Amazon launches its first internet satellites as Jeff Bezos looks to rival SpaceX's Starlink

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A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the first two demonstration satellites for Amazon's Project Kuiper broadband internet constellation lifts off from pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States on October 6, 2023
A rocket holding the first two demonstration satellites for Amazon's Project Kuiper broadband internet network blasts off.

Anadolu Agency / Getty

4 experts explain why Elon Musk's plan to colonize Mars is 'romanticized', not 'realistic', 'cosmic vandalism'

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Elon Musk in 2004
Elon Musk poses with a SpaceX rocket in El Segundo, Los Angeles, in March 2004.

Paul Harris/Getty Images

SpaceX's mega-rocket has a 'decent chance' of making orbit on its next flight, Musk said. Last time, Starship blew up the launchpad and exploded in mid-air.

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Side by side images show Starship lifting off in a cloud of smoke on April 20, next to a picture of the rocket tumbling out of control and spewing flames before blowing up.
Two images from Starship's first fully integrated launch in April show the rocket taking off then tumbling out of control before blowing up

SpaceX; Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post via Getty Images; Insider

NASA caught a 1.2 mile-high Martian dust devil on camera and scientists say it's way bigger than whirlwinds on Earth

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dust devil seen in distance on Mars
The dust devil appears as a white-ish moving column in the distance.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mercury is slowly shrinking, and it's giving the planet wrinkles

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A picture shows Mercury colored in shades of yellow and blue to reflect variation in its composition. the planet appears covered in craters and cracks.
A false-color picture of Mercury shows variations in its surface. The image was placed on a grey background.

NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington; Insider

In a first-ever for space junk, Dish Network was fined $150,000 for leaving a retired satellite to orbit indefinitely in the wrong place

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space junk debris field earth orbit esa
An illustration of space junk. Satellites and debris are not to scale.

ESA

A US astronaut involuntarily set a record for time spent in orbit, after his mission home was aborted and added 6 months to his trip

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Frank Rubio is shown being carried away in his astronaut garb, smilling and waving at the camera after landing back to Earth.
Frank Rubio landed back on Earth on Wednesday after 371 days on the ISS. His mission was originally meant to last six months.

NASA/Bill Ingalls

This asteroid dirt might explain the origins of life on Earth

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NASA has successfully returned a 250-gram sample of dirt from a near-Earth asteroid called Bennu. Scientists around the world will study the rock particles to see if they contain clues to the origins of life on our planet. 

An amateur astronomer caught one of the brightest fireballs ever seen on Jupiter. Watch the rare video footage.

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A picture of Jupiter snapped by Hubble on September 4th, 2021.
Jupiter recently welcomed a flashy guest from space.

NASA, ESA, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), Michael H. Wong (UC Berkeley), Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

NASA awarded $850,000 to a company that wants to pick up space trash the old-fashioned way — with bags

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space junk debris field earth orbit esa
An illustration of space junk. Satellites and debris are not to scale.

ESA

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