SpaceX is set to test the Starship SN10 prototype on Monday at the Boca Chica launch facility. The exact details for the round of testing have not been confirmed, but it will likely be a cryogenic proof test.
Updates: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=52398.
As commercial space companies increase the cadence of successful rocket launches, access to space is becoming more routine for both government and commercial interests. But even with regular launches, modern rockets impose mass and volume limits on the payloads they deliver to orbit. This size constraint hinders developing and deploying large-scale, dynamic space systems that can adapt to changes in their environment or mission.
As the UAE’s Hope spacecraft arrives at Mars, those involved have a mix of confidence and concern about the chances of successfully entering orbit.
WASHINGTON — As the United Arab Emirates’ Hope spacecraft arrives at Mars, those involved with the mission have a mix of confidence and concern about the chances of successfully entering orbit.
The Emirates Mars Mission, or Hope, spacecraft will arrive at Mars Feb. 9, entering orbit at about 10:41 a.m. Eastern. The spacecraft will fire its main thrusters for 27 minutes to slow it down enough for the planet’s gravity to capture the spacecraft into orbit.
Hughes-Fulford launched on the STS-40 space shuttle mission in June 1991.
The first American woman to launch into space who was not a professional astronaut but a working scientist, Millie Hughes-Fulford, has died at the age of 75.
Biochemical changes after going to space suggest that harm to cells’ energy-producing structures, called mitochondria, could explain astronauts’ health issues.
It summarizes the whole thing well.
““As important as Steve Jobs was, here’s the difference: Elon Musk is trying to invent a future, not by providing the next app,” says renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Continue reading “Neil deGrasse Tyson: Elon Musk Is The Most Important Person Alive Today” »
SpaceX won a NASA contract Feb. 4 to launch a small astrophysics mission, continuing its string of similar agency contracts over the last two years.
WASHINGTON — SpaceX won a NASA contract Feb. 4 to launch a small astrophysics spacecraft, continuing the company’s string of similar agency contracts over the last two years.
NASA awarded a contract to SpaceX for the launch of the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) spacecraft on a Falcon 9 in June 2024. The value of the launch contract is $98.8 million, which includes the launch itself and other “mission-related costs,” the agency said.
Northrop Grumman and United Launch Alliance successfully performed a crucial rocket motor test for ULA’s next-generation rocket, Vulcan Centaur, in preparation for a debut launch later this year.
Ingenuity, a technology experiment, is preparing to attempt the first powered, controlled flight on the Red Planet.
