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Forty-Year-Old Loophole Exempts Satellite Pollution from Regulations

A forty-year-old legal loophole means that air pollution produced when old satellites burn up in Earth’s atmosphere is exempt from environmental oversight. Is the exemption justified in the age of mega-constellations?


November 5, 2024
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Op-Ed: What the U.S. Election Means for Space Exploration

Neither candidate for president has anything resembling a space policy, and neither seems to care about NASA overall. Regardless, the key human spaceflight issues America must face in the next four years include the end of the International Space Station, and prospect of China landing taikonauts on the moon. 


October 29, 2024
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The Robots That Could Breach Europa's Ice Shell

NASA's Clipper mission will determine the habitability of Jupiter's moon Europa, a mysterious water world. And what if a life-harboring oasis is revealed beneath its thick ice shell? What comes next? Scientists and researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are experimenting with near-science-fiction concepts that can help investigate Europa's massive saltwater ocean and maybe even reveal its inhabitants.


October 22, 2024
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In Photos: SpaceX Dazzles the World With Unreal Booster Catch

We dispatched photographers Pauline Acalin and Tom Cross to shoot Starship's liftoff and attempt to catch the massive Super Heavy booster with Mechazilla, the launch tower's chopsticks arms. An idea that seemed outlandish up until the livestream said they were going for it, minutes after a surprisingly routine liftoff. So routine that the launch of Starship itself became an afterthought.


October 15, 2024
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Burning Questions for the Lead Scientist Behind Europa Clipper

We want to understand if there is liquid water, where that liquid water exists, and whether the chemistry seem conducive to life. Do we expect redox potential in the ocean—oxidants and reductants—and where might we go to search? How might we do that search in the future, with what techniques?


October 11, 2024
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NASA Deflected an Asteroid — ESA Launched a Mission to Study the Impact

DART was the first-ever planetary defense test, one that illustrated that scientists and engineers could rearrange the cosmos to make it more habitable for humans. And this October, the European Space Agency is going to check NASA’s homework: it’s launching its own mission to Dimorphos.


October 4, 2024
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