Space

UPDATE for 2:06 pm ET: SpaceX has called off today’s launch attempt of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 60 Starlink internet satellites due to bad weather at the rocket’s landing drone ship “Just Read The Instructions” in the Atlantic Ocean. 

SpaceX called off the launch of a new fleet of Starlink internet satellites on Thursday (Feb. 17) due to a “recovery issue” related to the mission’s Falcon 9 rocket.

The ambitious project will explore a double asteroid system.

With the recent discovery of a possible sign of life on Venus, it’s possible we could see a new surge of missions headed to the cloudy world in the future. Those next-generation robotic explorers may need to take extra precautions than Venusian explorers of the past.

NASA’s next moon lander may look like this.

The discovery of phosphine in the upper clouds in Venus’ atmosphere has generated a lot of excitement. On Earth, phosphine is produced biologically, so it’s a sign of life. If it’s not produced by life, it takes an enormous amount of energy to be created abiologically.

U.S. military space policy officials have increasingly flagged a new role in guarding American assets and interests in Earth-moon space. 

On Sept. 17, 1789, the British astronomer William Herschel discovered Saturn’s “Death Star” moon, Mimas.