Toggle light / dark theme

SpaceX aiming for first orbital test launch of Starship in July

SpaceX is hoping to attempt to fly its in-development spacecraft Starship to orbit for the first time in July, according to company president Gwynne Shotwell shared the timeline at the International Space Development conference during a virtual speaking engagement.

Starship has been in development for the past several years, and it has been making shorter test flights, but remaining within Earth’s atmosphere, since last year. Its most recent flight also included its first fully successful landing, which is a key ingredient in the development of the Starship launch system, which is designed to be SpaceX’s first that is fully reusable.

July (aka next month) is an ambitious timeline for making the first orbital flight attempt of Starship, but in May SpaceX filed its planned course for the flight, which would lift off from the company’s Starship development site in south Texas near Brownsville (known as ‘Starbase’) and then eventually return to Earth with a splash down in the Pacific Ocean somewhere off the cost of Hawaii.

Jan Wörner KeyNote Speech to the 2021 Space Renaissance Congress

The speech sent by **Jan Wörner — former Director General of ESA -** for the Inaugural Opening Session of the 2021 Space Renaissance Congress.

Jan couldn’t present live, however he kindly sent us his speech, that we are nonored and proud to publish and add to the Acta of the Congress.

A great message: “We don’t want to *go back *to the Moon, repeating the Apollo mission, we want to* go forward* to the Moon”.

Live: Special coverage on Shenzhou-12 crewed mission to Chinese Space Station

Three Chinese astronauts — Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo — were lifted off on June 17 aboard the Shenzhou-12 manned spacecraft to China’s still-under-construction space station, where they are carrying out a series of technical and scientific operations. Join CGTN’s special coverage to learn more about Shenzhou-12 crewed mission to Chinese Space Station. #SpaceChina #Shenzhou12

Russia and China are racing to beat NASA back to the Moon

A new space race is now underway.


In both cases, the language is an attempt to call forth the spirit of the Outer Space Treaty. However, as many critics have stated, the Artemis Accords suffer from the fact that they are tied to a specific space agency and program. This was certainly the basis of Rogozin and Russia’s resistance when the Accords were first announced, hence why Russia and China have come together to do the same.

In short, they have decided to establish a set of bilateral agreements that would allow others to participate in their program of lunar exploration. While it’s not clear what the long-term implications of this will be, it could possibly lead to tensions and territorial disputes down the road. After all, one of the hallmarks of the current era of space exploration is its plurality, where multiple space agencies (and commercial space) are involved instead of two competing superpowers.

But when three of the five major space powers create two competing frameworks and ask others to join them, one can be forgiven for concluding that there’s a new Space Race in town!

The Kerbal Effect

Kerbal Space Program has now been out for a full 10 years, progressing alongside the space industry and the various people that operate within it. This documentary-style video takes a look at the people that have been influenced, inspired, and introduced to the wonder of space exploration by this bizarre game about little green beings, created by a small group of developers in Mexico City.

We want to thank you, the community, for helping us turn KSP into the launchpad for the next generation of space explorers!

https://www.kerbalspaceprogram.com/game/kerbal-space-program/

Don’t miss another KSP launch!
http://kerbalspaceprogram.com.
http://facebook.com/KerbalSpaceProgram.

https://www.instagram.com/kerbalspacep.
https://www.youtube.com/KerbalSPOfficial

SRIC3 Youtube LiveStream Sessions Space Renaissance

The 2021 Space Renaissance Congress is going to kick-off today, June 26th, at 13:45 UTC!

5 days of intense discussion on the best strategy to bootstrap the Civilian Space Development before 2025.

* 2021 is seeing the development of the first fully reusable orbital vehicle.

* this milestone will make the space settlement possible, provided that the right decisions will be taken, during next years.

* supporting and facilitating the effort of the New Space industry.
* giving proper priority to some technology and science advance.
* to allow civilians to travel and live in space.

Our mission is to make Earthers aware of this urgency and priority.

SpaceX Starship Super Heavy booster, launch tower take shape

SpaceX’s Texas facility known as Starbase has seen significant progress in its quest to become a mass-producing entity of Starship Super Heavy rockets.


In the last few weeks, SpaceX’s South Texas facility known as Starbase has seen significant progress in its quest to become a mass-producing entity of heavy-lift rockets.

Company founder and CEO Elon Musk recently shared a series of tweets showing the progress on the heavy-lift rocket known as Super Heavy in the company’s high bay assembly facility.

One of the tweets depicted the aft section of the giant rocket, known as BN2 or booster No. 2, seeming mostly completed in preparation for the company’s upcoming orbital attempt of the Starship launch system.

/* */