Saturday, September 27

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Space Center Houston Hosts 10th Annual HUNCH Culinary Challenge Finals 
NASA

Space Center Houston Hosts 10th Annual HUNCH Culinary Challenge Finals 

10 High School Teams Compete to Create the Next Best Dish for Astronauts in Space HOUSTON, TEXAS (APRIL 7, 2025) – Each year, Space Center Houston hosts the HUNCH (High School Students United with NASA to Create Hardware) Culinary Challenge Finals, where the top ten high school teams compete to create the next best dish for space to support astronauts. The challenge, which celebrates its 10th year, began with 64 teams worldwide, narrowing down to the top 10 performing teams to compete at the space and science museum. The dishes are judged by 24 experts, including food scientists from the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) Food Lab, astronauts, guest chefs, NASA administrators, and scholarship partners. Joining as a guest judge is Emmanuel Chavez, Houston’s Michelin-starred chef ...
SpaceX to launch GPS III-7 mission on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral – Spaceflight Now
SpaceX

SpaceX to launch GPS III-7 mission on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral – Spaceflight Now

The GPS III-7 Space Vehicle 08 pictured as it was encapsulated inside a pair of SpaceX Falcon 9 payload fairings. Image: SpaceX The latest addition to the United States’ Global Positioning System (GPS) constellation is set to be launched into medium Earth orbit on Friday afternoon. The GPS III-7 Space Vehicle 08 (SV-08) will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Launch teams are targeting liftoff at 1:23 p.m. EDT (1723 UTC), the opening of a 15-minute window. Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about two hours prior to takeoff.  During a prelaunch news briefing on Wednesday, Launch Weather Officer Mark Burger said that there was a 45 percent chance for favorable weather for launch on Friday. That outlook rema...
Gen Z Leads the Call for Conservation With TreeTalks – State of the Planet
Science

Gen Z Leads the Call for Conservation With TreeTalks – State of the Planet

An old dense spruce forest in Holma, Sweden. Credit: W.carter, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons Last month, Amanda Biscoe and Pamela Treviño hosted TreeTalks, a film screening and panel discussion focused on rainforest conservation and the role of young people in shaping its future. Through their work as co-directors of Gen Z for the Trees, a program within the Rainforest Partnership, Biscoe and Treviño created the event to bridge generational gaps in conservation and build hope amid growing climate anxiety. Both Biscoe and Treviño are students in the Master of Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy (MPA-ESP) program, which is offered by Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs in partnership with the Columbia Climate School. They opened the evening with two...
SpaceX launches first flight-proven Super Heavy booster, loses control of Starship mid-flight – Spaceflight Now
SpaceX

SpaceX launches first flight-proven Super Heavy booster, loses control of Starship mid-flight – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX’s Starship upper stage, tail number S35, is shown in an uncontrolled reentry during the Starship Flight 9 mission on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. Image: SpaceX via livestream SpaceX hit another roadblock on its quest to “make life multiplanetary.” During the ninth flight of its integrated Starship-Super Heavy rocket on Tuesday, the vehicle once again failed to complete a full flight as intended, losing its ability to control its orientation a little more than 20 minutes into the flight. SpaceX pulled away from showing live imagery from the upper stage for about 10 minutes. When camera views resumed about 30 minutes into the flight, Starship could be seen beginning to spin. “Starship made it to the scheduled ship engine cutoff, so big improvement over last flight! Also, no significant loss...
Starship breaks up on reentry after loss of attitude control
NASA

Starship breaks up on reentry after loss of attitude control

AMSTERDAM — SpaceX’s Starship suffered a loss of attitude control after reaching space on its latest test flight May 27, leading to an uncontrolled reentry and a third consecutive failure.Starship lifted off from SpaceX’s test site at Starbase, Texas, at 7:36 p.m. Eastern. The liftoff was delayed in the final seconds of the countdown because of an issue with a quick-disconnect fitting in ground equipment that required resetting the countdown to the T-40 second mark for several minutes to fix it.This mission, Flight 9, sought to avoid the engine problems on the previous two test flights in January and March that caused the loss of the Starship upper stage during its ascent. All eyes were on the performance of the Starship’s six Raptor engines during a burn lasting nearly six and a ha...