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Thor Unveils Electric Camper Van Concept With 300-Mile Range

Will your next camper van be an EV? Thor industries think so and their latest all-electric camper van could show us the very future of EV travel. Welcome to the Thor Vision Vehicle, an electric camper van ready to take your entire family on a camping adventure without the use of any fossil fuels. Does this EV concept have what it takes to beat out its gas-powered competition?

Much like the car and truck market, the camper van space is seeing a large shift towards electric power. Last week Winnebago unveiled their electric RV concept, and Airstream recently revealed their eStream electric trailer at the Tampa RV Show. Thor Industries is the parent company of Airstream further showing the brand’s commitment to the electric vehicle space. Based on what we know so far, the new Thor Vision Vehicle may be the best of the breed.

Webb space telescope nears its destination almost a million miles from Earth, ready for critical mirror alignment

If all goes well, the telescope will remain in that six-month orbit for the rest of its operational life, firing its thruster periodically to remain on station.

Getting ready to capture “‘wow’ images”

With the orbit insertion burn behind them, engineers will press ahead with mirror alignment, one of the most complex aspects of Webb’s already complicated deployment.

Radian announces plans to build one of the holy grails of spaceflight

A Washington-state based aerospace company has exited stealth mode by announcing plans to develop one of the holy grails of spaceflight—a single-stage-to-orbit space plane. Radian Aerospace said it is deep into the design of an airplane-like vehicle that could take off from a runway, ignite its rocket engines, spend time in orbit, and then return to Earth and land on a runway.

“We all understand how difficult this is,” said Livingston Holder, Radian’s co-founder, chief technology officer, and former head of the Future Space Transportation and X-33 program at Boeing.

On Wednesday, Radian announced that it had recently closed a $27.5 million round of seed funding, led by Fine Structure Ventures. To date, Radian has raised about $32 million and has 18 full-time employees at its Renton, Washington, headquarters.

Goodyear puts airless tires on Starship delivery robots

Goodyear’s airless tires are now being used by a fleet of Starship’s autonomous delivery robots on a college campus in the U.S.


The request: Starship recently asked Goodyear if it could design a smaller version of its airless tires for the company’s delivery robots, and the tire giant has now delivered.

“The micro delivery space presents a different set of needs as it relates to the tire,” said Michael Rachita, Goodyear’s senior program manager for non-pneumatic tires, “and our NPT technology is ideal to meet those needs to help enable a maintenance-free and long-lasting experience.”

Goodyear’s airless tires are now being tested on a small fleet of Starship delivery robots on the Bowling Green State University campus in Ohio. If the trial goes well, they may roll out nationwide.

SpaceX Won a $102 Million Contract to Deliver Aid and Military Cargo

In another example of space technology coming down to Earth.

One of the big arguments in favor of investing in space technologies is that the same technology is often used to benefit citizens down here on Earth.

In a new example of an Earth-focused application of space technology, SpaceX has won a U.S. Air Force contract worth over $102 million to help deliver humanitarian aid using heavy rockets, according to a report from SpaceNews.

The contract, part of the U.S. Air Force’s $47.9 million Rocket Cargo program, is aimed at developing rocket cargo solutions that can deliver aid as well as military cargo. Neither the U.S Air Force nor SpaceX has so far provided any information regarding which specific rockets will be used for the program. However, Greg Spanjers, rocket cargo program manager, told SpaceNews that the Department of Defense (DoD) wants to develop the capability to quickly deliver humanitarian aid anywhere in the world using specially adapted launch vehicles.

Full Story:


SpaceX just won a U.S. Air Force contract worth over $102 million to deliver humanitarian aid and military cargo using heavy rockets.

China makes world’s most space launches in 2021

At this rate the CCP will be launching everyday by the end of the decade. Wow.


China became the country that has carried out the most space launch missions in the world over the past year.

The combination of the Shenzhou-13 manned spaceship and a Long March-2F carrier rocket is transferred to the launching area of Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, Oct. 7, 2021. (People’s Daily Online/Liu Huaiyu)

The country’s Long March series carrier rockets, Kuaizhou series carrier rockets, as well as those developed by private space firms have made 55 launches and sent over 100 spacecraft into space.

SpaceX Awarded $102M AFRL Rocket Cargo Contract

SpaceX has won a potential five-year, $102 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to demonstrate technologies under a program that seeks to determine the viability of using large rockets to support the Department of Defense’s global logistics missions, SpaceNews reported Wednesday.

Under the Rocket Cargo program, the Air Force Research Laboratory will gather data on performance and environments signatures by having access to SpaceX’s orbital launches and booster landings.

The company will present cargo bay designs that are compatible with intermodal containers of U.S. Transportation Command under the contract, which includes an option for SpaceX to conduct a full-up demonstration of capabilities for heavy cargo transport and landing operations.

New Virus-Like Particles Can Deliver CRISPR to Any Cell in the Body

One critical difference? Unlike a Mars mission’s “seven minutes of terror,” during which the entry, descent, and landing occur too fast for human operators to interfere, gene therapy delivery is completely blind. Once inside the body, the entire flight sequence rests solely on the design of the carrier “spaceship.”

In other words, for gene therapy to work efficiently, smarter carriers are imperative.

This month, a team at Harvard led by Dr. David Liu launched a new generation of molecular carriers inspired by viruses. Dubbed engineered virus-like particles (eVLPs), these bubble-like carriers can deliver CRISPR and base editing components to a myriad of organs with minimal side effects.

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