Lifeboat Foundation

Blue origin’s moon rocket engines.

This incredible milestone changed the way humanity looked at our planet and access to deep space. The amazing events leading up to Apollo 11 and uncovers the fascinating future NASA has in store for space exploration.

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This week unlike the last has been super busy with launch activity. SpaceX Starship Updates and 20 Engine Static Fire for Booster, Atlas V, Electron, Falcon 9 and NS-22. We have multiple flyovers of both SpaceX’s Starbases in Texas and Florida, and wow are we seeing huge work done. Strap in, because there is a lot to cover today.

Continue reading “SpaceX Starship Updates and 20 Engine Static Fire for Booster, Atlas V, Electron, Falcon 9 and NS-22” »

New video I released today.

The space launch system is very expensive, and may cost $4.1 billion per launch. And according to the current NASA plan it can only be launched once per year at best.

Continue reading “Artemis without SLS” »

The material of the future could make an imaginative concept of the past real.

Brief history of the space elevator

Continue reading “A New Method for Making Graphene has an Awesome Application: A Space Elevator!” »

Circa 2008

Marshall Space Flight Center.

A laboratory-model Hall-effect spacecraft thruster was developed that utilizes bismuth as the propellant. Xenon was used in most prior Hall-effect thrusters. Bismuth is an attractive alternative because it has a larger atomic mass, a larger electron-impact-ionization cross-section, and is cheaper and more plentiful.

Continue reading “Hall-Effect Thruster Utilizing Bismuth as Propellant” »

WASHINGTON – The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on May 4 issued a solicitation for proposals for the next phase of a demonstration of a nuclear powered spacecraft.

The project, called Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO), started over a year ago when DARPA selected a preliminary design for a rocket engine reactor developed by General Atomics, and chose two conceptual spacecraft designs by Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin.

The next phases of the program will focus on the design, development, fabrication and assembly of a nuclear thermal rocket engine. DARPA will conduct a “full and open competition” so this opportunity is not limited to the companies that participated in the first phase, a spokesperson told SpaceNews. Proposals are due Aug. 5.