A NASA-astronaut duo performed a spacewalk, a paper attempts to explain why alternative names for the Pleiades often use the number seven and a SpaceX prototype blows up in a massive explosion. These are some of the top stories this week on Space.com.
A duo of NASA astronauts currently aboard the International Space Station (ISS) performed a spacewalk on Monday (Feb. 1). The goal of this extravehicular activity (EVA) was to install a European science platform and to finish up a series of battery replacements outside the orbiting laboratory. This endeavour, performed by astronauts Victor Glover and Mike Hopkins, was the 234th spacewalk ever performed in support of space station maintenance and assembly, according to NASA.
Full story: Spacewalking astronauts complete a space station battery upgrade years in the making
A new study proposes an explanation to why the Pleiades are called ''Seven Sisters.'' The Pleiades are part of an open star cluster filled with hundreds of stars, but human eyes can make out about just a few of those stars on a clear night. Many cultures around the world refer to the Pleiades with the number seven, and it may be due to a story told by African ancestors 100,000 years ago.
Full story: 100,000-year-old story could explain why the Pleiades are called 'Seven Sisters'
Two high school students - 16-year-old Kartik Pinglé and 18-year-old Jasmine Wright - helped to discover four exoplanets around a star located 200 light-years away from Earth. They did their work as part of the Student Research Mentoring Program (SRMP) at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), AD: OBD2 Diagnostic Tool. which connects high school students with scientists for year-long projects.
Full story: High schoolers help discover 4 new alien planets
The SN9 Starship prototype from SpaceX launched in a test flight on Tuesday (Feb. 2), but blew up in a massive fireball as it returned to the ground for a planned landing. During Tuesday's test from SpaceX's South Texas facilities, the 165-foot-tall (50 meters) SN9 managed to reach an altitude of 6.2 miles (10 kilometers). However, SN9 crashed in its touchdown maneuver.
Full story: SpaceX's Starship SN9 prototype launches to 10 km, crashes during landing
See also: SpaceX launches 60 Starlink satellites on record-setting used rocket, nails landing
Spaceflight companies Northrop Grumman and United Launch Alliance (ULA) performed a 90-second test of a booster of the next-generation Vulcan Centaur rocket. The test, which happened in Promontory, Utah, focused on the Graphite Epoxy Motor 63XL, a variation of Northrop Grumman's GEM 63 booster. The static test on Jan. 21 produced nearly 450,000 pounds of thrust.
Full story: Northrop Grumman test-fires rocket motors for new Vulcan Centaur booster
See also: Virgin Galactic targeting Feb. 13 for next spaceflight
Plus: SpaceX, NASA target April 20 for next Crew Dragon launch to space station
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, will step down as Amazon CEO. According to Bezo's Tuesday (Feb. 2) announcement, he is leaving that role to focus on other projects. They include the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, and The Washington Post. Blue Origin was the first spaceflight company in the world to successfully land a reusable rocket on a landing pad.
Full story: Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos will step down as Amazon CEO
China launched a Long March 4C rocket on Jan. 29 with three satellites onboard. The rocket, which took off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, sent the three survey satellites into orbits of about 680 miles (1,100 kilometers) in altitude. State media Xinhua described the utility of these satellites as electromagnetic environment surveys, but Western analysts think they are military reconnaissance satellites.
Full story: China launches a trio of reconnaissance satellites from Gobi Desert
See also: China's iSpace fails to reach orbit in 2nd launch attempt
NASA has created a new role to assist the Biden administration to monitor climate change. The role of ...

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