November 2022
Mauna Loa eruption spotted from space
Wednesday, November 30: This view of Mauna Loa by a Maxar Technologies satellite on Nov 28, 2022, shows the dramatic scenes unfolding during Mauna Loa's eruption. Here, the lava flows move along the Northeast Rift Zone on Hawaii's Big Island.
Hawaii's Mauna Loa, the world's largest active volcano, began erupting on Sunday (Nov. 27), the first eruption in almost 40 years. The volcano last erupted in 1984 when it sent a lava flow barreling toward the city of Hilo.
Mauna Loa occupies more than half of Hawaii's Big Island and rises 13,679 feet (4,169 meters) above the Pacific Ocean, according to USGS. It has erupted 33 times since the first well-documented eruption in 1843. - Daisy Dobrijevic
Related: Dozens of earthquakes swarm Hawaii as the world's largest volcano erupts
Moon photobombs Shenzhou 15 launch
Tuesday, November 29: This incredible image was captured during the launch of the fourth crew to China's Tiangong space station. Here, a Long March 2F rocket topped with the Shenzhou 15 spacecraft lifts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert at 10:08 a.m. EST (1508 GMT; 11:08 p.m. local time).
Crew members Fei Junlong (the mission commander), Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu are now headed for Tiangong, a day after they were unveiled as the crew for the six-month-long Shenzhou 15 mission.
Related: China launches 3 astronauts to Tiangong space station for 1st crew handover
Orion's incredible views of Earth and the moon
Monday, November 28, 2022: NASA's Orion spacecraft captured this amazing view of Earth and the moon today (Nov. 28) as it approaches its maximum distance from Earth.
Orion is currently performing an uncrewed test flight as part of the Artemis 1 mission. The capsule is fitted with 16 monitoring cameras that not only capture stunning views like this one but also help ground controllers inspect the spacecraft and check the mission is going to plan. Artemis 1 is the first stage of a series of missions designed to send back to the moon as part of the Artemis program. - Daisy Dobrijevic
You can keep up to date with the latest mission news with our Artemis 1 live updates blog.
Record-breaking snowfall covers Buffalo
Friday, November 25, 2022: European Earth-observing satellite Sentinel-2 watched from orbit as a record-breaking amount of snow blanketed the city of Buffalo in the north of the U.S.
The unprecedented snowfall, which buried the streets of Buffalo in 6 feet (1.8 meters) of snow within 48 hours, was a result of the so-called Lake Effect, a weather phenomenon that occurs in the area south of the Great Lakes on the border between the U.S. and Canada.
The Lake Effect happens when cold dry air from the Canadian inland sweeps across the lakes, sucking in moisture. Once the air is saturated with humidity, the clouds dump the water in the form of snow on the areas south of the lakes.
According to the World Economic Forum, the Lake Effect is getting more intense as a result of climate change. Sentinel-2 took this image on Tuesday (Nov. 22) while locals struggled to clear the snow off streets. – Tereza Pultarova
See you on the far side of the moon
Thursday, November 24, 2022: NASA's Orion spacecraft captured this image of the far side of the moon using its optical navigation camera during its close approach to the moon's surface earlier this week.
The image was taken on Monday (Nov. 21), five days after Orion set off for its debut uncrewed lunar trip from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Humans can only get a glimpse of the far side of the moon through space probes as it never faces our planet. During the Monday flyby, Orion approached the moon to a distance of only 80 miles (130 kilometers). NASA shared the image on its Flickr account on Thursday (Nov. 24). – Tereza Pultarova
Europe's new astronauts
Wednesday, November 23, 2022: 17 finalists of the European Space Agency's (ESA) astronaut selection on stage in Paris at the end of the agency's ministerial conference on Wednesday, Nov. 23.
ESA chose five new astronaut trainees and a paraastronaut out of the 17 finalists with the rest joining what the agency calls a reserve pool. While the five new astronauts will commence their training immediately, ESA might call upon one of the reservists in the future in case it needs extra man-power in space.
The new astronaut class includes two women: aerospace engineer and helicopter test pilot Sophie Adenot of France and British astrophysicist Rosemary Coogan. Paralympic sprinter and trauma surgeon John McFall is the parastronaut who will help ESA evaluated whether people with certain types of disabilities can safely participate in space flight. Belgian neuroscientist Raphaël Liégeois, Spanish aerospace engineer Pablo Álvarez Fernández and Swiss emergency surgeon and paratrooper Marco Alain Sieber are also joining the team. – Tereza Pultarova
Orion continues epic journey
Tuesday, November 22, 2022: NASA's Orion capsule took this selfie with the crescent moon on the sixth day of its epic journey around Earth's natural satellite.
