SpaceX has stacked a Starship vehicle on the launch pad at its Starbase facility in South Texas for the first time since March.

A Starship upper-stage prototype known as Ship 24 was stacked atop the Booster 7 Super Heavy first stage at the orbital launch pad at Starbase on Tuesday (Oct. 11) for the first time, according to a tweet (opens in new tab) from SpaceX early on Wednesday (Oct. 12).

The trek will mark Dennis Tito’s second trip to space and his first in over 20 years.

Les Johnson, author of the new book A Traveler’s Guide to the Stars, talked to WIRED about solar sails and more ways to get farther into the final frontier.

Space is a mystery that astronomers are still actively working to solve. While spacecraft like the James Webb has given us a closer look at the early universe, there’s still a lot we don’t know about the world beyond our planet. Like anything mysterious, myths about space abound. But not everything you read or hear is true. Here are four space myths you should never believe.

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star” might be one of the most iconic nursery rhymes, but it doesn’t mean it’s true. Sure, stars do appear to twinkle in the night, but that isn’t actually because they’re flickering. This space myth couldn’t be any more wrong.

Stars, like our Sun, actually shine all of the time. However, as their light travels through space towards Earth, it passes through various gasses and debris. These obstacles cause the stars to appear as if they are twinkling. It makes for a good jingle, but it isn’t true.

Crew-5 includes a Russian astronaut and the first Native American woman in space.

SpaceX’s latest crewed launch has reached the International Space Station (ISS). The Crew-5 astronaut mission launched at noon local time.

SpaceX used a Falcon 9 rocket to lift a crew of four astronauts — including a Russian astronaut and the first Native American woman to go to space — aboard Crew Dragon capsule Endurance. They docked and are now aboard the ISS after a 29-hour flight, as per a NASA report.

SpaceX Crew-5’s international crew.

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NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina arrived at the International Space Station Thursday Oct. 6, as the SpaceX Dragon Endurance docked to the complex at 5:01 p.m. EDT while the spacecraft were flying 258 miles above the west coast of Africa.

Following Dragon’s link up to the Harmony module, the crew aboard Dragon Endurance and the space station will begin conducting standard leak checks and pressurization between the spacecraft in preparation for hatch opening scheduled for 6:42 p.m.

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A four-person crew of astronauts and a cosmonaut arrived at the International Space Station on Thursday, completing a 29-hour trek in a SpaceX capsule that began in Florida.