What's Up? The Space Place

 Hey Space Placers! Space Shuttle Discovery  Credit: Greg Redfern No!  I don't want Discovery to become the next White House East Wing debacle. Do you? Call your representative if you want to save Discovery. Read the story here. Sky Guy in Boston

 Hey, Space Placers! Get the scoop on the three comets getting all of the attention by scientists and sky watchers in the above video and here: Where Is 3I/ATLAS Now? https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-syst... CHARTS and more info: Comet Lemmon might be the best comet of 2025 https://earthsky.org/space/comet-lemm... New comet SWAN is up after sunset, too https://earthsky.org/space/new-comet-... Interstellar object 3I/ATLAS behind sun, will return in November https://earthsky.org/space/new-inters... Sky Guy in the Atlantic

 Hey, Space Placers! The Blue Moon lunar lander is being developed by Blue Origin with the aim to contribute to future space exploration.   (Image credit: Blue Origin) IT'S ABOUT TIME NASA DID THIS!   NASA needs another lunar landing option other than  SpaceX . NASA has opened up the original contact to SpaceX for the Artemis Human Landing System (HLS) which was originally designated to use a SpaceX Starship to land Artemis III astronauts on the Moon. But the Starship program is not proceeding fast enough to meet the projected landing date by mid 2027 while China has targeted 2030 for its own crewed Moon landing. Consider this. SpaceX has to get full certification from NASA for the following Artemis III mission elements:  Refueling of the lunar bound Starship in Low Earth Orbit using 20 tankers over a month's time ;  Safely getting to lunar orbit and landing on the Moon;  Safely performing lunar liftoff and return to Earth;  Safe re-entr...

 Hey, Space Placers! Orion is the Radiant for the Orionids Credit: EarthSky.org Read all about the Orionids! Sky Guy in Sydney, Nova Scotia

 Hey, Space Placers! The Cassini spacecraft caught the 6th planet from the sun and its rings like never before. In this image, Saturn’s rings are gloriously backlit with the sun blocked by the planet. Image via  NASA / JPL/ Space Science Institute. My two telescope pics of Saturn show how the rings change their orientation towards Earth in a repeating cycle that lasts years. Here are the 10 facts about the rings. Sky Guy in VA

 AHOY, Space Placers! I am on Cruise Ship Azamara Quest underway in the Saint Lawrence Seaway enroute to the Atlantic and then East Coast US seaboard cities. This morning at 0400 I was up on deck 11 - highest point on the ship - and in taking pictures of passing cargo vessels, my iPhone 17 Pro imaged Aurora   https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/phenomena/aurora    that I could not see visually. This often occurs as the digital sensors in smartphones, tablets and cameras can pick up colors we cannot see visually. The Aurora literally changed from image to image and spanned the entire Northern horizon with red, green and maybe even purple colors.  I was LUCKY that my time on deck coincided with the highest Kp-Index  https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/tips-viewing-aurora    (planetary index) of the night.  (Credit: P. Horalek/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA) (Credit: NASA) The Aurora forecast looks good for our high latitude 46N+ so hopefully I can get some more images. ...