Posted in space travel
NASA is flying astronauts to the International Space Station from the United States using commercial vehicles.
On Nov. 14, the first operational mission of this program, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission, is set to launch four astronauts on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vehicle.
Watch as the crew explains what their mission is, how it is different from Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley’s Demo-2 flight, and what it means for people here on Earth. https://www.nasa.gov/crew-1
Richard Branson, the thrill-seeking British billionaire, founded Virgin Galactic in 2004 on the promise that a privately developed spacecraft would make it possible for hundreds of people to become astronauts, no NASA training required. And if a 2,500-mile-per-hour ride to the edge of space sounded off-putting, Branson also pledged to take the journey himself before letting paying customers on board.
Branson is the only one among the group of the so-called space barons, the group of space-loving billionaires that includes Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, who has publicly pledged to take a ride in the near future aboard a spacecraft he has bankrolled.
Bezos’ company, Blue Origin, is working on a competing suborbital space tourism rocket. Musk’s SpaceX, however, is focused on transporting astronauts and perhaps one day tourists on days-long missions to Earth’s orbit.
Boeing has hired a former SpaceX and Tesla executive with autonomous technology experience to lead its software development team.
Effective immediately, Jinnah Hosein is Boeing’s vice-president of software engineering, a new position that includes oversight of “software engineering across the enterprise”, Boeing says.
“Hosein will lead a new, centralised organisation of engineers who currently support the development and delivery of software embedded in Boeing’s products and services,” the Chicago-based airframer says. “The team will also integrate other functional teams to ensure engineering excellence throughout the product life cycle.”
There’s never been a radio silence quite like this one. After long months with no way of making contact with Voyager 2, NASA has finally reestablished communications with the record-setting interstellar spacecraft.
The breakdown in communications – lasting since March, almost eight months and a whole pandemic ago – wasn’t due to some rogue malfunction, nor any run-in with interstellar space weirdness (although there’s that too).
Military observers said the disruptive technologies – those that fundamentally change the status quo – might include such things as sixth-generation fighters, high-energy weapons like laser and rail guns, quantum radar and communications systems, new stealth materials, autonomous combat robots, orbital spacecraft, and biological technologies such as prosthetics and powered exoskeletons.
Speeding up the development of ‘strategic forward-looking disruptive technologies’ is a focus of the country’s latest five-year plan.
SpaceX Starship SN8 will perform a historical flight test this upcoming week.
SN8 has already performed both the static fire and cryogenic tests. The next test is the flight test. SpaceX has announced the window of November 9th to the 11th for SN8, Starship number eight, 15 kilometer flight aka 9 miles.
(cc: Space Photographer Austin Barnard)
With a variety of backgrounds and talents, these women have helped push the boundaries of spaceflight.
Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya.
Spacefacts.de
Svetlana Savitskaya was just the second woman to reach space. She was also a record-breaking jet pilot. Savitskaya was born in Moscow in 1948, and likewise started skydiving as a teenager. Her father, a high-ranking officer in the Soviet military, was allegedly unaware of her skydiving exploits. However, he soon supported her passion for flying jets, and Savitskaya quickly found herself competing in aerobatic competitions.
The scientist claims that this design could enable propulsion while only relying on electricity.
But take it with a grain of salt. It seems the propulsion system is based on ideas that are still being validated.
The drive would provide enough thrust for a spacecraft to travel near the speed of light using only electricity, says physicist Jim Woodward.
An urban spaceport that floats in Tokyo Bay is designed to make space travel more accessible.
