In space this week: A record breaking solar sail, Enceladus has plenty of chemical energy, a test of a prototype rocket 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:

Planetary Radio: Record breaking solar sail receives approval

We Martians: 5 years of We Martians

Weekly Space Hangout: What Next For New Horizons?

From the video store:

Roman Tkachenko merges 13 hours of images from New Horizons into this video of the ice-staroid Arrakoth:

Enceladus has plenty of chemical energy sources to support life in its ocean

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SpaceX launch TurkSat 5A (and land booster)...

...and test their newest prototype super-rocket

Reading material:

A private astronaut explains how Axiom plans to replace the International Space Station and potentially save NASA billions per year

Diverse chemical energy sources on Enceladus:

Industry in near-Earth space hits $385 billion in 2020

SpaceX has won a $150 million contract to launch the U.S. Department of Defense's first batch of hypersonic missile defense satellites

Stellar Flares May Not Condemn a Planet’s Habitability

Optical fibres and satellites combined for first interated quantumn network

Nearest brown dwarf to Earth shows Jupiter like bands

Chinese space enterprise gears up for record-breaking 40-plus launches in 2021

Subscriptions To Satellite Alerts Linked To Decreased Deforestation In Africa

Thales Alenia Space given €296 million contract to build European Gateway module

In space over New Year's: A huge unknown asteroid, NASA's top views of Earth, and what a supernova sounds like...

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:

Space Pod: Space Advocacy with Casey Dreier

We Martians: Lunar Science's next giant leap

Planetary Radio:

From the video store:

Arianespace and Soyuz launch a French military satellite

Our world from 400km up: NASA's top views of the Earth from 2020

Blast from the Past: Japanese mini rover videos the surface of asteroid Ryugu...

...and the sample returns home:

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What does a supernova remnant sound like in radio?

Reading material:

Lightning strikes seen on Venus?

The sample of asteroid returned by Haybusa 2 has been producing gas since it landed

A steam engine (yes, you read that right) for propelling small space satellites

Could a lunar 'gold-rush' trigger conflict on Earth?

NASA approves two new missions to study space weather

Meteor evidence points to a huge, unknown, asteroid

Life on Earth could have begun from a DNA/RNA mix

Could 'dark matter' be primordial black holes?

When did Earth's plate tectonics start?

What type of beamed energy is the best bet to get a probe out to the solar focus?

In space over Christmas: SpaceX launches classified NRO mission, building your own rocket, commercial airlock opens on the ISS, 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 Cut-Off: NASA VCLS 2, Relativity, Astra, and Firefly....

We Martians: Lunar Science's Next Giant Leap...

From the video store:

Christmas message from the ISS:

SpaceX ends the year with a classified launch for the NRO:

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A recap of Starship SN8's (sort-of) successful test flight:

And at the other end of the spectrum: Building your own rocket:

Looking for New Year's boardgames? Here are a few intriguing suggestions... 

Reading material:

Point to point suborbital space travel...

Possibility of alien technology not yet ruled out for Proxima Centauri signal

The ISS now has the first ever commercial airlock

Firefly Aerospace Announces Multi-Launch Agreement with Adaptive Launch Solutions

...and their debut Alpha launch is set to demonstrate Space Electric Thruster System

Chang'e 5 spacecraft heads back out into space on a new mission

 

Dealing with moon dust

China to launch core module of space station in first half of 2021

Capella Space unveil super-sharp radar images from space

Mars might be geologically active - today.

This week in space: Chang'e 5 returns samples from the Moon, Russia launches a huge new rocket, dark matter theory may have a challenger 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 cut-off: The flight of starship SN8

From the video store:

Russia's new, gigantic, Angara A5 rocket launches:

SpaceX launches the SiriusXM satellite

Astra's tiny rocket makes it to space 

Large meteorites over the Popecatepetl volcano... 

...and over Norway

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Chang'e 5 sample return capsule recovered. 

The mind melting scale of voids and supervoids

Arianespace launches 36 more satellites for the OneWeb satellite internet constellation

Earth from space: Lapland

Reading material:

ESA begins working on a re-useable rocket booster

If we use the Sun's gravity as lens, this is the view we'd get of a planet around the nearest star

Canada to send people to the Moon

Saturn and Jupiter to align over Christmas

Gas filament 50 million light years long discovered

Could modified gravity challenge dark matter theory to explain how our universe behaves?

New engine test facility to help build UK's future in space

Blue Origin's New Glen booster to compete for government contracts

This week in space: Something happened with SpaceX I believe? Hayabusa 2's asteroid sample lands in Australia, VG aborts its first spaceflight attempt from New Mexico, 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: H.A.L.O

Spacepod: Not Just a Telescope

Are We There Yet? The Big Business of Small Satellites

From the video store:

Well, that escalated quickly: Starship has a successful first flight... and stacks the landing (spectacularly)

Blast from the past: Watch ISS astronauts work outside the space station

Top secret NROL 44 intelligence satellite launches:

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Virgin Galactic aborts first spaceflight from New Mexico

Earth from Space: Kyiv, Ukraine

Reading material:

Starliner completes parachute tests

NASA to commercialize near-Earth communications

TriSept selects Relativity Space for full launch mission aboard Terran 1

National team submits Lunar proposal To NASA

NASA, US, European Partner Satellite Returns First Sea Level Measurements

'Dog kennel' satellite returns first ocean observations

Europe's first orbital space plane gets the go-ahead

This week in space: Hayabusa 2 drops its sample return capsule off in Australia, Chang'e 5 captures samples of the Moon, satellite spotters track the mysterious NROL 101 satellite 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:

Universe Today: What if our galaxy's central black hole became a quasar?

Main Engine Cut-Off: Delays, Delays...

From the video store:

China touches down on the Moon, drills for samples, and returns them to orbiting mothership - but suspends live broadcast of landing, causing confusion:

Landing...

...collecting samples...

...sealing samples...

...returning to space...

...docking with the mothership and sample transfer...

Arainespace and Roscosmos launch Falconeye 1 Earth observing satellite

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Soyuz 2’s 110th mission launches three civilian communication satellites

The Sun and the solar wind over decades:

Hayabusa 2's sample return capsule lands in Australia, carrying samples of asteroid rock.

Reading material:

Satellite spotters track mysterious NROL 101 satellite 

Aeveum space reveals highly responsive, fast turnaround, smallest launcher

Comets contain all the chemical ingredients for life

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spots China's Chang'e 5 lander from space