This week in space: SpaceX test fires it's newest prototype, star-sails made of foamy carbon, and did a supernova cause an extinction level event?

Learn the ins and outs of pseudoscience, and debunking it: Read 'Escaping The Rabbit Hole' here.

Want to support the future of science and engineering? You can do so through one of these charities:

Black and British Professionals in STEM

Skeptoid media

The Association for Science Education

The Smallpiece Trust

SATRO

Arkwright Engineering Scholarships

LabAid

The Space Foundation 

Pick o' the podcasts:

Spacepod: Getting curious with Dr Fraeman

From the video store:

SpaceX prototype SN6 test fires

First launch to polar orbit from Florida since the 1960's:

....and from a different viewpoint:

Reading material:

White dwarf matter created in the lab

Could carbon foam let us build starships powered by sunlight?

Did a supernova cause a mass extinction?

China orbits new Earth monitoring satellite

Carrington event still stands as a warning of the Sun's power

Tropical storms tracked from space:

Terra Environment monitoring satellite sees california swathed in smoke

This week in space: U.S. military takes an interest in lunar resources race, some solar systems may have several habitable worlds, a second satellite servicing 'tow truck' launches to orbit, and loads more....

Learn the ins and outs of pseudoscience, and debunking it: Read 'Escaping The Rabbit Hole' here.

Want to support the future of science and engineering? You can do so through one of these charities:

Black and British Professionals in STEM

Skeptoid media

The Association for Science Education

The Smallpiece Trust

SATRO

Arkwright Engineering Scholarships

LabAid

The Space Foundation

 Pick o' the podcasts

Main Engine cutoff: Small commercial launcher updates

Off nominal:

Planetary Radio:

From the video store

Northrup-Grumman's second 'space tow truck', MEV-2, launches along side two communications satellites. 

SpaceX does another Starlink internet satellite launch...

...and it's drone-boat catches the rocket's nosecone covering ('fairing') for re-use: 

Scotland's highland spaceport gets approval:

Reading material

Blacksky satellites return images only 2 days after launch

Arecibo radio telescope damaged by snapping cable

A private mission to Venus

Rocket Labs to attempt recovery of one of its boosters, a big step towards re-use

Russia's new space station science lab is readied for its mission

Tropical storm Isaiha tracked in visible light and water vapour emission

Cape Cod bay from orbit

Aguas Zarcas meteor may contain building blocks of life

SNC grows tomatoes in test of space garden

Altius Space Machines to support Artemis

White house memo makes LEO research a priority

Scotland's spaceport plan gets approved

Satellite images capture struggle to move stricken ship

Skysat constellation complete

US military eyes role in international competition for lunar resources

This week in space: Winners and losers of US DOD launch contracts, International Space Station launches a teeny space telescope, Australia from space, and loads more...

Learn the ins and outs of pseudoscience, and debunking it: Read 'Escaping The Rabbit Hole' here.

Want to support the future of science and engineering? You can do so through one of these charities:

Black and British Professionals in STEM

Skeptoid media

The Association for Science Education

The Smallpiece Trust

SATRO

Arkwright Engineering Scholarships

LabAid

The Space Foundation 

Pick o' the podcasts

Main engine cutoff: SpaceX and United Launch Alliance win US Department of Defense contracts

The Daily Space: All things Ceres

Space Scoop: When stars wobble

From the video store

Flinders ranges, Australia, from space:

Japanese company ispace aims to land a private mission on the moon in 2022

NASA space probe's dress rehearsal for asteroid landing

Reading material:

Dreamchaser space plane gets a name: Tenacity

Lava tubes on the Moon are big enough to hold cities

Dwarf planet Ceres does host a salty, near surface, ocean

New Russian extension for ISS is shipped

Space junk clean-up tech to be tested

A wave of space sector acquisitions

NASA's Martian mole is finally under the red sand:

I’ve used my scoop to help fill in the pit around my robotic mole. This, combined with another push on the soil from above, may help give the mole the boost it needs to keep making progress. Step by step.

More from our @DLR_en partners: https://t.co/BwvHcLRy6b #SaveTheMole pic.twitter.com/MezKt6vfGP

— NASA InSight (@NASAInSight) August 10, 2020

Galapagos from space

The star Betelgeuse just sneezed

NASA satellites track hurricane Elida...

...and the damaged core of Beirut

Miniature space telescope launched from ISS

This week in space: A huge week for SpaceX, Mars may have been cold-and-wet not warm-and-wet, mushy hail on Jupiter and loads more...

Learn the ins and outs of pseudoscience, and debunking it: Read 'Escaping The Rabbit Hole' here.

Want to support the future of science and engineering? You can do so through one of these charities:

Black and British Professionals in STEM

Skeptoid media

The Association for Science Education

The Smallpiece Trust

SATRO

Arkwright Engineering Scholarships

LabAid

The Space Foundation

Pick o' the podcasts:

We Martians: Perseverance rover launches

Space radio: Helicopters on Mars

365 days of astronomy: What are the Van Allen belts?

Planetary radio:

Crew Dragon triumphant...

...and why the SLS rocket matters:

From the video store:

A big week for SpaceX: Latest batch of Starlink satellites launched (and rocket landed)...

...SpaceX's huge prototype rockets takes to the air...

...while their Dragon-2 capsule returns astronauts from the ISS for the first time

Reading material:

Mars: A cold-wet world, not a warm-wet one?

Black hole planets (blanets) may orbit Milky-way's central maw

It may rain mushballs on Jupiter

Northrup Grumman outlines plans for Lunar orbiting space station

Satellites track hidden penguin colonies by their poop

A new model helps predict major solar flares

Ganymede may have one of the biggest impact scars in the solar system

More mysterious atmospheric features on Venus

The week in space news: An interview with Richard Garriott, lunar water mysteries, a second satellite servicing mission is set to launch, and lots about Mars...

Learn the ins and outs of pseudoscience, and debunking it: Read 'Escaping The Rabbit Hole' here.

Want to support the future of science and engineering? You can do so through one of these charities:

Black and British Professionals in STEM

Skeptoid media

The Association for Science Education

The Smallpiece Trust

SATRO

Arkwright Engineering Scholarships

LabAid

The Space Foundation

Pick o' the podcasts:

Time to eat the dogs: Ruling the savage periphery

Main Engine Cutoff: An interview with Phillip Hargrove of NASA's Launch Services Program

Off Nominal: Well Within The Kill Zone:

Spacepod: Three lunar water mysteries

Planetary Radio: Hope leads the way to Mars:

From the video store:

Test fire of SpaceX's new super-heavy lift rocket:

What we know about Russia's in-space anti-satellite weapon 

Ride along with a Soyuz spacecraft as it docks with the ISS

NASA launches Perseverance rover to Mars:

Reading material:

Dormant microbes revived after 100,000,000 years?

Could cosmic radiation make the Martian sub-surface habitable?

Rocket Labs pinpoint electrical problems as source of launch failure.

Mission Extension Vehicles Validate New Satellite Lifeline in Orbit

....and a second one is set to launch this week

'Breathing' electric engine will help satellites operate closer to Earth.

Radishes may grow on lunar soil

The Moon is an ideal spot for a gravitational wave observatory

Some planetesimals evolved like planets

Could some asteroids be from other star systems?

Aerographite: A low cost material for interstellar sails?