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Boebert questions if US moon landing was real as bizarre ‘tin-foil hat' interview goes off the rails
Boebert questions if US moon landing was real as bizarre ‘tin-foil hat' interview goes off the rails

The Independent

timea day ago

  • Politics
  • The Independent

Boebert questions if US moon landing was real as bizarre ‘tin-foil hat' interview goes off the rails

Republican firebrand Lauren Boebert questioned whether the U.S. moon landing was real, noting 'facts change' while discussing the wild conspiracy theory that the event was staged with Alex Stein of Prime Time with Stein on the Blaze media network. In a segment seemingly just to discuss conspiracy theories, Stein kicked it off, telling Boebert, 'I think nuclear weapons are a lie!' To which she replied, 'Where's my tin foil?' While discussing the moon landing, the Colorado representative remarked, 'I wasn't alive either when we went to the moon–' before Stein cut her off to say, 'And that was fake too. Thank you! No, time out, Congresswoman. Now we really can talk. Now, we're vibing. First of all,' Mediaite first reported. Boebert then jokingly responded, 'Oh, God, here we go. Denver Post, ready for this headline?' 'Real quick, 1969 through 1972, the Apollo Moon missions, they were able to go through the Van Allen radiation belt. But let me just tell you, right now we have the International Space Station that is roughly 200–' Stein said. 'It's not beyond the Van Allen radiation belt, it's within it–' Boebert began to say as Stein clarified, 'The moon is past the Van Allen radiation belt.' 'No, no, no–the International Space Station,' Boebert responded, before Stein attempted to figure out how much further the moon is from the International Space Station. 'This isn't a financial seminar. My point is, we were able to go to the moon 1,000 times farther in 1969, but the current technology that we have, we cannot go past low-Earth orbit. Even Barack Obama said that, and that is the International Space Station. And half the time, we can't even go to the damn International Space Station because Joe Biden doesn't want to do auto-pay and give him, you know, an evacuation right out of there. So I think the moon landing's provably false,' Stein said, before adding, 'Am I smoking too much Delta-9, Congresswoman?' Boebert didn't shoot down Stein's wild conclusion, instead responding, 'You know, Alex, that's an interesting concept, and maybe we can have a classified briefing at some point,' she said, to which Stein agreed, 'I would love that.' 'Certainly, I love to explore all the different things. You know, Tucker Carlson once thought that Building 7 just collapsed,' Boebert said, referring to the debunked conspiracy theory that the fall of one of the buildings in the World Trade Center complex on September 11 was carried out by the U.S. government. 'Now he says emphatically that he was a part of the propaganda that led to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. So, you know, I mean, things change, facts change,' Boebert added. The Colorado Republican noted that this was why she loves Jesus and the Bible, noting 'that is truth and that is everlasting and that's something that will never change.' 'God is not a liar, but you know, there is a father of lies, and the Bible talks all about him. And unfortunately, we've seen time and time again where politicians are in office and deceive the American public,' she said. Boebert then questioned: 'And so I don't know, have we been beyond the Van Allen radiation belt? Maybe?' 'If so, I would like to know why it's taken so long to get back through it again. But, you know, here we are, and we'll see what Artemis and the Orion spacecraft have to do when they try to take a crewed spaceship back out there in just a year or two.'

