Time flies, and it’s time for Urban Astronomer to host the Carnival of Space yet again! This week we’ve got a well-packed issue for you, so get comfortable and settle in for the long haul.

The week starts with Universe Today:

• Did We Arrive Early To The Universe’s Life Party?
• SpaceX Adopts Lessons Learned From Multiple Booster Landings – Test Fires Recovered 1st Stage: Videos

Then come three articles from a new contributor, Blasting News:

• Moon Express gets a go for launch from the United States government
• How do find out what the candidates plan to do about NASA space exploration
• Buzz Aldrin pays tribute to Israel’s moon shot effort, SpaceIL
• NASA reveals more details of its cooperation with SpaceX’s Red Dragon Mars misson

From The Space Writer:

• TheSpacewriter ruminates about what it will be like to live on the Red Planet in the future.

From Next Big Future:

• The FAA and the federal government has granted approval for startup Moon Express to send a mission to the moon. Moon Express intends to launch a small, single-stage spacecraft to land on the Moon by the end of 2017. Eventually the federal government would like to come up with a standard launch licensing process for deep space missions, but that will probably take a couple of years to finalize. It is not clear whether the FAA would be the lead agency for such missions as well, as it currently is for Earth orbit payloads. In addition to reviewing safety, the government is responsible for ensuring that deep space missions follow proper planetary protecting procedures.
• Vector is the first launch vehicle built exclusively for the Micro Satellite market. This vehicle is “right-sized” for the new generation of Micro Satellites and enables reliable and frequent access to orbit. Initial Operations Capability will be 12 launches per year in 2019 with 100 launches at Full Operational Capability. By 2021 Vector plans to launch as many as 100 of its 13-meter-tall Wolverine vehicles annually, with a capability to put a 50kg satellite into low-Earth orbit. The company aims to fill a niche below the current generation of launchers being developed by companies such as RocketLab and Virgin Galactic, with rockets capable of delivering 200 to 250kg satellites to low-Earth orbit

From Planetaria:

• Viking remembered: Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first search for life on Mars

From The Brown Spaceman:

• New Exciting NASA Telescope TESS Looks for Planets Closer to Home

From the official blog of the Chandra Xray Telescope:

• Behind the scenes of ‘ASTROLYMPICS’
• Taking a Supernova into the Third Dimension

And finally, from Andrew Fraknoi:

• Perseid Meteor Shower May Show an Outburst. This Thursday and Friday, there will be one of the best annual meteor showers you and your family can watch -– the Perseids. And some experts are even predicting that there might be a meteor “outburst” this year –- where the number of shooting stars increases beyond the usual rates.

And that’s that for the Carnival of Space #470 – thank you for reading this far!  If you are a space science or astronomy writer and would like to feature one of your articles on the carnival, please let us know We’re also always looking for websites to take a turn at hosting the carnival, so if you’d like to volunteer, we’d really like to hear from you.  In either case, drop us an email at carnivalofspace@gmail.com.