can be seen from SPACE

A chain of bizarre clouds just northwest of the Florida Keys looks like a giant floating jellyfish, or maybe the UFO from the sci-fi horror film ‘Nope.’

One fishing influencer posted a video of the clouds from below on TikTok, set to the theme music from Netflix‘s horror hit ‘Stranger Things.’ But, in reality, a well-known flying object was the cause: airplanes.

Captured from above late this January, by NASA‘s Terra satellite, the ‘Cavum clouds’ are ‘so odd that people sometimes argue they are signatures of flying saucers,’ according to the US Space Agency, which released the overhead image this week.

The true source of Cavum clouds, sometimes called ‘hole-punch clouds‘ and ‘fallstreak holes,’ had eluded scientists for nearly 70 years, until meteorologists finally cracked the case in 2010.

The strange shapes, they found, are produced when aircraft fly through ‘altocumulus clouds’ — patchy banks of small clouds that form between 7,000 and 23,000 feet up.

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JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE HAS DISCOVERED AN ENORMOUS REMNANT OF THE EARLY UNIVERSE THAT ASTRONOMERS SAY SHOULDN’T EXIST

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has helped reveal an 11-billion-year-old discovery more massive than the Milky Way, which astronomers say should not exist.

The unprecedented discovery, which could upend our current understanding about the formation of galaxies, and also require scientists to rethink the mysterious nature of dark matter, involves an extremely old—and massive—galaxy that existed in the early universe which was home to an ancient population of stars.

What makes the discovery unique and perplexing to astronomers is that the stars observed in this primordial galaxy should not have been able to form according to current models, because there would not have been enough dark matter accumulated to enable their genesis.

The discovery is the latest in a series of findings by the James Webb Space Telescope since its launch that are challenging our existing theories about the universe, and broadening our understanding of cosmic phenomena.

According to Karl Glazebrook, a Distinguished Professor at Swinburne University of Technology and leader of an international team behind the discovery, the new findings were several years in the making and required separate observations from two of the world’s most massive telescopes to tease out enough data to determine its age through spectroscopic observations.

“We’ve been chasing this particular galaxy for seven years,” Glazebrook said in a statement, “and spent hours observing it with the two largest telescopes on earth to figure out how old it was.

However, according to Glazebrook the dormant galactic monster “was too red and too faint, and we couldn’t measure it.”

“In the end, we had to go off Earth and use the JWST to confirm its nature,” Glazebrook said.

Present models about galactic formation are in conflict, since ongoing observations that include discoveries that the James Webb Space Telescope have helped enable continue to challenge existing theoretical ideas. These include longstanding tenets of modern astrophysics like the prediction that massive galaxies were unlikely to be as prevalent in the early universe.

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INNOVATIVE SOLAR SAIL PROPULSION SYSTEM COULD SOON DRIVE SPACECRAFT FOR SCIENCE MISSIONS, NASA PROJECTS

NASA says it cleared a “key technology milestone” last month that could help move the agency toward future use of an ambitious and economical technique for propelling spacecraft through deep space: solar sail technology.

Operating in a manner similar to how wind is reflected by a sailboat, solar sail propulsion relies on sunlight, specifically the pressure created by solar radiation, to propel spacecraft.

Conceptually, the technology has existed for decades. A notable early example includes its appearance in Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven’s 1974 novel, “The Mote in God’s Eye,” where a light-propelled spacecraft is employed by an extraterrestrial civilization. More recently, the idea was even put forward that the curiously shaped interstellar object ‘Oumuamua could have potentially represented a form of this technology, although most astronomers found this possibility unlikely.

Given its promise for future space missions, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate recently provided funding for solar sail technology to assist in reaching a technology readiness level able to facilitate proposals for its use on science missions.

As of this week, the space agency is now reporting the successful deployment of one of four solar sail quadrants during a technology demonstration on January 30 at the Colorado facility of its prime contractor, Redwire Corporation, which developed the sail’s deployment mechanisms and 100-foot-long booms. The sail’s membranes were developed by Huntsville, Alabama-based NeXolve.

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center technologist Les Johnson called the demonstration “a major last step” prior to the technology’s use in space missions. Johnson has worked with NASA on the development of solar sail technology for the last quarter century and says that now he hopes there will be bids for its use in forthcoming space science missions.

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Challenges Persist In Getting Astronauts To The Moon; NASA Again Delays Launch Date

America is falling behind in the race to send man to the moon again: NASA has once again delayed its launch dates, this time citing major safety concerns.

NASA delayed the missions in an announcement last week, citing unresolved issues including a battery, the heat shield, and a circuitry component responsible for air ventilation and temperature control.

The first crewed mission around the moon, Artemis II, was pushed back to September 2025. The first crewed mission to land on the moon since 1972, Artemis III, was pushed back to September 2026. Artemis II was originally scheduled for this November, and Artemis III was originally scheduled for December 2025.

According to NASA, the Artemis IV mission to land astronauts at the Gateway lunar space station remains on track for 2028. Artemis I, an uncrewed test flight, was originally planned to launch in November 2018 but didn’t launch until November 2022.

