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NASA administrator Bill Nelson has lauded billionaire Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Galactic, who along with five other crew members soared to the edge of the space aboard the VSS Unity spacecraft on Sunday. Nelson, a former astronaut who went to space in 1986, said that it was hard to believe back then that one day it would be possible for regular tourists to travel to space the way it happened on Sunday. “We put up Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom into suborbit 60 years ago, and now we’ve come to this, and I think it’s great,” Nelson told CNBC.

On Sunday, Branson flew more than 80km (50 miles) above the New Mexico desert aboard his rocket plane that lifted off from Spaceport America and safely returned in the vehicle’s first fully crewed test flight to space. Following his flight, the 70-year-old technology and space enthusiast, who founded Virgin Galactic some 17 years ago, said that his mission was a precursor to a new era of space tourism. Virgin Galactic is all geared up for its commercial operations from next year.

A Reuters report quoted Branson as saying, “We’re here to make space more accessible to all. Welcome to the dawn of a new space age.”

In a video from the space, shared by Virgin Galactic on Twitter, Branson could be heard saying, “I was once a child with a dream looking up to the stars. Now I’m an adult in a spaceship looking down to our beautiful Earth.”

Nelson, meanwhile, was quoted as saying by CNBC that what these billionaires — Branson and Jeff Bezos — were doing was “great.”

“What Elon Musk has done, going to orbit with astronaut crews, I think that is great,” Nelson said. On the criticism of these flights, he said that we can’t lose our characters as “explorers or adventurers.”

Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is scheduled to travel to space on July 20 with his brother. New Shepard, a reusable suborbital rocket system designed by Blue Origin, will take its first astronaut crew to space. Aboard will be Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos and the winner of an online auction for the seat. Blue Origin, an aerospace company, was founded by Bezos in 2000.

Blue Origin said that that unlike Virgin Galactic’s Unity, Bezos’s New Shepard tops the 100-km (62 mile) high mark, called the Karman line, set by an international aeronautics body as defining the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and space.

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Solar Sail Spacecraft Could Boost Space Weather Warnings by Nearly 60 Minutes

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August 4, 2025

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Solar Sail Spacecraft Could Boost Space Weather Warnings by Nearly 60 Minutes

A potential new solar sail-powered satellite mission is offering an extended early warning of extreme space weather events to safely shut down the most vulnerable pieces of our tech — without waiting for them to fail mid-activity and then figuring out why. Going far beyond Earth in the traditional sense of this type of satellite, the solar sail spacecraft would provide almost 20 more minutes of warning time (up to about 60 minutes total) before some very dangerous geomagnetic storms. These eruptions, called coronal mass ejections, cause space weather events that can disrupt satellites, damage power grids, and expose astronauts to cosmic radiation through the ability to ground high-altitude commercial flights. The better the predictions, the more time for critical systems to respond, so overall it is supposed to work out.

Solar Sail Mission SWIFT Aims to Boost Space Weather Forecasting from Beyond L1 Point

According to a report published by The Conversation and contributed to Space.com, the new SWIFT (Space Weather Investigation Frontier) mission will put a satellite with a lightweight solar sail on it out at 2.1 million kilometers from Earth, which is farther than the existing L1 Lagrange point where solar wind is monitored now. That might mean a longer warning — “lead” time, in space weather speak — which would give satellite operators more time to shield their satellites, prevent astronauts from being exposed to high radiation, and allow airlines to chart the safest ways for planes.

The new solar spacecraft, Solar Cruiser, stays in orbit by a balance created from the Sun’s gravity and solar photons bounced off a reflective sail. And far larger than previous sail missions like NASA’s NanoSail-D2 and JAXA’s IKAROS. This steers the satellite post-launch.

Solar Cruiser, part of the SWIFT constellation, will measure solar wind at several vantage points for better interplanetary space weather forecasting. Enquire for more economical on-ground space weather forecasts and missions such as SWIFT that help protect our planet from imploding due to solar emissions.