1 No-Brainer Space Stock to Buy Right Now
1 No-Brainer Space Stock to Buy Right Now

Yahoo

time3 days ago

  • Business
  • Yahoo

1 No-Brainer Space Stock to Buy Right Now

Intuitive Machines is the only publicly traded company to have successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon in the last 50 years. It's landed twice, and has NASA contracts to try twice more. Intuitive Machines shares went on sale last month, falling 14% in price. 10 stocks we like better than Intuitive Machines › Sometimes, bad news for a stock investor can be good news for a stock buyer. Take the case of Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ: LUNR). One month ago, I asked myself if Intuitive Machines -- a stock I already own -- might be worth buying even more of, after its share price nearly doubled from the price at which I first bought it. Paying twice the price for the very same stock ordinarily wouldn't sound like much of a bargain. In fact, after running the valuation on the stock in May, I ended up hedging my bet and arguing it might be worth buying. Yet it also seemed to cost more than I usually consider an acceptable valuation for an unprofitable space stock. But that was then, and this is now. Over the past month, shares of Intuitive Machines have slumped 14%, closing Friday below $11 a share. For existing shareholders, that's disappointing. For investors looking to buy into Intuitive Machines for the first time, however, it may be an opportunity. In case you're unfamiliar with the company, Intuitive Machines is the very definition of a space stock. The company is best known for being the first private company to land a spacecraft on the moon, and for landing an American spacecraft on the moon for the first time since the Apollo era 50 years ago. It has in fact landed spacecraft on the moon twice now. Granted, neither landing was 100% successful -- both vehicles toppled over on their sides after landing -- but they did touch down safe and intact before keeling over. The company has secured NASA contracts for two more landing attempts, scheduled to take place in 2026 and 2027. And Intuitive Machines has promised to "incorporate ... lessons learned" from the first two partially successful landings to try and improve its performance on the next two. According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company was paid $132 million for its first landing and $122 million for the second (with both NASA and various commercial customers contributing to the revenue). Intuitive Machines' third mission, IM-3, is said to be priced at $87 million, but that number may be increased, and doesn't yet include payments from commercial customers. As valuable as these moon landing contracts are, however, they're arguably dwarfed by a completely different kind of contract Intuitive Machines secured from NASA last year. For $4.8 billion, spread across 10 years (so $480 million per year -- quadruple the value of a lander contract), the company has been hired to build a Near Space Network of satellites that will relay communications from low earth orbit to the moon and back. Over the past few years, both stock markets and corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have been valuing (mostly unprofitable) space stocks in a range of 2 to 4 times annual revenue. Intuitive Machines did $217 million in revenue last year, implying the stock should cost less than $880 million today. And yet it currently costs closer to $1.3 billion; factoring in "shares held by non-controlling interest holders," S&P Global Market Intelligence data suggests the company's implied market capitalization might be as high as $2 billion. So is that too much to pay? I think not. Why not? Well, just consider a future in which Intuitive Machines keeps launching one moon lander per year for NASA and its private customers (say, $120 million in revenue), operates its Near Space Network (for another $480 million), and does nothing else at all. Imagine it doesn't provide communications services to private customers with payloads on the moon, launch more often than once per year, or explore any new business opportunities in space. That's still $600 million a year in revenue, and at a revenue valuation (price-to-sales ratio) of 4, it implies that Intuitive Machines stock should be worth $2.4 billion -- and that's assuming the company does all of this unprofitably. (The price-to-sales ratio of 2 to 4 only applies to unprofitable space companies, remember.) Yet analysts polled by S&P Global anticipate that Intuitive Machines actually will begin reporting profits based on generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) just two years from now, in 2027. Even taking the most extreme estimate of the stock's current valuation today, $2 billion, that means the stock is probably already undervalued -- and a buy. Before you buy stock in Intuitive Machines, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Intuitive Machines wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $713,547!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $966,931!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,062% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 177% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 23, 2025 Rich Smith has positions in Intuitive Machines. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends S&P Global. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 1 No-Brainer Space Stock to Buy Right Now was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

‘Nasa is being savaged' — budget cuts and politics put space exploration in jeopardy
‘Nasa is being savaged' — budget cuts and politics put space exploration in jeopardy

Times

time4 days ago

  • Science
  • Times

‘Nasa is being savaged' — budget cuts and politics put space exploration in jeopardy

I t put a man on the moon, sent a rover to Mars and unlocked some of the greatest secrets of the universe. But for all Nasa's past achievements, team spirit is in the doldrums. 'It's not a happy time to work at Nasa right now,' said Casey Dreier, chief of space policy for The Planetary Society. 'There's very low morale and a huge amount of uncertainty.' The agency has been thrust into chaos by President Trump's proposed budget cuts, his rift with his former ally Elon Musk, and a U-turn on the nomination of Jared Isaacman as Nasa administrator. It should have been a time for optimism. Nasa is preparing to put humans back on the lunar surface for the first time since 1972 — and this time it was to be no fleeting trip. It was to include moonbases and research stations in which astronauts would live and work, and a permanent space station orbiting the moon called the Lunar Gateway.