Orion, which is now performing an uncrewed test flight as part of the Artemis 1 mission, is fitted with 16 monitoring cameras on its structure and in its interior. Ground controllers are using these cameras not only to share stunning views from the milestone flight with the mission followers, but also to inspect the spacecraft, which in the future will take a human crew on a similar trip.
Orion is currently heading to enter the distant retrograde orbit around the moon, an elliptical orbit that will take it as far as 40,000 miles (64,000 km) away from the lunar surface. During its time in this orbit, Orion will break a record for the farthest distance from Earth achieved by a human-rated spacecraft. The existing record was established by the Apollo 13 mission, which, however, got so far as part of an emergency rescue operation after an explosion impaired the spacecraft's systems. – Tereza Pultarova
Moon and Earth in one view as Orion nears closest approach
Monday, November 21, 2022: NASA's Orion spaceship took this stunning photo of Earth and the moon ahead of its closest pass at the planet's natural satellite on Monday morning.
The uncrewed capsule was lofted to space for its Artemis 1 mission by NASA's Space Launch System mega rocket on Wednesday (Nov. 16) to test technologies needed for humankind's return to the moon. Orion's cruise has been smooth so far. The capsule made its closest approach at 7:44 a.m. EST (1244 GMT), skimming just 80 miles (130 kilometers) above the lunar surface.
Later on Monday, Orion will fire its engines in order to enter the distant retrograde orbit around the moon, an elliptical orbit, which will take it as far as 40,000 miles (64,000 km) from the lunar surface. The capsule will return to Earth on Dec. 11. – Tereza Pultarova
Orion snaps blue marble in black and white
Friday, November 18, 2022: NASA's Orion space capsule continues on its way to the moon, snapping stunning images as it flies. This beautiful black and white portrait of our planet was taken by the capsule's optical navigation camera, which is used to determine the spacecraft's position in space.
Orion was lofted to space by the giant Space Launch System rocket on Wednesday (Nov. 16) early in the morning. The capsule separated from the mega-booster shortly thereafter and performed two engine burns since, putting itself firmly on the trajectory to Earth's natural companion.
Orion will make its closest approach to the moon on Monday (Nov. 21), passing only 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the moon's surface. The capsule will then spend about a week in the moon's orbit before heading back to Earth. Orion is expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on Dec. 11. – Tereza Pultarova
Orion leaving behind its blue marble
Thursday, November 16, 2022: The moon-bound Orion spaceship has taken this stunning sequence of images of the receding Earth in the first hours after it commenced its ground-breaking journey from the Kennedy Space Center.
The capsule, built jointly by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), launched on its Artemis 1 mission on Wednesday (Nov. 16) early in the morning. The purpose of this uncrewed trip to Earth's natural satellite is to prove the technology is fit to carry humans. Orion will make the closest approach to the moon on Monday (Nov. 21), passing just 60 miles (97 kilometers) above the moon's surface. The capsule will then spend about a week orbiting the moon before commencing its journey back home.
Orion is expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on Dec. 11. Throughout its journey, Orion will be sending home images taken by 16 cameras mounted on its structure. – Tereza Pultarova
Space.com collaborator captures the wake of Artemis 1 launch
Wednesday, November 16, 2022: A trail of curling exhaust fumes left behind by NASA's Space Launch System moon rocket after it left its launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida was captured by Space.com's collaborator Josh Dinner.
Josh captured the image shortly after the 322-foot-tall (100 meters) rocket cleared the pad at 1:47 a.m. EST (0647 GMT) on Wednesday, Nov. 16. The lift off followed a short delay caused by an issue with an ethernet switch at a radar monitoring site and a brief hydrogen fuel leak.
The rocket boosted an uncrewed Orion spaceship for the groundbreaking Artemis 1 mission to the moon and back, which will pave the way for humankind's return to the moon later this decade.
In a post-launch press conference, NASA admitted it detected some minor technical glitches during the milestone launch, but overall, all went as planned, to the delight of the Artemis 1 team and NASA leadership, as well as enthusiastic onlookers in Florida and all over the world. – Tereza Pultarova
NASA's moon rocket standing tall after battering by Hurricane Nicole
Tuesday, November 15, 2022: NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) moon rocket is standing tall in the moonlight after being battered by Hurricane Nicole last week ahead of its planned debut launch. The photo was taken by NASA photographer Bill Ingalls on Monday, Nov. 14.
