NASA Moon ROCKS!

NASA Scientists to Open Special Package March 9

NASA plans to open a special package today as it prepares for the return to the moon.

It’s an exciting event – 50 years in the making – the opening of one of the last sealed and pristine Moon rocks from the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. NASA’s been saving the samples all these years because the agency figured science and technology would improve over the years and allow scientists to study the rocks in new ways and address new questions in the quest to put humans back on the Moon. NASA hopes to make that happen in 2025. Carmen Roberts. Fox News.

You can listen to NASA’s presentation — The Moon ROCKS! Apollo to Artemis — on Twitter Wednesday, March 9. It starts at 6:30PM ET on @TwitterSpaces.

War Correspondent Joseph Galloway Dies at 79.

Foreign correspondent Joe Galloway covered the front lines of battle in Vietnam.

Longtime American foreign correspondent Joseph L. Galloway best known for his book about a pivotal battle in the Vietnam War died Wednesday at 79. His book, “We Were Soldiers Once … And Young,” was made into a Hollywood movie in 2002.

 “Before that day the soldiers of North Vietnam and America had never met each other in a major battle.”

The story recounted his and Army Lt. General Hal Moore’s experiences in the 1965 battle in the Ia Drang Valley. During that bloody fight Galloway rescued wounded soldiers under fire and became the only civilian to receive a U.S. Army medal of valor for actions in combat during the Vietnam War. Carmen Roberts. Fox News


Galloway spent decades as a foreign correspondent for UPI, US News & World Report, and Knight Ridder newspapers. He also served as a consultant for the Ken Burns’ PBS documentary “The Vietnam War.” The native of Refugio, Texas died in a hospital near is home in Concord, NC.

Galloway (center) aboard a Marine CH-34 helicopter in Vietnam the year after Ia Drang
“We Were Soldiers Once … And Young” starring Mel Gibson as Lt. General Hal Moore

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Win a Free Trip to the Moon

A Japanese billionaire announces a contest for a free trip around the moon on a SpaceX rocket.

If you’re interested, you can apply on DearMoon.earth through March 14.

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa says he’s looking for eight creative people to join him on a trip around the moon in a SpaceX rocket and he is paying! Maezawa released a video to encourage people to apply to be one of his guests on the flight called “Dear Moon.”

The CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, adds this will be a historic event. “What’s really significant about the Dear Moon mission is it will be the first private space flight, commercial space flight, with humans beyond Earth’s orbit.” Musk says it looks as if the systems should be ready for launch in 2023. Carmen Roberts. Fox News.

Christmas Asteroid Fly By

An asteroid the size of two football fields is set to pass by Earth today. 

The giant asteroid should be at its closest to Earth around 3:20 p.m. Eastern time.

The giant space rock will zip by our planet this afternoon at a speed of around 22-thousand miles an hour. NASA says the asteroid, dubbed 501647, will come within 1.9 million miles of Earth. Scientists say that’s a close fly by because any object that makes it within about 4.5 million miles is considered “potentially hazardous.” A much smaller asteroid will also fly by today but it won’t get as close. Only about 3.5 million miles from us. Carmen Roberts. Fox News.

Japan Brings Back Unique Asteroid Samples

Japanese spacecraft delivers asteroid dust from 180 million miles away in space.

Hayabusa2 Swings by Earth to Deliver Asteroid Samples

After spending 6 years in space, Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft swung by Earth and delivered precious samples from a distant asteroid. Pieces of dust and soil that could provide clues to the origin of the solar system and life on Earth. On board a capsule launched from the spacecraft are the world’s first subsurface samples from an asteroid. These came from Ryugu about 180-million miles and one year away. Hayabusa2’s work won’t end today. The spacecraft’s already on its way to another distant asteroid. A journey that will take 10 years – one way. Carmen Roberts Fox News.