Witze, Alexandra

Alexandra Witze is a news reporter who covers space exploration and scientific discoveries. She has written extensively about SpaceX Starship launches, Mars helicopter Ingenuity, the International Union of Geological Sciences' decision regarding the Anthropocene epoch, and various missions to the Moon. Her reporting often highlights conflicts of interest, contradictions, and deceptive practices in the space industry while maintaining a high level of readability for her audience.

Biography:  https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00868-1

76%

The overall score is a weighted number that takes into account conflict of interest, bias, deception and other practices that undermines the credibility of the source. It is calculated as:
Analysis.OverallConflictOfInterestScore * 0.3F + Analysis.OverallBiasScore * 0.3F + Analysis.DeceptivenessScore * 0.3F + Analysis.ReadabilityScore * 0.1F

A score that takes into consideration the content for flow, interruptions with ads, and overt search engine optimization techniques that makes the content hard to understand

The Daily's Verdict

This author has a mixed reputation for journalistic standards. It is advisable to fact-check, scrutinize for bias, and check for conflicts of interest before relying on the author's reporting.

Bias

88%

Examples:

  • Biases found in the articles include mentioning NASA's hopes for lunar exploration and outsourcing delivery of payloads to the Moon's surface to private companies through their Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, as well as mentioning Intuitive Machines' Odysseus spacecraft as the first private spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon when Astrobotic's mission in January was also a private company attempting to land a spacecraft on the Moon.

Conflicts of Interest

75%

Examples:

  • Conflicts of interest found in the articles include mentioning Intuitive Machines' Odysseus spacecraft as the first private spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon when Astrobotic's mission in January was also a private company attempting to land a spacecraft on the Moon.

Contradictions

86%

Examples:

  • Contradictions found in the articles include stating that Chang'e-5 mission returned 3.8 pounds (1.73 kilograms) of rocks and dust from Oceanus Procellarum, while also stating that the mission collected a sample from a vast lunar plane known as Oceanus Procellarum which included high-pressure silica polymorphs such as seifertite and stishovite. The discovery of these minerals highlights the potential of multiplying high-pressure minerals in lunar materials, which could provide new information about impact processes on the Moon and other planetary bodies in the early Solar System. Additionally, stating that Ingenuity broke during a final, fatal flight on 18 January while also mentioning that something fatal happened to Ingenuity's rotor blades during its final journey.

Deceptions

62%

Examples:

  • Deceptive practices found in the articles include stating that NASA has pinned some of its hopes for lunar exploration on outsourcing delivery of payloads to the Moon's surface to private companies through their Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, while this statement is incorrect as NASA has been funding and conducting lunar missions since Apollo 17 in 1972. Additionally, stating that Ingenuity enabled science while on Mars by allowing researchers to study how its blades kicked up dust clouds into the red planet's thin atmosphere when it was actually destroyed during a final flight.

Recent Articles

Japanese Spacecraft Captures Data from 10 Lunar Rocks, Providing Clues About Moon's Origin

Japanese Spacecraft Captures Data from 10 Lunar Rocks, Providing Clues About Moon's Origin

Broke On: Thursday, 15 February 2024 An unmanned lunar spacecraft has captured and transmitted data analyzing 10 lunar rocks, providing clues about the origin of the moon. The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) landed on the moon last month but initially had a historic precision touchdown that turned off after a brief communication with Earth.
NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Completes Historic Mission with 72 Flights and Surpasses Expectations

NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Completes Historic Mission with 72 Flights and Surpasses Expectations

Broke On: Sunday, 28 January 2024 NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, the first aircraft to fly on another world, has ended its mission at the Red Planet after surpassing expectations and making dozens more flights than planned. The helicopter sustained damage during landing and is no longer capable of flight.

SpaceX's Starship Test Flight: A Step Forward Despite Explosion

Broke On: Wednesday, 22 November 2023 SpaceX conducted the second test flight of its Starship rocket, which ended in an explosion. The company attempted hot-staging for the first time, a maneuver unprecedented for a rocket of this scale. SpaceX's Starlink satellite-internet business is growing, with 2 million subscribers and interest from the military.