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WASHINGTON — As SpaceX gears up for another test flight of a Starship prototype, the Federal Aviation Administration is facing new scrutiny from Congress for how it handled SpaceX’s violation of its launch license on an earlier test flight.

SpaceX had planned to launch its SN11 Starship vehicle March 29 from its Boca Chica, Texas, test site. That flight will be similar to those of previous Starship prototypes, going to an altitude of 10 kilometers before landing on a nearby pad.

However, SpaceX called off the March 29 launch attempt because an FAA inspector could not arrive to observe the flight during a five-hour window. “FAA inspector unable to reach Starbase in time for launch today,” tweeted Elon Musk, chief executive of SpaceX, using the proposed new name for the Boca Chica site. “Postponed to no earlier than tomorrow.”

Introducing a new SpaceX concept for the most efficient, modular, artificial gravity space station ever imagined.

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00:00 Intro.
00:21 Background Info.
01:38 Design Philosophy.
03:44 Starship Background.
06:25 Modular Design.
09:25 Outro.

Nitinol, a “memory” metal that can remember its original shape when heated, is an industrial gem that will play a key role in NASA’s next mission to Mars.

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A one-way ticket (including a cliffside condo!) starts at $300000.


An architecture firm has released ambitious plans for Nüwa, a sustainable city on Mars that could hold up to 250000 people in mostly underground cave systems.

Nüwa, named for the Chinese mythological goddess who melted five stones to give robust societal pillars, would be housed inside a sheer rock face where residents would be protected from damaging cosmic and solar radiation.

If you decide to move to Mars, your $300000 ticket will include a one-way trip to Nüwa, a residential unit of 25 to 35 square meters, full access to facilities, life support services and food, and “a binding work contract to devote between 60 [percent] and 80 [percent] of [your] work time to tasks assigned by the city,” according to ABIBOO, the architecture studio behind the concept.

The first house on the moon, an ambitious space-saving alternative to life on crowded Earth, could cost an out-of-this-world $60 million, according to a new study.

That’s an estimated $320000 monthly payment for 1356 square feet of interior space, so if you want to go big, stay home.

The study, conducted by the UK finance site Money.co.uk, used SpaceX’s blastoff weight pricing to estimate what it would cost to bring materials, tools and laborers to the moon to begin the work. It also factored in the costs of new technology that architecture on the moon would require for life support and other factors.