NASA chose not to roll SLS with the Orion capsule atop back to the assembly building ahead of Hurricane Nicole's landfall on Thursday, leaving it on Launch Pad 39 B to weather the storm.
Nicole battered the rocket with wind gusts of more than 80 mph (130 km/h), but subsequent inspections revealed only relatively minor damage on the rocket and the capsule. The storm stripped off some of the insulating caulking on Orion, which smooths out a slight gap in the exterior of the spacecraft. NASA engineers, however, concluded that the problem is not a showstopper for the upcoming launch. If all goes to plan, SLS will lift off at 1:04 a.m. EST (0604 GMT), sending the uncrewed Orion for a lunar round trip. The mission, the first of the NASA-led Artemis program, will pave the way for humans' return to the moon in the coming years. – Tereza Pultarova
Solar snake slithers across the sun
Monday, November 14, 2022: The European Solar Orbiter spacecraft captured an odd snake-like filament crawl across the sun's surface just before a massive plasma eruption.
The filament, which originated in a sunspot, a cooler region on the sun's surface where the star's magnetic field is twisted, took three hours to slither across the sun's disk at a speed of 105 m per second (170 km/s), the European Space Agency (ESA), which operates the spacecraft, wrote in a statement.
In the time lapse sequence reconstructed from images captured by Solar Orbiter's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager the "snake"glides across the disk within a second.
Because the odd occurrence was followed by a coronal mass ejection (CME), an eruption of hot plasma from the sun's upper atmosphere, the corona, scientists think the two phenomena might be connected. – Tereza Pultarova
NASA's inflatable Mars-landing shield after test space flight
Friday, November 11, 2022: NASA's experimental inflatable Mars landing shield LOFTID is seen in this photo after being retrieved from the ocean following its test descent through Earth's atmosphere on Thursday (Nov. 10).
The LOFTID team also recovered a data module that was ejected from the flying saucer-like shield before splashdown, and which stores data recorded during the demonstration.
LOFTID, which could pave the way for technology that could allow landing larger spacecraft on Mars, launched to space on Thursday morning aboard United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket as a secondary payload with the Joint Polar Satellite System-2 (JPSS-2).
While for JPSS-2, the launch marked the beginning of a years-long climate monitoring mission, LOFTID headed straight back to Earth. Unlike previously used heat shields, LOFTID, thanks to its malleable nature, can be squeezed inside a rocket fairing even if its diameter exceeds that of the fairing. Thanks to its larger size, it can then slow down heavier spacecraft during the descent through a planet's atmosphere. – Tereza Pultarova
Inflatable Mars landing shield completes space-flight test
Thursday, November 10, 2022: A flying saucer-like inflatable shield has completed a descent from Earth's orbit and splashed down into the ocean, demonstrating what a future Mars landing technology may look like.
The LOFTID experiment (for Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator) launched into space on Thursday (Nov. 10) early in the morning as a secondary payload on the United Launch Aliance's Atlas V rocket, which also lofted the climate monitoring Joint Polar Satellite System-2 (JPSS-2).
Unlike JPSS-2, which is set to embark on a years-long mission, LOFTID headed straight back to Earth, unfolding into its full size and slowing down in the atmosphere through air drag.
In the future, similar shields may enable landing larger payloads on other planets, as their size is not limited by the width of the payload fairing of the launching rocket. NASA is now evaluating data from the test to see how the novel shield performed. – Tereza Pultarova
Cygnus cargo vehicle reaches space station despite solar panel malfunction
Wednesday, November 9, 2022: The Cygnus cargo spacecraft SS Sally Ride reached the International Space Station despite failing to deploy one of its two solar panels shortly after launch.
The spacecraft, carrying a record-breaking 4.1 tons (3.7 metric tons) of scientific experiments and supplies, arrived at the orbital outpost on Wednesday (Nov. 9) early morning. NASA astronaut Nicole Mann, assisted by her colleague Josh Cassada, captured the capsule with the space station's robotic arm at 5:20 a.m. EST (1020 GMT) before attaching it to the Earth-facing port of the station's Unity module.
SS Sally Ride, built by U.S. aerospace giant Northrop Grumman launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, on Monday (Nov. 7) at 5:32 a.m. EST (1032 GMT) atop an Antares rocket. Eight minutes later, the capsule separated from the rocket's upper stage as planned but failed to deploy one of its solar panels, raising concerns about its ability to reach the space station. The spacecraft made it to its destination despite the setback as scheduled. – Tereza Pultarova
Tropical storm Nicole swirls above the Caribbean
Tuesday, November 8, 2022: Storm Nicole swirls above the Caribbean as it approaches Florida, forcing NASA to consider emergency scenarios for its upcoming Artemis 1 test flight to the moon.
