This week, off world: Virgin Galactic begins commercial operations, a giant sunspot doubles its width in 24 hours, and loads more...

  Here’s where you can donate to help Ukrainian refugees and war victims... 

...and here is (one) place you can donate to help children in Afghanistan, caught under the Taliban.

   

Pick o' the pods:

207: One of the stranger surfaces in the solar system with Dr. Cartwright — Spacepod (listentospacepod.com)

From the video store:

How to photograph the International Space Station

  

Virgin Galactic aces its 1st commercial launch to space (video) | Space

Giant sunspot doubled in size in 24 hours, and it's pointing right at Earth | Live Science

Soyuz-2.1b launches Meteor-M No. 2-3 and 42 small satellites

Euclid | Ready for launch

Reading material:

What causes the strange green flash at sunset and sunrise on Earth? | Space

Rocket Lab doubles down on marine booster recovery with next Electron launch | TechCrunch

Solar Storms Cause A Terrifying, Record-Breaking Statistic For Earth (giantfreakinrobot.com)

There Could Be Captured Planets in the Oort Cloud - Universe Today

Chinese company plans to launch rocket comparable to Falcon 9 in 2024 - SpaceNews

British startup powers up sensor for monitoring tiny orbital debris - SpaceNews

 

D-Orbit wins contracts to test optical links and fly mini space lab - SpaceNews

NASA Gets Amazing New Results Generating Oxygen on Mars (futurism.com)

Satellite images appear to show build-up at Wagner base in Belarus | Reuters