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Archive for the ‘space travel’ category: Page 163

Aug 20, 2021

SpaceX Starship & Super Heavy Orbital Timeline Update!

Posted by in categories: space travel, sustainability

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Today we’ll talk Starship and Super Heavy timeline! How long until SpaceX lights the candle again? Heatshield, tank farm, prototype testing. What’s left to do, and can we make an educated guess as to how many more weeks? Yes, we can! Let’s find out!

Continue reading “SpaceX Starship & Super Heavy Orbital Timeline Update!” »

Aug 19, 2021

SpaceX set to end longest gap between Falcon launches in two years

Posted by in category: space travel

NASA has confirmed that SpaceX’s next Falcon 9 launch is now scheduled to occur no earlier than 3:37 am EDT (07:37 UTC) on Saturday, August 28th.

Known as CRS-23, the cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is noteworthy for two major reasons. Most importantly, CRS-23 will mark SpaceX’s first-ever reuse of an upgraded Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft. Simultaneously, that reuse milestone will coincide with another when SpaceX smashes its internal record for orbital spacecraft turnaround later this month.

Second, much to the surprise of virtually everyone watching from the sidelines, SpaceX’s last launch occurred on June 30th – in the first half of 2021. One step removed from the mission’s technical specifics, CRS-23 will, in other words, also be SpaceX’s first launch in almost two months – a gap not seen in two years.

Aug 19, 2021

Intriguing Science Experiments Launching on SpaceX’s Cargo Resupply Mission to the Space Station

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, science, space travel

The 23rd SpaceX

Commonly known as SpaceX, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is a private American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company that was founded by Elon Musk in 2002. Headquartered in Hawthorne, California, the company designs, manufactures, and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.

Aug 19, 2021

Blue Origin vs. SpaceX: Why the NASA lawsuit is the latest in a bitter feud

Posted by in category: space travel

Protests and meme campaigns weren’t enough, so now Jeff Bezos’ company is turning to lawsuits.


Following an unsuccessful GAO protest and meme campaigns, Jeff Bezos’s space company is suing NASA over a lunar lander contract for the Human Landing System.

Aug 18, 2021

SpaceX’s billboard in space: Is it legal? Experts weigh in

Posted by in categories: law, space travel

SpaceX wants to put an advertising billboard in space. The company will have to follow legal frameworks for doing so, experts explain.

Aug 17, 2021

Can The Human Body Handle Rotating Artificial Gravity?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, engineering, space travel

Artificial gravity for spaceflight is a concept older than spaceflight itself, but we’ve only ever seen one small scale test ever flown in space. However decades of research have been performed to show that the human body can adapt to the conditions required for rotating artificial gravity. This shows that it’s an engineering problem that likely solvable for interested parties who want to spend the time, effort and money creating the classic rotating space stations from Science Fiction.

Here’s a couple of papers which were heavily referenced in researching this.
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19720019454/downloads/19720019454.pdf.
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19730003384/downloads/19730003384.pdf.

Continue reading “Can The Human Body Handle Rotating Artificial Gravity?” »

Aug 17, 2021

Blue Origin’s powerful BE-4 engine is more than four years late—here’s why

Posted by in category: space travel

Interesting ArsTechnica article on the delay of the BE-4 engine from Blue Origin. It brings up a point many outside the actual industry miss in that Blue Origin has to meet more stringent and complicated regulatory and certification standards that SpaceX does since they are actually producing engines for sale rather than company use. Since SpaceX only provides ‘services’ rather than ‘products’ (they have no plans for every selling Merlin’s, Raptor’s or any other item they produce including the “mini-Raptor” the Air Force actually paid them to produce) they don’t have to meet or even consider most of the requirements that Blue Origin has had to in order to produce the BE-4.

After these tests, a fully assembled flight engine no. 1 will be shipped to Texas to undergo a fairly brief round of tests, known as acceptance testing. If this engine passes, as expected, it will be shipped to ULA. Then a virtually identical BE-4 engine will be sent from Kent to Texas. This “qual” engine will undergo a much more rigorous series of tests, known as qualification testing. The idea is to push the engine through its paces to find any flaws. Then a similar process will follow with flight engine no. 2 followed by a second “qual” engine.

The risk is that ULA will receive the flight engines before the full qualification testing is complete. This qualification work on Blue Origin’s test stands will be occurring even as ULA integrates the engines with its first Vulcan rocket for testing and ultimately a launch during the second half of 2022. So if Blue Origin finds a last-minute issue with the BE-4 engine, ULA may have to unwind its work on final Vulcan development.

Continue reading “Blue Origin’s powerful BE-4 engine is more than four years late—here’s why” »

Aug 17, 2021

SpaceX Mechazilla: how Starship’s companion will make the Mars city possible

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, space travel

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has plans for a giant orbital arm that he claimed resembles a character from Godzilla.

Aug 16, 2021

Bezos’s Blue Origin Challenges NASA Contract With Musk’s SpaceX

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, government, space travel

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin is challenging a U.S. government contract with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to develop technology to land people on the moon again.

In a complaint filed Friday in the Court of Federal Claims in Washington, Blue Origin said the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s evaluation process was “unlawful and improper.” The complaint was filed under seal but tandem documents seeking a protective order gave an indication of its contents.

NASA selected SpaceX’s human lander bid on April 16 leading Blue Origin and a bidding partner, Dynetics Inc., to file protests with the Government Accountability Office less than two weeks later alleging that the award process was flawed. The GAO denied that protest on July 30 saying that NASA’s SpaceX selection had been made properly. Blue Origin, which has offered to contribute more than $2 billion of work on the project at no cost to the government, had vowed to continue pursuing the matter.

Aug 16, 2021

SpaceX Starship orbital flight: launch date and plan for Mars-bound ship

Posted by in category: space travel

SpaceX is gearing up to launch the Starship into orbit, the biggest test yet for the ship designed to send humans to Mars and beyond.