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Tech

GOES-17 recovered from a glitch that appeared July 22 in less than 24 hours and has been hard at work observing wildfires on Earth.

GOES-17 satellite bounces back from glitch while monitoring California wildfires

By Chelsea Gohd

A weather satellite has recovered from a brief anomaly and is back to studying Earth and its ongoing wildfires.

Two companies recently beamed a recording of Debussy's "Clair de Lune" to and from the International Space Station, minting the recording as a non-fungible token (NFT).

Music masterpiece 'Clair de Lune' beamed to space station in NFT 1st

By Mike Wall

Last week, two companies teamed up to beam a recording of Debussy's piano masterpiece "Clair de Lune" to and from the International Space Station, then minted the file as a non-fungible token (NFT).

Spaceflight

Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov successfully opened the hatch to the Nauka module on July 31, 2021.

Watch cosmonauts explore Russia's new Nauka space station module in this video tour

By Samantha Mathewson

Cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov gave a video tour of the new Russian "Nauka" module that docked at the International Space Station last week.

This still from a CCTV video shows scenes from the first successful launch of Hyperbola-1, a privately built orbital rocket built by the Chinese company iSpace. It lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on July 25, 2019.

Chinese startup iSpace fails to reach orbit again with Hyperbola-1 rocket

By Elizabeth Howell

The latest failure of a Chinese commercial rocket may point to growing pains as the country opens its space sector to more private participation, according to a news report.

Science & Astronomy

The feeding process at the center of the supermassive black hole in the galaxy NGC 1566.

Supermassive black holes can be surprisingly delicate eaters, astronomers find

By Daisy Dobrijevic

Astronomers have imaged an extraordinary black hole picnic of cosmic proportions.

(From left to right), NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, associate administrator Bob Cabana and NASA chief of staff Susie Perez Quinn tour the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The trio visited the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket as they prepare for the first launch of the Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the lunar surface. Today, at Space Launch Complex 41, NASA's Commercial Crew Program partner Boeing was set to launch its Starliner spacecraft on the uncrewed OFT-2 test flight. However, an issue with valve placement within the craft's propulsion system caused the flight to be delayed. The next available launch date is tomorrow (Aug. 4).

Pictures from space! Our image of the day

By Space.com Staff

NASA leaders visited the VAB at the agency's Kennedy Space Center to prepare for the first launch of the Artemis Program.

Search For Life

“My first rock sampling location is just ahead. This spot will be my ‘office’ for the next week or two,” team members on NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance mission wrote about this photo, which they posted on Twitter on July 29, 2021.

1 year after launch, NASA's Perseverance rover prepares to collect 1st sample on Mars

By Mike Wall

It's been quite an eventful year for NASA's Perseverance Mars rover.

Unidentified aerial phenomena remain a mystery.

The truth is still out there: why the current UFO craze may be a problem of intelligence failings

By Kyle Cunliffe

It's safe to say that UFOs, now branded UAPs, are back.

The bright white region of this image, captured by Europe's Mars Express spacecraft in December 2012, shows the icy cap that covers Mars’ south pole, composed of frozen water and frozen carbon dioxide.

Mars' buried polar 'lakes' may just be frozen clay

By Charles Q. Choi

Bright reflections that radar detected beneath the south pole of Mars may not be underground lakes as previously thought but deposits of clay instead, a new study finds.

Skywatching

Look up! Saturn shines bright, shows off rings as it reaches opposition.

By Doris Elin Urrutia

Starting Monday (Aug. 2), you can find Saturn shining in the sky as part of a celestial phenomenon called opposition.

august 2021 starry night A second third quarter moon

Best night sky events of August 2021 (stargazing maps)

By Chris Vaughan

See what's up in the night sky for August 2021, including stargazing events and the moon's phases, in this Space.com gallery courtesy of Starry Night Software.