It’s early morning in Jordan’s Wadi Rum and we’re loading our gear into the fleet of Infiniti QX80s, backed by only the sounds coming from doors opening and closing shut, and feet shuffling silently in the red sand. Despite the bright LED lights of our fleet SUVs, an observatory’s worth of glowing stars remain visible above, shining down in the pre-dawn desert. As I sit …
Virgin Galactic sister company Virgin Orbit is one step closer to air-launching satellites. Their first-ever rocket drop test from a modified Boeing 747 carrier (named Cosmic Girl) was a notable success. The goal of the test was to enact and observe a clean, careful separation of a LauncherOne rocket payload and carrier craft. An orbital flight for the rocket is the next milestone they hope …
The far side of the moon (often mistakenly referred to as the “dark side” of the moon) never faces Earth due to the sphere’s elliptical orbit and synchronous rotation. For the first time, information—including a photograph—has been transmitted from the hemisphere by way of China’s National Space Administration’s Yutu-2 rover. While this might not seem like that big of a deal, it marks significant achievements and technological …
