Lifeboat Foundation

SpaceX has shared spectacular new footage of last month’s launch of the most powerful rocket ever to fly.

The cinematic content (see video below) shows the first-stage Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft (collectively known as the Starship) blasting skyward in the second integrated test flight of the vehicle, which could one day carry astronauts to the moon, Mars, and beyond.

Liftoff occurred at 12:07 a.m. ET on Thursday (Dec. 7).

Elon Musk’s latest rocket—the most powerful ever built—would offer better economics than conventional craft.

Summary: Blue Origin, the aerospace manufacturer and spaceflight services company founded by Jeff Bezos, recently introduced its innovative spacecraft platform named Blue Ring. This announcement marks a significant milestone in Blue Origin’s endeavor to offer flexible and scalable solutions for a variety of space missions. Blue Ring aims to provide a standardized yet customizable foundation for diverse payloads, scientific missions, and potential crewed flights, representing a leap forward in space technology and exploration.

Introduction The space industry has been undergoing a radical transformation with private companies like Blue Origin at the forefront of pioneering advanced technologies and offering new opportunities for space exploration and utilization. The introduction of Blue Ring is a testament to the company’s commitment to innovation and its vision of enabling a future where millions of people are living and working in space.

The Blue Ring Platform: A Game-Changer for Space Exploration The Blue Ring platform is designed to be a multifaceted system capable of supporting various space missions. Its versatility comes from the ability to host multiple payloads and configurations, catering to a range of objectives from scientific research to commercial enterprises. The concept emphasizes scalability, where the platform can be adapted to different sizes and mission requirements without the need for extensive redesign.

SpaceX may aim to conduct a propellant-transfer demonstration on Starship’s third flight.

Elon was left “speechless” when confronted with the possibility that AI could follow humans to another planet.

Individual technologies necessary for in-orbit cryogenic refueling are at a stage of development where they are “ready now to go into flight systems,” Dankanich said, either with a demonstration in space or on an operational spacecraft.

First, small steps

By the fourth anniversary of those awards, only SpaceX appears to have a chance to complete the tasks outlined in its “Tipping Point” award, valued at $53 million.

WASHINGTON – Australian in-space servicing startup Space Machines Company announced plans Dec. 5 to work with U.S. on-orbit refueling startup Orbit Fab to validate and demonstrate key technologies.

SMC is the first non-U.S. customer to use Orbit Fab’s fiducial alignment markers. The markers are painted on SMC’s Optimus Orbital Servicing Vehicle, which is set to launch in early 2024 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare flight.

Orbit Fab’s fiducial markers are designed to act like a QR code, ensuring, for example, that a fuel shuttle replenishes the correct client. The fiducial markers also ensure proper spacecraft alignment for docking.

As if space travel didn’t present enough challenges — from bone thinning and an elevated risk of cancer to the sheer tedium of spending months confined to a small capsule — scientists have now warned that prolonged exposure to microgravity and cosmic radiation could lead to erectile dysfunction.

For a NASA-funded study, published in The Faseb Journal, researchers exposed rats to doses of radiation equivalent to that found in deep space, and suspended them in harnesses to simulate weightlessness for four weeks. A year later the blood supply to the rats’ erectile tissue was found to be impaired, apparently mainly as a result of the radiation. The scientists described it as “a new health risk to consider with deep space exploration”, but said that there were signs it could be treatable. When astronauts are in orbit, such as on the International Space Station, they are protected from cosmic radiation by Earth’s magnetic field, which deflects the rays. Further out, they’re fully exposed, and transporting the material needed to shield them is difficult and expensive.