NASA spots Japan's doomed 'Resilience' moon lander from orbit — and it's surrounded by far-flung debris
NASA spots Japan's doomed 'Resilience' moon lander from orbit — and it's surrounded by far-flung debris

Yahoo

time25-06-2025

  • Science
  • Yahoo

NASA spots Japan's doomed 'Resilience' moon lander from orbit — and it's surrounded by far-flung debris

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Moon-orbiting spacecraft belonging to NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have both snapped photos of Japan's ruined lunar lander Resilience, following its catastrophic "hard landing" earlier this month. Some of the images — the first to visually confirm the spacecraft's fate — show pieces of debris scattered across the surrounding area. The Resilience lunar lander, made and operated by the Japanese company ispace, was scheduled to land in the Mare Frigoris, or "Sea of Cold," region of the moon's northern hemisphere on June 5. The lander was carrying a range of scientific experiments, as well as Europe's first ever lunar rover, named Tenacious, which was set to deploy an art piece known as "the Moonhouse" on the lunar surface. However, operators lost contact with Resilience around 100 seconds before its scheduled touchdown. It then experienced a "hard landing" that likely tore the spacecraft apart and led to the loss of all of its payloads. On June 11, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) snapped the first satellite photos of the ruined lander. By comparing the new images with photos taken before the crash (see above), it's clear that the impact left behind a dark smudge on the lunar surface. The mark is likely regolith (the layer of dust and rock that blankets the lunar bedrock) that was displaced by the impact, according to the LRO website. On June 16, ISRO's Chandrayaan-2 orbiter snapped additional photos of the crash site, showing the area in much greater detail (see below). Subsequent analysis of the photos revealed pieces of debris scattered around the crash site. Astronomy enthusiast Shanmuga Subramanian identified at least 12 different pieces of debris and shared images of them on the social platform X. However, there was no indication as to how far apart these pieces were. Related: 'Everything has changed since Apollo': Why landing on the moon is still incredibly difficult Telemetry data from Resilience's final moments suggest the lander's laser rangefinder experienced delays while measuring the probe's distance to the lunar surface, Live Science's sister site previously reported. "As a result, the lander was unable to decelerate sufficiently to reach the required speed for the planned lunar landing," ispace officials wrote at the time. In a news conference on Tuesday (June 24), ispace finally confirmed that the laser rangefinder was at fault. Resilience was the second of ispace's Hakuto-R landers to attempt to land on the moon. Its predecessor also likely crash-landed in April 2023, after the company lost contact with it in lunar orbit. However, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's SLIM lander (or "moon sniper") did successfully touch down on the moon in January 2024 and remained operational for several months, despite accidentally landing upside down. The last few years have seen a sharp rise in the number of spacecraft attempting to land on the moon. U.S. companies have already attempted two lunar landings this year: First, on March 2, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost successfully touched down on the moon; and second, on March 7, Intuitive Machine's IM-2 probe landed on its side and died 12 hours later. RELATED STORIES —China has launched a secret robot to the far side of the moon, new Chang'e 6 photos reveal —NASA plans to build a giant radio telescope on the 'dark side' of the moon. Here's why. —Spacecraft films 'diamond ring' solar eclipse from the surface of the moon as 'blood moon' looms over Earth In February 2024, Intuitive Machine's Odysseus lander became the first American spacecraft to land on the moon in more than 50 years, but also ended up on its side. In August 2023, ISRO successfully landed Chandrayaan-3 — India's first-ever lunar lander — near the moon's south pole. This spacecraft later detected the first "moonquake" in decades before shutting down after 12 days. China's Chang'e 6 lander successfully touched down on the moon's far side in June 2024 and has since returned lunar samples to Earth.

Japan firm blames faulty space laser for doomed moon mission
Japan firm blames faulty space laser for doomed moon mission

South China Morning Post

time24-06-2025

  • Science
  • South China Morning Post

Japan firm blames faulty space laser for doomed moon mission

A laser navigating tool doomed a Japanese company's lunar lander earlier this month, causing it to crash into the moon Advertisement Officials for ispace announced the news from Tokyo on Tuesday. The crash landing was the second for ispace in two years. This time, the company's lander named Resilience was aiming for the moon's far north in Mare Frigoris, or the Sea of Cold. Nasa 's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter relayed pictures of the crash site last week where Resilience and its mini rover ended up as wreckage. An annotated image provided by Nasa shows the impact site for ispace's Resilience lunar lander on June 11. Photo: Nasa/Goddard/Arizona State University/AP Company officials blamed the accident on the lander's laser rangefinder, saying it did not properly measure the spacecraft's distance to the lunar surface. Resilience was descending at a rapid rate of 138 feet (42 metres) per second when contact was lost and crashed within seconds, they said. Bad software caused ispace's first lunar lander to slam into the moon in 2023. Like the latest try, the problem occurred during the final phase of descent. Of seven moon landing attempts by private outfits in recent years, only one can claim total success: Firefly Aerospace's touchdown of its Blue Ghost lander in March . Blue Ghost launched with Resilience in January, sharing a SpaceX rocket ride from Florida. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost and ispace's Resilience lunar landers, lifts off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in January. Photo: AFP

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