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Top High School Innovators Named Pete Conrad Scholars at the 2025 Conrad Challenge, Hosted by Space Center Houston and Presented by Equinor
NASA

Top High School Innovators Named Pete Conrad Scholars at the 2025 Conrad Challenge, Hosted by Space Center Houston and Presented by Equinor

HOUSTON, TEXAS (APRIL 28, 2025) – Since the start of the 2024-25 school year, nearly 2,000 high school teams and 5,000 students from more than 80 countries collaborated across oceans and time zones to develop viable solutions to global challenges in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Competing for first place titles as “Pete Conrad Scholars,” the top 31 student teams convened at Space Center Houston for the Conrad Challenge Innovation Summit and EXPO finals sponsored by Equinor. Founded in 2007 by Nancy Conrad in honor of her late husband, NASA astronaut Charles “Pete” Conrad, the Challenge inspires students to design today’s solutions for tomorrow’s challenges, carrying forward his legacy for innovation and exploration. Nancy Conrad, ...
Axiom Mission 4 delayed due to Dragon capsule readiness – Spaceflight Now
SpaceX

Axiom Mission 4 delayed due to Dragon capsule readiness – Spaceflight Now

[Left] Ax-4 Mission Specialist Tibor Kapu, Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla, Commander Peggy Whitson, and Mission Specialist Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski [Right] have been training to live and work aboard the space station for the past eight months in preparation for their mission, which is targeted to launch no earlier than June 8, 2025. Image: Axiom SpaceThe debut of the fifth and planned final Dragon spacecraft is going to take a bit longer. The vehicle, tail number C213, will won’t be ready to support the flight of Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) to the International Space Station until next month. The fourth private astronaut mission was most recently scheduled to launch no earlier than May 29 on a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. However, in an update f...
Intuitive Machines’ CEO points to issues that prevented upright touchdown during IM-2 Moon landing – Spaceflight Now
SpaceX

Intuitive Machines’ CEO points to issues that prevented upright touchdown during IM-2 Moon landing – Spaceflight Now

Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander, named Athena, is pictured on its side, lying on the Moon’s surface following touchdown on Thursday, March 6, 2025. Image: Intuitive Machines The third attempt to land on the Moon for Houston-based Intuitive Machines is coming up in less than a year and the company said Tuesday it understands how to stick the landing on the next go around. During a first quarter earnings call, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Steve Altemus, said the mission team performed a “comprehensive post-mission review” which included independent reviewers and external experts alongside the company’s internal teams. He said there were three main issues that prevented their Nova-C lander, named Athena, from landing upright near the Moon’s South Pole on March 6: Laser altimeter ...
NASA — Seeing the Invisible Universe
NASA

NASA — Seeing the Invisible Universe

ALTThis computer-simulated image shows a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy. The black region in the center represents the black hole’s event horizon, beyond which no light can escape the massive object’s gravitational grip. The black hole’s powerful gravity distorts space around it like a funhouse mirror. Light from background stars is stretched and smeared as it skims by the black hole.You might wonder — if this Tumblr post is about invisible things, what’s with all the pictures? Even though we can’t see these things with our eyes or even our telescopes, we can still learn about them by studying how they affect their surroundings. Then, we can use what we know to make visualizations that represent our understanding.When you think of the invisible, you might first picture som...
Ultra-secure quantum data sent over existing internet cables
Science

Ultra-secure quantum data sent over existing internet cables

A secure quantum internet could be on the wayvs148/Shutterstock Another step towards a quantum internet has been completed, and it doesn’t require any special communications equipment. Two data centres in Germany have exchanged quantum secure information using already existing telecommunication fibres at room temperature. This is in contrast to most quantum communications, which often require cooling to extremely low temperatures to protect quantum particles from disturbances in their environment. The quantum internet, where information can be exchanged extremely securely thanks to being encoded into quantum particles of light called photons, is quickly making forays into the world outside the lab. In March, a microsatellite enabled a quantum link between ground statio...