To say that space is a challenging environment is putting it lightly.

During a recent spacewalk outside the International Space Station, a tool bag got away from NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara. The bag has gone into orbit around Earth and may be visible through binoculars until it disintegrates in our planet’s atmosphere.

Meanwhile, Mars and Earth are now orbiting on the opposite sides of the sun, temporarily disrupting communications between NASA and its robotic explorers investigating the red planet.

Until the solar conjunction ends on November 25, the fleet of orbiters and rovers have sizable to-do lists they can work through before it’s time to check in with ground control once more.

Zero gravity, harsh radiation and vast distances are just some of the obstacles to space exploration that require years of technological development and research to overcome.

And after months of rebuilding following an explosive initial launch in April, SpaceX made a second attempt at launching its deep-space rocket system Starship, but not all went according to plan.

The uncrewed Starship spacecraft launched aboard the most powerful rocket ever built on Saturday morning, but both were lost shortly after liftoff.

The Super Heavy rocket booster ignited its 33 massive engines and Starship experienced a safe liftoff. SpaceX tried “hot staging” for the first time, essentially a step in which the spacecraft separated from the rocket booster by blunt force trauma.

After hot staging, the rocket booster exploded in a fireball over the Gulf of Mexico. Starship initially continued on just fine before SpaceX lost the spacecraft’s signal and triggered the system’s software to terminate the flight so it didn’t veer off course.

Starship was intended to fly nearly a lap around the planet before returning to Earth, but data from this second test flight will be used to determine SpaceX’s next steps in making humanity “multiplanetary.”

Source | CNN