Space News Pod

India plans to join the exclusive group of countries that have successfully landed on the Moon following the launch of its Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft next month. Speaking in Bangalore on Wednesday, Indian Space Research Organization Chairman K. Sivan said that the spacecraft will launch from Sriharikota, an island off India's southeastern coast, on July 15. Chandrayaan-2 will carry a lunar lander dubbed "Vikram," or "valor," which is expected to make a soft landing on the Moon’s surface on Sept. 6. The lander will transport a robotic rover that will explore the lunar surface. Sponsors: MagellanTV – a brand-new streaming service that features the very best collection of space and science documentaries available anywhere. The service includes over 1500 documentary movies, series, and exclusive playlists, designed with you in mind. Check out their space genre and explore the solar system like never before. Claim first your two-month free trial, only available at magellantv.com/spacenewspod 

Seven months ago, the Defense Department made a controversial call. In a trio of contracts announced on its daily digest of contract awards, the Pentagon announced it was awarding these rocket development contracts: A $967 million deal to United Launch Services, a subsidiary of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) joint venture formed between Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT). A $791.6 million contract to Orbital Sciences, part of Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC). And one worth $500 million to Blue Origin, the space launch venture created by Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos -- and financed by $1 billion worth of sales of his own Amazon stock annually. ========  MagellanTV - a brand-new streaming service that features the very best collection of science and technology documentaries available anywhere. The service includes over 1500 documentary movies, series, and exclusive playlists across major genres. Check out their exclusive science playlists, designed with you in

 The first U.S. astronauts chosen to fly aboard a SpaceX capsule built for NASA shrugged off a spate of design and test mishaps, saying such setbacks were “part of the process” and the new technology was far more advanced than the space shuttle program that ended eight years ago.  MagellanTV - a brand-new streaming service that features the very best collection of science and technology documentaries available anywhere. The service includes over 1500 documentary movies, series, and exclusive playlists across major genres. Check out their exclusive science playlists, designed with you in mind. Claim first your two-month free trial, only available at https://magellantv.com/spacenewspod   

President Donald Trump tweeted that the Moon is part of the Mars mission and A MARS HELICOPTER!

NASA also is enabling private astronaut missions of up to 30 days on the International Space Station to perform duties that fall into the approved commercial and marketing activities outlined in the directive released Friday, with the first mission as early as 2020. A new NASA Research Announcement focus area issued today outlines the path for those future private astronaut missions. If supported by the market, the agency can accommodate up to two short-duration private astronaut missions per year to the International Space Station. These missions will be privately funded, dedicated commercial spaceflights.  Private astronaut missions will use a U.S. spacecraft developed under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The commercial entity developing the mission will determine crew composition for each mission and ensure private astronauts meet NASA’s medical standards and the training and certification procedures for International Space Station crew members. Market studies identified private astronaut missions to low-

Engineers craft new plan to unstick NASA's Mars InSight lander.  By using InSight's lander arm to lift the support structure of the lander's burrowing mole, engineers aim to get a better look at the blockage. 

Amazon has already exploited the power of AI to dominate e-commerce, push forward the potential of cloud computing and bring an ever-present personal assistant into your home. At its re:Mars conference in Las Vegas this week, Jeff Bezos's corporation intends to shed some light on where it expects artificial intelligence to take us in the future.   The re:Mars conference is effectively the public version of Bezos's exclusive MARS conference, an annual, invitation-only gathering that brings together experts in academia and industry to discuss the future of Machine Learning, Automation, Robotics and Space (MARS). While MARS is intended to stimulate optimism and creative thinking, re:Mars has some more down-to-Earth goals: teaching its attendees how to apply AI and machine learning to their own businesses. https://spacenewspodcast.com

SpaceX Starship tests on hold in Boca Chica and Starlink makes Astronomers Upset because they may interfere with viewing and radio transmissions. https://spacenewspodcast.com https://twitter.com/spacenewspod https://trumans.com/ use code "spacenewspod" 

In 2020 three rovers, one from the US, one from Europe and one from China will depart for Mars with a single goal; to look for past or present life on The Red Planet. The rovers will also provide a critical step in the efforts to return samples of Martian regolith to the Earth. This would give scientists the opportunity to learn a great many more details about Mars and its habitability, since laboratories on Earth have much more sophisticated instruments than the ones riding on the rovers on Mars. Fed up with the clutter of cleaning, Truman’s partnered with an industry-leading manufacturer to create 4 non-toxic cleaners: The Glass Is Always Cleaner,    https://www.trumans.com/  and use the code "spacenewspod" to get 30% off!  https://spacenewspodcast.com https://twitter.com/spacenewspod

 The first 60 v0.9 satellites comprising the Starlink constellation launched into low Earth orbit (LEO) on May 24 have powered up and contacted ground stations. SpaceX said all 60 of its Starlink satellites have deployed their lone solar arrays. Most of these small satellites (smallsats), which weigh some 227 kg each, are in the process of climbing from their current 440 kilometer altitude drop-off point to their 550 km target orbit. ==== Check out Trumans, a great cleaning product.  Fed up with the clutter of cleaning, Truman’s partnered with an industry-leading manufacturer to create 4 non-toxic cleaners: The Glass Is Always Cleaner, Everything and the Kitchen Sink, More Shower to You and Floors Truly. Truman’s patented refill cartridges ship right to your doorstep, skipping the markup of retail and eliminating the single-use plastic cleaning bottles.   https://www.trumans.com  use code "spacenewspod" to get 30% off!  https://spacenewspod.com https://spacenewspodcast.com https://spa