The storm, seen in this video sequence captured by the GOES-17 satellite of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), formed early on Monday (Nov. 7) morning.
Meteorologists expect the storm to strengthen over the coming days and hit Florida's east coast as a Category 1 Hurricane on Thursday morning. NASA's Kennedy Space Center, where the agency's Space Launch System moon rocket currently sits on a launch pad prepared for its scheduled debut flight, is in the zone expected to be affected by Nicole. NASA has not yet decided whether to roll the rocket back into the assembly building. The Artemis 1 mission, which is the first step in NASA's plans to put humans back on the surface of the moon, has already been delayed twice due to technical problems. – Tereza Pultarova
Japanese weather satellite observes moon rise from beyond Earth
Monday, November 7, 2022: The odd shape emerging above Earth is actually the moon rising this morning as seen by the Japanese weather forecasting satellite Himawari.
The satellite took the image from its perch in the geostationary orbit 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth where satellites appear fixed with respect to the planet's surface.
The odd shape of the rising moon is caused by the refraction of light in Earth's atmosphere, Simon Proud, a scientist at the U.K. National Center for Earth Observation, who shared the image on his Twitter account, told Space.com.
"The path of the light is getting bent as it travels through the atmosphere. Just like when you look at a straw in a glass of water," said Proud. – Tereza Pultarova
Moon rocket returns to launch pad
Friday, November 4, 2022: NASA's moon-bound Space Launch System rocket is back on launch pad 39B ahead of its debut test launch which will send the uncrewed Artemis 1. mission for a lunar roundtrip.
Engineers rolled out the rocket from the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, Nov. 4, with lift-off currently scheduled for Nov. 14. The test flight will see an empty Orion capsule fly to the moon and back to verify technical systems ahead of the first flight with astronauts, which may take place in 2024.
The debut flight, which will pave the way for humankind's return to the moon, has been delayed several times due to ongoing problems with leaking hydrogen. – Tereza Pultarova
Chinese rocket debris spotted by satellite
Thursday, November 3, 2022: The core stage of China's giant Long March 5B rocket that launched the final module of the country's space station on Oct. 31 has been photographed hurtling back to Earth by an Earth-observing satellite.
The 23-ton (21 metric tons) rocket stage was caught by cameras on board a nano-satellite operated by Australian start-up HEO Robotics amid an outcry of criticism of China's reckless treatment of the space junk problem.
Neither China nor all the world's experts currently analyzing the rocket's orbit know where it's going to crash over the weekend. China has previously been slammed for irresponsible behavior as similar out-of-control rocket returns took place following previous launches of its space station modules.
HEO Robotics shared the image on its social media channels on Thursday (Nov. 3), saying: "Our space-to-space imagery and intelligence will continue to support strategic decision-making and accountability efforts by making space transparent." – Tereza Pultarova
Moon rocket readies for rollout ahead of next debut launch attempt
Wednesday, November 2, 2022: NASA's Space Launch System rocket with the Orion capsule atop readies for its rollout from the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center ahead of its planned debut launch later this month.
NASA said it will move the 322-foot-tall (100 meters) rocket onto Pad 39B later this week. The launch, which will propel the uncrewed Orion capsule for a test flight around the moon and back, is currently scheduled for Nov. 14.
Part of the Artemis I mission, the test flight will prove that the rocket and the capsule are fit to carry human astronauts as part of NASA's renewed push to establish a permanent human presence on Earth's natural satellite.
NASA previously scrapped launch attempts in August and September due to ongoing problems with hydrogen leaks. – Tereza Pultarova
Falcon Heavy side booster returns to Earth after a successful launch
Tuesday, November 1, 2022: One of the side boosters of SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket that lofted a classified U.S. military satellite into orbit on Tuesday (Nov. 1) has been photographed during its return to Earth.
The Tuesday launch was only the fourth for Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket currently in service, and first since 2019. The flight also represented the 50th SpaceX mission of 2022 overall, as the company's lighter, workhorse rocket Falcon 9 has been lifting off on a weekly basis this year.
The launch of Heavy went without a hitch with both of the rocket's side boosters returning to Earth smoothly and landing at neighboring launch pads at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket's central stage didn't soft land this time as all of its fuel was needed to directly insert the secret USSF-44 satellite into the geostationary orbit 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth's surface. – Tereza Pultarova
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