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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.

Wednesday night, SpaceX announced Starlink high-speed internet is now available in Honduras, expanding its sizable service footprint across the Western Hemisphere.

Hours later, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 more Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The late-night Falcon 9 soared off Launch Complex 40 at 12:07 a.m. EST Thursday, extending the ongoing record of annual orbital launches from the Space Coast to 68 — with another 24 days remaining in December.

When it comes to nightmare scenarios for the United States, a nuclear attack from a foreign power has to rank among the worst possible choices. While the likelihood of such a strike is low, that does not stop experts from trying to prepare for any possibility. A story by Business Insider lists the following six cities as the most likely to be at risk in the vent of a future nuclear attack on the United States:

1) Chicago, Illinois.

2) Houston, Texas

Scientists have discovered gravitational waves stemming from a black hole merger event that suggest the resultant black hole settled into a stable, spherical shape. These waves also reveal the combo black hole may be much larger than previously thought.

When initially detected on May 21, 2019, the gravitational wave event known as GW190521 was believed to have come from a merger between two black holes, one with a mass equivalent to just over 85 suns and the other with a mass equivalent to about 66 suns. Scientists believed the merger therefore created an approximately 142 solar mass daughter black hole.

Yet, newly studied spacetime vibrations from the merger-created black hole, rippling outward as the void resolved into a proper spherical shape, seem to suggest it’s more massive than initially predicted. Rather than possess 142 solar masses, calculations say it should have a mass equal to around 250 times that of the sun.

In a significant stride forward for aviation, Reliable Robotics, a trailblazer in aircraft automation systems, has successfully operated a Cessna 208B Caravan with no one on board. The aircraft, while not as large as a 737–100, is still a considerable size, marking a noteworthy milestone in the field of aviation automation.

The flight was remotely controlled from Reliable’s control center, located 50 miles away. This system is not just about remote control, but full automation of the aircraft, including taxi, takeoff, and landing. The technology is designed to prevent controlled flight into terrain and loss of control in flight, two major causes of fatal aviation accidents.

Reliable Robotics has been collaborating with Textron Aviation, the manufacturer of the Cessna Caravan, and ASL Aviation Holdings. The goal is to integrate advanced aircraft automation into their operations. The U.S. Air Force is also on board, working with Reliable Robotics to apply this technology to large multi-engine aircraft for various missions.