What's Up? The Space Place

Hey, Space Placers! Roman Space Telescope at Goddard Space Center  More to come. Sky Guy in VA 

 Hey, Space Placers! The 18 galaxies from the ALPINE-CRISTAL-JWST survey. Each picture shows the location of ionized gas (as traced by the hydrogen alpha line, the spectral signature of hot hydrogen gas) in the galaxies. Several of the pictured galaxies are interacting, meaning two or even three galaxies are in the process of merging. Credit: Andreas Faisst (Caltech) and the ALPINE-CRISTAL-JWST Survey team "Astronomers have captured the most detailed look yet at faraway galaxies at the peak of their youth, an active time when the adolescent galaxies were fervently producing new stars. The observations focused on 18 galaxies located 12.5 billion light-years away." Read more here  . Sky Guy in VA

 Hey, Space Placers! NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket is seen inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building as teams await the arrival of Artemis II crewmembers to board their Orion spacecraft on top of the rocket as part of the Artemis II countdown demonstration test, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA/Joel Kowsky NASA has just announced the current schedule for Artemis II's roll out of the stack to the Launch Pad 39B plus three separate launch windows. We are getting closer and closer to "lighting that candle" to head to the Moon!!!!! Sky Guy in VA

Hey, Space Placers! NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 members stand inside the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. From left are Mission Specialist Kimiya Yui from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), Commander NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, Mission Specialist Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos, and Pilot NASA astronaut Mike Fincke. Credit: NASA Here's the followup to my blog yesterday - 1/826. NASA will return Crew 11 in the next few days.  Sky Guy in VA

 Hey, Space Placers!   Credit: NASA NASA will host a live news conference at 5 p.m. EST on Thursday from the agency’s headquarters in Washington to discuss the International Space Station and its crew. On Jan. 7, the agency  announced  it was postponing a planned spacewalk originally scheduled for Jan. 8 while teams monitored a medical concern with a crew member currently living and working aboard the orbital laboratory. The matter involved a single crew member, who is  stable . Due to medical privacy, it is not appropriate for NASA to share more details about the crew member. Participants in the news conference include: NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman Amit Kshatriya, associate administrator Dr. James Polk, chief health and medical officer, NASA Headquarters NASA will provide live coverage of the news conference on  NASA+ ,  Amazon Prime , and the agency’s  YouTube channel . Learn how to  stream NASA content  through a variety of online pla...

Hey, Space Placers! Got plans for March 2026?  If you love Andy Weir and sci-fi, you might want to book March 20, 2026 for the next Hollywood sci-fi flick coming to the IMAX Big Screen nearest you to see "Project Hail Mary" . I'm a BIG Ryan Gossling fan and the scenes in the trailer have got me hooked.  See you at the movies! Sky Guy in VA