Author: starpathwp-production
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At long last, the glorious future we were promised in space is on the way
Last Friday, NASA awarded a $3.4 billion contract to a team led by Blue Origin for the design and construction of a second Human Landing System to fly astronauts down to the Moon. The announcement capped a furious two-year lobbying campaign by Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos to obtain a coveted piece of NASA’s Artemis…
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China prepares to launch Shenzhou-16 crewed spaceship
The combination of the Shenzhou-16 crewed spaceship and a Long March-2F carrier rocket was transferred to the launching area on Monday, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said. The facilities and equipment at the launch site are in good condition, and various pre-launch function checks and joint tests will be carried out as planned, said…
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China launches new space science satellites
China on Sunday successfully sent new space science satellites into orbit from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, including Macao’s first space exploration satellite project Macao Science 1. The China National Space Administration (CNSA) said that the satellites were launched at 4:00 p.m. (Beijing Time) by a Long March-2C carrier rocket from the…
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Virgin Orbit sold in pieces: Assets going to Rocket Lab, Launcher, and Stratolaunch
Virgin Orbit to be sold in pieces to three companies Totaling $36 million, three companies will take hold of the build of Virgin Orbit’s assets, including buildings, test sites, and the company’s 747 aircraft. What has yet to be sold so far has been the company’s IP, which I would guess would stay in Virgin…
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Frontgrade and Lattice Collaboration Produces Radiation-tolerant Low SWAP-C FPGA for Space Applications
The successful space grade qualification and assurance conducted by Frontgrade Technologies has yielded a radiation-tolerant, low-power FPGA tailored for space and satellite applications. Built on the award-winning Lattice Nexus platform, the Certus-NX-RT FPGA provides mission-enabling capabilities using a small footprint and delivering up to four times lower power than similar devices. These new reconfigurable, on-orbit…
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Rocket Lab Purchases Virgin Orbit’s Long Beach California Assets to Support its Neutron Rocket Program
Rocket Lab USA, a launch and space systems company, announced it has been selected as a successful bidder and is finalizing an asset purchase agreement for the purchase of certain Long Beach California aerospace production and manufacturing assets from Virgin Orbit Holdings, Inc. and certain of its subsidiaries in Virgin Orbit’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy auction.…
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LIGO starts its fourth round of searching for gravitational waves and black holes
A specialist checks the alignment of a test beam at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory. (National Science Foundation Photo) After three years of upgrading and waiting, due in part to the coronavirus pandemic, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory has officially resumed its hunt for the signatures of crashing black holes and neutron stars. “Our LIGO…
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Rocket Lab launches final TROPICS mission
Just under three weeks after Rocket Lab launched the “Rocket Like a Hurricane” mission placing two time-resolved observations of precipitation structure and storm intensity with a constellation of smallsats (TROPICS) satellites for NASA into low Earth orbit, the company launched its Electron rocket on the “Coming to a Storm Near You” mission on Friday. Launching…
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How NASA plans to melt the Moon—and build on Mars
In June a four-person crew will enter a hangar at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and spend one year inside a 3D-printed building. Made of a slurry that—before it dried—looked like neatly laid lines of soft-serve ice cream, Mars Dune Alpha has crew quarters, shared living space, and dedicated areas for administering medical…
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Ursa Major to Provide Hypersonics and Space Launch Capabilities for Air Force Research Laboratory
Ursa Major, America’s privately funded company focused solely on rocket propulsion, announced a contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to advance U.S. hyper sonics defense programs and space launch capabilities. Under the contract, Ursa Major will build and test a prototype of its new Draper engine for hyper sonics, and further develop its…