Lifeboat Foundation

Space today is a three-horse race with the US, China, and SpaceX in the lead. Russia’s Roscosmos is falling back while ESA, Japan’s JAXA, and India’s ISRO are trying to make a run.

“There’s going to be a new world order out there, and we’ve got to lead it,” US President Joe Biden said after Russia’s war in Ukraine upended global geopolitics. Far from Earth, that transition is already happening.

Just like in the era of Sputnik and Apollo more than half a century ago, world leaders are again racing to achieve dominance in outer space. But there’s one big difference: Whereas the US and the Soviet Union hashed out a common set of rules at the United Nations, this time around the world’s top superpowers can’t even agree on basic principles to govern the next generation of space activity.

Continue reading “China, US Are Racing to Make Billions From Mining the Moon’s Minerals” »

Scientists were looking at how humans in southeast Asia today have some genes of an ancient human species mostly recorded in Siberia.

When researchers simulated the exhaust from a Falcon 9 rocket launch, they found that it releases high concentrations of CO₂ in the upper atmosphere.

Continue reading “An ancient tooth found in a cave proves an extinct species of archaic humans lived in southeast Asia over 130,000 years ago” »

When researchers simulated the exhaust from a Falcon 9 rocket launch, they found that it releases high concentrations of CO₂ in the upper atmosphere.

Raptor one “only” had 185 tons. SpaceX engineers are pushing boundaries 💯 Check out the full webcast with the Starship update via the link in our bio. Credit @spacex #spacex #space #raptor2 #raptor #starship #mars

Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, is considering a visit to Indonesia to explore investment opportunities in the resource-rich Southeast Asia country.

The chief executive officer of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo at the rocket manufacturer’s site in Boca Chica, Texas, on Saturday, during which Widodo extended an invite. “Hopefully in November, thank you for the invitation,” Musk said, according to a statement released by Widodo’s office.

Latest updates on Starship design — and a lot of stuff that still needs to improve.

Today we’re going inside Starbase with the ultimate tour guide, Elon Musk. He’s going to take us through the High Bay to see where Starships are assembled, we’ll also see the new MegaBay under construction and talk about SpaceX’s plans to get this rocket flying.

Continue reading “Elon Musk Explains Updates To Starship And Tours Starbase! [Spring 2022]” »

Though Boeing may redesign the capsule’s problematic valves before a crewed flight.

With Boeing’s next Starliner crew capsule launch attempt fast approaching, the company is considering redesigning the capsule’s propulsion valves, due to issues that have so far stopped the company from launching crewed flights to the ISS and competing with SpaceX, a report from *CNBC* reveals.

Boeing is developing the Starliner spacecraft thanks to a roughly $5 billion contract it was awarded under NASA’s Commercial Crew program. The next launch attempt, called OFT-2, is scheduled for next Thursday, May 19.

Continue reading “Boeing considers redesigning problematic valve that has kept Starliner from flying NASA astronauts” »

SpaceX COO and President Gwynne Shotwell says that the company now expects Starbase to be ready for Starship’s first orbital launch attempt as early as June or July, pushing the schedule back another month or two.

To accomplish that feat, SpaceX will need to more or less ace a wide range of challenging and unproven tests and pass a series of exhaustive bureaucratic reviews, significantly increasing the odds that Starship’s orbital launch debut is actually closer to 3–6 months away. While SpaceX could technically pull off a miracle or even attempt to launch hardware that has only been partially tested, even the most optimistic of hypothetical scenarios are still contingent upon things largely outside of the company’s control.

Both revolve around the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which – in SpaceX’s case – is responsible for completing a ‘programmatic environmental assessment’ (PEA) of orbital Starship launches out of Boca Chica, Texas and issuing a launch license for the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. In some ways, both tasks are unprecedented, but the bureaucratic processes involved are still largely the same as those SpaceX has successfully navigated over the last two decades.

Continue reading “SpaceX President updates schedule for Starship’s orbital launch debut” »