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Category: space travel – Page 136

One thing I learned today is that one of the many SpaceX explosions didn’t have to happen. It turns out that NASA gave SpaceX the option of doing the in-flight abort test via simulation or in reality. The problem with doing it in reality is that SpaceX would likely lose an expensive rocket.

Boeing decided to do their in-flight abort test via simulation for their Starliner capsule. Luckily, SpaceX doesn’t trust simulations and did it for real. I say luckily, because we are overdue to lose more humans in space. So far this century, Virgin Galactic has had 1 death and 1 serious injury, NASA has had 7 deaths, and Soyuz has injured 2 people bad enough to require hospitalization.

SpaceX’s Dragon Crew Capsule safely blasted away from its carrier Falcon rocket in an test of its abort systems on Jan 19, 2020. The rocket exploded during descent as expected: https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-dragon-launch-abort-test-success.html.

Credit: SpaceX

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Are we soon going to be traveling enormous distances via wormholes?

A team of scientists from the University of Sofia in Bulgaria believes they have discovered a new method for detecting wormholes — though they still only exist in theory.

Wormholes are theorized shortcuts through space and time. Sci-fi depictions traditionally show a spacecraft traveling through a wormhole, or creating one, to traverse immense distances to far-off regions of the universe in a short amount of time.

The issue is that black holes and wormholes look very similar, and we have barely developed the technology required to directly observe the former. Now, a team of scientists believes its mathematical model can help to tell the two apart, a report from New Scientist reveals.

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NASA’s moon-bound Orion space capsule fired its main engine for the first time about eight hours after the launch of the Artemis 1 mission to adjust its trajectory and check out the system.

The capsule was lofted to space by the giant Space Launch System rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Wednesday morning (Nov. 16). The rocket’s second stage put the capsule on a trajectory toward the moon about two hours after liftoff. However, to perfect the path and to make sure that Orion’s own maneuvering system works as designed, the capsule performed a planned engine burn shortly before 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT) on Wednesday.

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Starship is getting very close to becoming real. Starship just did a 14 engine static fire which is nearly as powerful as the Saturn V that landed people on the moon. A 33 engine static fire should happen within a month.

In addition, NASA just signed up Starship for a third trip to the moon. They have now signed up for one cargo and two crew missions to the moon for a total of over $4 billion. Other customers have signed up with Starship as well.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — NASA has awarded SpaceX a $1.15 billion contract to develop an upgraded version of its Starship lunar lander and fly a second crewed mission.

NASA announced Nov. 15 it completed a contract modification for what is formally known as Option B of its Human Landing System (HLS) contract with SpaceX. Option B covers upgrades to the Starship lander originally selected for HLS by NASA in April 2021 for $2.9 billion. The option also includes a second crewed demonstration landing mission.

“Continuing our collaborative efforts with SpaceX through Option B furthers our resilient plans for regular crewed transportation to the lunar surface and establishing a long-term human presence under Artemis,” Lisa Watson-Morgan, NASA HLS program manager, said in a statement. “This critical work will help us focus on the development of sustainable, service-based lunar landers anchored to NASA’s requirements for regularly recurring missions to the lunar surface.”

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But do they really have the necessary skillset?The new CEO of Twitter, Elon Musk, has authorized 50 employees from his other companies, such as Tesla, SpaceX, and the Boring Company, to help him handle matters at the social media company, according to a report by CNBC.

Musk has billed himself as a free speech absolutist, but he has to balance those wishes with laws and business realities. He said in an open letter to advertisers last week as he was taking over the company: “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences.”

It is not immediately clear how Tesla employees are expected to split their schedules between the automaker and Twitter.

Typically, when Tesla employees work for other Elon Musk ventures, usually SpaceX or the Boring Company, they can get paid by the other venture as a consultant. Some of Musk’s employees have full-time roles at more than one of his businesses. For example, Tesla Vice President of Materials Charlie Kuehmann, is concurrently a vice president at SpaceX.

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SpaceX and NASA are gearing up towards the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972.

NASA deputy associate administrator Mark Kirasich spoke highly of SpaceX’s progress on Starship in a subcommittee meeting of NASA’s Advisory Council on Monday, October 31, as per an Ars Technica report.

In 2021, NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to build a modified version of Starship as a lunar lander for its upcoming Artemis III mission.

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With 3,774 days in space under its belt, the solar-powered X-37B has already traveled more than 1.3 billion miles.

After a record-breaking 908 days in orbit for its sixth mission, a U.S. military drone touched down at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, early on Saturday.

“Since the X-37B’s first launch in 2010, it has shattered records and provided our nation with an unrivaled capability to rapidly test and integrate new space technologies,” stated Jim Chilton, a senior vice president for Boeing, its developer.

Wikimedia Commons.

The tiny space-shuttle X-37B, powered by solar energy carrying out scientific tests, broke the prior mission record, which took 780 days to complete, according to several media reports.

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla — An unmanned U.S. military space plane landed early Saturday after spending a record 908 days in orbit for its sixth mission and conducting science experiments.

The solar-powered vehicle, which looks like a miniature space shuttle, landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Its previous mission lasted 780 days.

“Since the X-37B’s first launch in 2010, it has shattered records and provided our nation with an unrivaled capability to rapidly test and integrate new space technologies,” said Jim Chilton, a senior vice president for Boeing, its developer.

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