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Watch as NASA Launches Solar Sail to Test Sunlight-Propelled Space Travel
A new experimental mission by NASA is ready to set sail in orbit, using photons from the Sun to propel its way to higher altitudes. The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) is scheduled for launch on Tuesday during a launch window that opens at 6 p.m. ET. The mission will lift off on board…
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‘An Exciting Challenge’: NASA Plans Rare Repair Spacewalk to Fix Busted Telescope
NASA is preparing to send astronauts on a spacewalk to repair a telescope mounted on the exterior of the International Space Station (ISS). The repair involves installing patches to eliminate unwanted sunlight leaking into the instrument. NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer), an X-ray telescope the size of a washing machine, launched to orbit in…
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How the Color Purple Could Lead Us to Alien Life
In a little more than 30 years, we went from knowing only of the planets in our star system to discovering over 5,000 distant worlds spread across the cosmos. So far, none have looked quite like Earth. If an Earth-like planet was orbiting another star, however, it may look different than our precious pale blue…
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Piece of ISS Battery Pallet Crashed Through Florida Home, NASA Confirms
The space agency jettisoned a large pallet of old batteries, intending for them to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, but a small fragment survived the journey.