NASA’s not the agency it once was: Former astronaut | The Hill

Former NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao joins "The Hill" to discuss SpaceX's recent rocket launch. Chiao says it looked like a flawless launch and that each successive flight brings the Starship system closer and closer to being certified and ready for commercial use. Chiao also weighs in on whether NASA still needs the amount of funding it gets with SpaceX making strides.

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A common saying often attributed to Oscar Wilde is that "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness," and the latest example of that comes from the space race. China unveiled a new space shuttle last week to keep the Tiangong station supplied as the nation expands its space operations. The Haolong shuttle suspiciously shares the same white with black thermal tile underbelly design as NASA's retired shuttle.

SpaceX flew its latest test flight of its Starship megarocket on Tuesday, with President-elect Donald Trump joining Elon Musk to witness the spectacle firsthand in the latest sign of their ever closer ties.Space X founder and CEO Musk has been a constant presence at Trump's side since the incoming president's election victory, joining him at a meeting with Argentina's President Javier Milei and even at a UFC bout.

"Captivating" satellite imagery shows a low-pressure system heading for the Pacific Northwest on Tuesday, November 19.The National Weather Service (NWS) said the "powerful" system would produce "significant high wind impacts and heavy mountain snow across the Northwest, while a strong atmospheric river takes aim at Northern California by Wednesday."Satellite imagery provided by the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at Colorado State University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows the storm, which by Tuesday afternoon had produced sustained winds of 56 mph, the NWS said. Credit: CSU/CIRA & NOAA via Storyful

US President-elect Donald Trump drew cheers as he arrived in Texas on November 19 to watch the launch of the sixth test flight of SpaceX's Starship rocket along with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.Video shows Trump observing the launch beside his son Donald Trump Jr and Senator Ted Cruz, among others.On its website, SpaceX said "The next Starship flight test aims to expand the envelope on ship and booster capabilities and get closer to bringing reuse of the entire system online. Objectives include the booster once again returning to the launch site for catch, reigniting a ship Raptor engine while in space, and testing a suite of heatshield experiments and maneuvering changes for ship reentry and descent over the Indian Ocean." Credit: Dan Scavino via Storyful

(Bloomberg) - Nvidia Corp., the chipmaker at the center of a boom in artificial intelligence use, is teaming up with Alphabet Inc.'s Google to pursue another technology once relegated to science fiction: quantum computing. Most Read from BloombergParis to Replace Parking Spaces With TreesNew York's Transit Agency Approves $9 Congestion TollTrump Promises Could Have Seismic Impact on Washington EconomyNY Congestion Pricing Survived a Pause. Here's What Could Kill ItIn Cleveland, a Forgotten Stre

Continuing its recovery from last Thursday's sudden sell-off, Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB) stock rose for a third straight day in early Tuesday trading, tacking on 4.1% through 10:10 a.m. ET. You can thank CEO Sir Peter Beck for that. Late last night (our time - I think it was a morning post in New Zealand ), the Rocket Lab CEO posted on X the observation that he's really happy that his company is now mass producing and shipping satellite parts (known as "reaction wheels") to its satellite-building customers by the pallet load.

According to the Financial Times, SpaceX is eyeing a December tender offer with a valuation of over $250 billion. To talk more about Elon Musk's space launch provider, ProcureAM Co-founder and CEO Andrew Chanin — whose firm runs the Procure Space ETF (UFO) — joins Catalysts. "Seeing the various goals that the government has, like with the Artemis program and how important SpaceX is, it's important to know that regardless of where the leadership may be politically, that the company is able to continue to deliver on its various goals and missions," Chanin says on SpaceX's relationship with NASA and business demand to send materials into space. Chanin also weighs in on potential competition between SpaceX and its European counterparts. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Catalysts here. This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

President Joe Biden is ready to hop on a space rocket and rescue the two NASA astronauts, who have been stranded on board the International Space Station since June. The octogenarian made the tongue-in-cheek remarks during the APEC economic conference in Peru last week. "Every time my wife thinks I'm getting out of hand, [...]

President-elect Donald Trump attended SpaceX's sixth flight test of its Super Heavy-Starship on Tuesday with CEO Elon Musk. The burgeoning friendship between the two men played a key role in Trump's reelection, with Musk now set to run a government efficiency agency in the coming months. CBS News political reporter Jake Rosen and Politico aviation reporter Oriana Pawlyk join "America Decides" with more.

US President-elect Donald Trump arrived in Texas alongside SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on November 19 to watch the launch of the sixth test flight of SpaceX's Starship rocket.Video from Dan Scavino, a senior adviser to Trump, shows Trump stepping down from his private plane with his son Donald Trump Jr, and then shows Trump and Musk arriving at an observation point close to the launch site in Brownsville.On its website, SpaceX says: "The next Starship flight test aims to expand the envelope on ship and booster capabilities and get closer to bringing reuse of the entire system online. Objectives include the booster once again returning to the launch site for catch, reigniting a ship Raptor engine while in space, and testing a suite of heatshield experiments and maneuvering changes for ship reentry and descent over the Indian Ocean." Credit: Dan Scavino via Storyful

On November 18, 2013, NASA launched the MAVEN spacecraft to Mars. The name MAVEN stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN. The spacecraft is an orbiter designed to help scientists figure out what happened to Mars' water and its atmosphere. Mars is dry today, but it data from several Mars missions suggest that it was a much wetter environment a long time ago. MAVEN is tracking the rate of atmospheric loss from Mars. The planet has a super thin atmosphere that has been leaking into space for a few billion years. Scientists think that when Mars lost its atmosphere, water dried up on the surface as a result. Solar storms that blast radiation into the solar system appear to have blasted away some of the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere once kept Mars warm enough to sustain water, and losing that greenhouse gas turned Mars into a cold and dry place. MAVEN's science mission ended in 2016, but the spacecraft is still used to relay communications with other missions on Mars.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) – Every 11 years the sun goes through a natural uptick in activity as its magnetic poles, like those that we have on earth at the north and south poles, flip in orientation. It's right in the middle of this cycle that the sun begins to produce an excess of sunspots, which [...]

Four monkeys remain free nearly two weeks after a group of 43 escaped from a South Carolina compound that breeds them for medical research, authorities said. Two more rhesus macaques were trapped Monday outside the Alpha Genesis facility in Yemassee, bringing the total of recovered monkeys to 39, chief executive Greg Westergaard said in a statement relayed by police in a social media post. The monkeys caught Monday were in good health, and the others continue to thrive, Westergaard said.

Google is committing $20 million in cash and $2 million in cloud credits to a new funding initiative designed to help scientists and researchers unearth the next great scientific breakthroughs using artificial intelligence (AI). The announcement, made by Google DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis during a fireside chat at the closed-door AI for Science Forum in London today, feeds into a broader push by Big Tech to curry favor with young innovators and startups, a strategy that has included acqui-hires, equity investments, and cloud partnerships - some of which has attracted the attentions of regulators. This latest announcement, via Google's 19-year-old philanthropic arm Google.org, is different in that it centers on non-equity funding for academic and non-for-profit institutions globally.