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Oops: Failed U.S. Moon Lander Now Hurtling Back TOWARDS Earth

The NASA-backed Peregrine One moon lander is now hurtling back towards Earth after last week failing on its historic journey.

Astrobotic, which had been hoping to hoping to land the first American-made spacecraft on the Moon in more than 50 years, predicts its spacecraft will likely burn up in the atmosphere in the next few days, the BBC reports.

Experts had been working with NASA and other space companies to find the most safe and responsible way of ending Peregrine’s mission.

“The team is currently assessing options and we will update as soon as we are able,” the company noted in a social media post.

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One big…lie? As NASA delays its moon landing to 2026, conspiracy theories are reignited online – with one sceptic claiming the space agency ‘can’t figure out how they did it the first time’

It has been more than 50 years since humanity first set foot on the moon. 

And ever since, conspiracy theories that the landing was faked have been rife.

While none of these theories have any grounding in reality, that hasn’t stopped them from spreading like wildfire.

Now, as NASA delays its highly anticipated return to the moon to 2026, social media has once again been flooded with claims that man has never visited our lunar satellite. 

The delayed missions have even led some sceptics to claim that ‘they can’t figure out how they did it the first time’. 

Citing safety concerns, NASA announced that Artemis II, which will complete a lunar fly-by, has been delayed until September next year.

Meanwhile, Artemis III, which will once again put astronauts on the moon, won’t now take place until September 2026.

These sudden and unexpected delays have ignited a wave of conspiracy theory content on X (formerly Twitter).

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NASA-backed Peregrine One has ‘NO CHANCE’ of landing on the moon as leaky fuel tank has 40 hours left – and $108M craft with JFK’s DNA and other’s ashes are set to drift into the darkness

America’s first lunar lander in over 50 years has been abandoned due to critical loss of fuel during its journey to the moon.

Astrobotic, which launched the first private lunar mission Monday, revealed the Peregrine spacecraft is expected to run out of fuel in about 40 hours.

‘Given the propellant leak, there is, unfortunately, no chance of a soft landing on the moon,’ the Pittsburg-based company shared in an announcement.

The 1.2-ton lander is carrying $108 million worth of NASA instruments, a hair sample from US President John F Kennedy, and the ashes of 60 other people set to be dropped on the lunar surface.

When the fuel is expended, Peregrine’s solar panels will slip into darkness, and the batteries will quickly drain. 

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NASA WILL DEBUT ITS MYSTERIOUS X-59 ‘QUIET’ SUPERSONIC AIRCRAFT AT FAMOUS LOCKHEED MARTIN SKUNK WORKS FACILITY NEXT WEEK

NASA has announced plans to unveil its X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft next week, the American space agency said in a statement on Friday.

“NASA will provide live coverage as it reveals its X-59 aircraft at 4 p.m. EST on Friday, Jan. 12, as part of the agency’s Quesst mission to make commercial supersonic flight possible,” read a portion of the NASA statement.

The aircraft, which recently received a patriotic paint job, will see its public reveal during a ceremony at the famous Lockheed Martin Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California.

As part of NASA’s Quesst mission, the X-59 will be flown above populated regions of the United States, after which the space agency will collect information from the public about responses to sound the aircraft produces, which will then be supplied to international regulators for assessment.

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DREAM CHASER SPACEPLANE IS GEARING UP TO HELP NASA DELIVER CARGO TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

An innovative new spaceplane cargo system is advancing toward its first delivery to the International Space Station (ISS), as one of NASA’s commercial partners providing resupply services.

The Dream Chaser spaceplane, designed by Colorado-based Sierra Space, is an uncrewed cargo spacecraft that is expected to carry out its first demonstration mission next year, NASA said in a news release.

Currently the only commercial runway-capable spaceplane, the reusable cargo system comprises two components, the Dream Chaser, a lifting body spacecraft, and its cargo module, Shooting Star. The system, a modified HL-20 spacecraft, is designed for reuse as many as 15 times and can be prepared for launch in as little as 24 hours.

Dream Chaser’s first flight will undertake in-orbit demonstrations next year to help Sierra Space and its partners at NASA gauge its readiness for future resupply missions. Flight controllers with Sierra Space will oversee the launch, with assistance and support from NASA personnel and the agency’s launch facilities.

At the time of launch, Dream Chaser’s wings are folded within five-meter fairing panels that are jettisoned once they reach orbit, which protect the spacecraft while being carried to orbit on board a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket.

On its way to the ISS, Dream Chaser’s wings are deployed, as well as solar arrays on its cargo module, Shooting Star, which can deliver pressurized and unpressurized cargo to the ISS, as well as retrieve it and bring it back to Earth. The cargo module is disposable, and after each use, it can be jettisoned before reentry.

Before entering joint operations with NASA Mission Control in Houston, Dream Chaser will first demonstrate attitude control, abort capabilities, and other crucial maneuvers well beyond the vicinity of the ISS during initial test phases. These will be followed by near-field demonstrations, which will feature sensor systems and response commands that test its ability to maneuver within proximity to the space station before ultimately being cleared to approach it.

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