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NASA Data Shows Pluto’s Equator Is Lined with Towering Methane Ice Spires

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August 4, 2025

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NASA Data Shows Pluto’s Equator Is Lined with Towering Methane Ice Spires

The skyscraper size of methane ice might cover around 60% of the equatorial region of Pluto, a larger area than astronomers actually estimated. This study was published on July 5, 2025 in the Journal of Geophysical Reserach. It was based on the data from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft which captured close images of it around 10 years ago on July 14, 2025. Amid that flyby, the spacecraft located spires of methane ice, each is about 1000 feet tall.

Pluto’s Methane Spires Span Vast Equatorial Zone with Uncertain Pattern

As per NASA’s data they are separated to 4.4 miles in a shape which is somewhat parallel rows and form a geological feature which is called bladed terrain. The features seems to be larger and more spaced out verison of the penitentes of Earth which is a structure of water ice that creates a maximum of 9 feet. Almost the same structure was observed on Jupiter’s moon named Europa and also might be there on Mars.

Additional data collected at infrared frequencies signaled that the dwarf planet’s most of the region was methane rich, which shows that the spires are too. The results show that the bladed terrain of methane ice spires exists in a band that spans about 60% of the circumference of the planet.

Future Missions Needed to Confirm Pluto’s Mysterious Methane Landscape

This is equal to five times the width of the United States continental part, majority spotted on non-encounter hemispheres. However, it is still nort sure if the band is patchy or even. The band spans between 30 degrees south and north of the equator of Pluto.

Bladed terrain formation relies on methane’s long term cycle condensation and sublimation. These are controlled by the season of Pluto and its orbital variations. Straight evidence would be required to confirm the recent observations by the scientists. The most certain way to confirm the extension of bladed terrain into the dark side of Pluto is the future spacecraft mission.

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Blue Origin’s NS-34 Mission Successfully Carries Global Crew

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August 4, 2025

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Blue Origin’s NS-34 Mission Successfully Carries Global Crew

Blue Origin sent crypto billionaire with five people for finding frontier on August 3, 2025. This mission is known for NS-34, as it was the 34th flight by Blue Origin’s New Shephard vehicle. It was lifted from the West Texas spaceport at 8:43 a.m. EDT. NS-34 passenger was Justin Sun, founded blockchain platform Tron and is a billionaire. There was a scheduling conflict which kept Sun from joining the flight that took place on July 20, 2021. That day the passengers were Jeff Bezos, Mark, Wally Funk and Oliver Daemen.

A Diverse Global Crew Marks Blue Origin’s 14th Crewed Mission

According to report by Space.com, on Sunday, the crew consist of Arvinder, an India native American real estate adventurer and investor; a businessman Gokhan Erdem, a journalist and meterologist Lionel Pitchfor, a photographer Deborah Martorell, and an entrepreneur James Russell. It was great to see different nations representing their flight, said by Phil Joyce, senior Vice President of Blue Origin.

All the six of them were rookies of spaceflight except for Russell, who flew on NS-28 mission during November 2024. It was the 14th human spaceflight which includes a rocket topped by a crew capsule. Both the elements are reusable, and the rocket comes back just like the SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets and the capsule lands softly.

Each flight of New Shepard lasts for 10 to 12 minutes from the liftoff to capsule touchdown. Amidst, brieftime, the passengers remain above the Karman line at a height of 62 miles demarcation widely which is regarded as the nexus from where the space starts, and then it experiences weightlessness of a few minutes.

From Billionaire Seats to STEAM Dreams

Blue Origin has not shown the ticket prices, so there is no idea how much penny the folks have paid for this ride. However, it is safer to say that it was considerably less than the Sun went in the year 2021. That amount was a philanthropic contribution as per Blue Origin. Further, from $28 million bid 19 space focused charities were benefitted and inspired future generations to make careers in STEAM and shape up their future in space.

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