Over the last two months, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has repeatedly said the agency's ambitious new Artemis plan for sending humans to the Moon in 2024 will not require raiding other areas of its budget, such as its broad array of science programs, technology research, or aeronautics work. The reason, he said, is simple. The surest way to torpedo support for a program inside the agency is to take funding from someone else to pay for the new plan, and the surest way to lose support in Congress is to take work away from various field centers around the country. "We can't cannibalize one part of the agency to feed another part of the agency," Bridenstine told Ars in April, which reflects comments he has made many times. "We can't cut the Science Mission Directorate to feed human exploration. We can't cannibalize the International Space Station to feed the Moon mission. So if we go in those directions, which have all been tried in the past, it never works politically. We can't do the same thing again and

NASA has selected three commercial Moon landing service providers that will deliver science and technology payloads under Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) as part of the Artemis program. Each commercial lander will carry NASA-provided payloads that will conduct science investigations and demonstrate advanced technologies on the lunar surface, paving the way for NASA astronauts to land on the lunar surface by 2024. https://patreon.com/spacenewspodcast https://twitter.com/spacenewspod https://facebook.com/spacenespod

Why are there so many ads?! You folks make me happy :)

Elon Musk’s second-most famous business may soon top his first. The value of SpaceX has risen to $33.3 billion, people familiar with the company’s recent fundraising. In an amendment of its April fundraising effort, a filing last week from SpaceX showed the company’s latest round brought in $536 million at a price of $204 a share. SpaceX has raised just over $1 billion this year, as the company accelerates fundraising to develop its plan to beam high-speed internet to anywhere on Earth. Additionally, Musk’s space company is now more valuable than his electric vehicle company. Tesla shares closed down on Friday giving the company a market value of $32.8 billion – just below SpaceX’s valuation. SpaceX’s valuation has risen steadily as the company has raised funding for rockets, spacecraft and more over the past decade. Most recently, SpaceX was reportedly valued at $30.5 billion.The company has been able to draw investment from private markets with ease, as a person familiar with SpaceX’s fundraising this

As human ancestors went from swinging through trees to walking on two legs, they may have received a boost from an unlikely source: ancient supernovas. These powerful stellar explosions may have showered Earth with enough energy to shift the planet's climate, bathing Earth in electrons and sparking powerful, lightning-filled storms, according to a new hypothesis. Lightning then could have kindled raging wildfires that scorched African landscapes. As savanna replaced the forest habitat, early humans that lived there may have been pushed to walk on two legs, the new study suggests. However, don't go jumping to conclusions just yet. Many factors likely contributed to the evolution of bipedalism, a process that began many millions of years before these stellar explosions took place, one expert told Live Science.

Gwynne Shotwell said in a meeting at MIT on the 29th of May that SpaceX will be sending cargo to Mars in 4 Years. Also, 'Fettuccine' may be most obvious sign of life on Mars, researchers report https://patreon.com/spacenewspodcast

The governments of the United States and Japan have agreed to further cooperation in space which could include flying Japanese astronauts to the moon. At a joint press conference in Tokyo May 27 with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, President Donald Trump mentioned cooperation in space exploration as one outcome of their meetings during the president’s visit to the country. "I am pleased to confirm that Prime Minister Abe and I have agreed to dramatically expand our nations’ cooperation in human space exploration," Trump said. "Japan will join our mission to send U.S. astronauts to space. We'll be going to the moon. We'll be going to Mars very soon. It's very exciting." https://patreon.com/spacenewspodcast https://spacenewspodcast.com https://twitter.com/spacenewspod

I dig in to a few reasons why we should colonize the Moon. https://spacenewspodcast.com

How to see Starlink Satellite Constellation in the night sky. #starlink #spacex My new podcast:  https://anchor.fm/wayfarepodcast  Go to CalSky.com. Start by setting your location here. (You can view Starlink without making an account, but I would recommend it so you can save a location for later use) Click on ‘Satellites‘ then ‘Sat Library‘ Select your duration at the top of the page for the amount of time you would like to see future fly-by’s. (I usually select ‘1 Week’) Type “starlink” in the or find a satellite by name or number box. Click on “Sighting Opportunities” (bookmark this page) Check the following boxes: (you can utilize others like transits/close encounters later on, but for the sole purpose of viewing use these) Show satellite passes Satellite must be illuminated Scroll back up to the top and click “GO” again to refresh. Scrolling down, you’ll see a list of the upcoming passes of the Starlink constellation. If you are confu

 A top NASA executive hired in April to guide strategy for returning astronauts to the moon by 2024 has resigned, the space agency said on Thursday, the culmination of internal strife and dwindling congressional support for the lunar initiative. Mark Sirangelo, named six weeks ago as special assistant to NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, left the agency as NASA abandoned a reorganization plan due to a chilly reception on Capitol Hill, Bridenstine said in a statement.