June 22, 2019

SpaceX Falcon Heavy to Launch 24 Payloads to 3 Orbits (Source: Space Calendar)
The third flight of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy is set to launch June 24 at 11:30 p.m. from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. The first nighttime launch of Falcon Heavy will carry 24 payloads to 3 different orbits. STP-2 will be the eighth SpaceX launch of 2019. The side boosters are reused from April's Arabsat 6A mission and will land again at the spaceport. The brand-new core stage is planned to land at drone recovery ship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Atlantic Ocean. (6/21)

Mysterious Glowing Light on Mars Captured by Nasa's Curiosity Probe (Source: Independent)
A photograph taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars has captured a mysterious bright glow on a distant Martian hillside. The black and white photograph shows the desert landscape with high rocky hills in the background. In front of the larger rock formations, a tiny elongated white blob appears to be streaking past.

NASA has previously admitted to similar anomalies in pictures taken by the probe. This image was taken on 16 June, and while conspiracy theorists have said the photograph is evidence of extra-terrestrials on the Red Planet, it appears more likely to have been a cosmic ray, some kind of camera lens flare or sunlight reflecting on rocks.

When another bright spot captured in pictures taken by the rover made headlines in 2014, people claimed it was “light from an alien hut”. But Justin Maki, the leader of the team that built and operates Curiosity’s navcams rapidly put those theories to bed. He said: “In the thousands of images we’ve received from Curiosity, we see ones with bright spots nearly every week. “These can be caused by cosmic-ray hits or sunlight glinting from rock surfaces, as the most likely explanations.” (6/21)

NASA Put Wheels on Its Mars 2020 Rover (Source: Gizmodo)
It’s amazing what a set of wheels can do. What was once a vague chunk of metal, wires, and circuit boards is now finally starting to look like an actual rover. We are now just a little over a year away from the launch of the Mars 2020 Mission, which will see NASA’s new rover reach the Red Planet on February 18, 2021. Once in Jezero Crater, the rover will search for signs of prior habitability and evidence of past microbial life, collect rock and surface samples, and perform some groundwork for a human mission to Mars, including an oxygen production test. (6/21)

One of These 12 Women Astronauts Will Go to the Moon (Source: CNN)
Landing a woman on the moon could inspire a whole generation of young women, said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "I've got an 11-year-old daughter and I want her to see herself as having every opportunity that I saw myself having when I was growing up," he said. "I think this could be transformational for young women all across, not just the country, but all across the world." While NASA is keeping mum about who the female astronaut will be, in a recent interview with CNN Business, Bridenstine gave a few details. Click here. (6/21)