First Flight of Worlds Largest Airplane [video]

Can’t Call A Plumber When The Space Station Toilet Leaks

According to Popular Science –

Unfortunately, installing a new toilet is space is as messy as it is here on Earth. According to NASA, the leak sprung while astronauts on the American side of the station were unhooking a connection point from the potable water system. About 2.5 gallons of water spilled out, and the astronauts had to soak it all up using—what else—towels!

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China Lands A Rover On The Moon’s Far Side

According to Cnet –

China’s Chang’e 4 spacecraft achieved the milestone at 10:26 a.m. on Jan. 3 in Beijing (6:26 p.m. PT on Jan. 2), with the country’s space agency landing its lunar probe in Von Karman crater on the moon’s mysterious far side.

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A Flight Above Mars [video]

Most-Distant Object Gets Visit By NASA on 1/1/19

According to Popular Science –

Get ready to meet 2014 MU69 (unofficially known as Ultima Thule), an object a billion miles beyond Pluto and 4.1 billion from Earth itself. On January 1, at around 12:33 a.m. Eastern Time, New Horizons will make get to within 2,200 miles away fromMU69—which sounds like quite a distance, but is actually three times closer than how far the spacecraft was from Pluto during its 2015 flyby (when it managed to capture many stunning images).

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50 Years Ago Man First Visited The Moon

From Scientific American –

At first Bill Anders thought it was no big deal. He and his Apollo 8 crewmates, Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, were on their fourth orbit of the moon, passing over the far side, farther from home than any human beings had ever been, when they happened to see the Earth beginning to peek out over the lunar horizon. It was December 24, 1968.

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Mars InSight Mission Explained [video]

China Plans to Launch an ‘Artificial Moon’ to Light Up the Night

According to Time.

Scientists are hoping to hang the man-made moon above the city of Chengdu, the capital of China’s southwestern Sichuan province, according to a report in Chinese state media. The imitation celestial body — essentially an illuminated satellite — will bear a reflective coating to cast sunlight back to Earth, where it will supplement streetlights at night.

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Also, this video pokes holes in the idea.

New Heat Shield Tech On NASA’s Parker Solar Probe

According to Gizmodo –

That thermal protection system took 10 years to develop. It’s got two layers of carbon-fiber-reinforced carbon, which retains its structural properties in high heat. In between those layers is carbon foam, a material that’s mostly air and thus doesn’t transfer much heat. On top of that is an outer layer of aluminum oxide, a white material that reflects light.

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Outtake Photos from Apollo 11’s 1969 Moon Landing

According to Quartz –

The first human set foot on the moon 49 years ago on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong emerged from the Apollo 11 lander. Along with the footage that was broadcast live on television, iconic images of the lunar expedition come from still photos the astronauts took themselves on a Hasselblad camera. The photos provide exceedingly crisp depictions of the lunar surface, the astronauts’ equipment and candid shots of the explorers themselves.

Included as well are less meticulously composed, almost accidental-looking images taken by the astronauts over the course of their mission.

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12 New Moons Found Orbiting Jupiter

According to ExtremeTech –

Famed astronomer Galileo Galilei discovered the first four moons of Jupiter way back in the early 1600s. More than 400 years later, astronomers are still finding moons orbiting the solar system’s largest planet. We’re not just talking about one or two stragglers, either. Astronomers from the Carnegie Institution for Science have spotted 12 new moons orbiting Jupiter, bringing the total to 79.

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All Rosetta Images Are Now Available Online

According to Gizmodo –

The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission to the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was one for the ages, providing an unprecedented look at this oddly shaped celestial object. The Rosetta probe captured nearly 100,000 images over the course of its mission, all of which are now freely available to the public in a single Rosetta archive.

Continue reading HERE.

Link to Rosetta Archive HERE.