Tag: Space
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Seattle Space Week: Find out how artificial intelligence is taking over the final frontier
Robonaut 2 (at left) was one of NASA’s early forays into the world of robotics and AI. (NASA Photo) Will intelligent AI agents take on the job of capsule communicator in future missions to the moon, Mars and other space destinations? It could happen, says James Burk, the executive director of the Mars Society. “One…
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Stoke Space ignites its ambitious main engine for the first time
On Tuesday, Stoke Space announced the firing of its first stage rocket engine for the first time earlier this month, briefly igniting it for about two seconds. The company declared the June 5 test a success because the engine performed nominally and will be fired up again soon. “Data point one is that the engine…
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Stoke Space ignites its ambitious main engine for the first time
On Tuesday, Stoke Space announced the firing of its first stage rocket engine for the first time earlier this month, briefly igniting it for about two seconds. The company declared the June 5 test a success because the engine performed nominally and will be fired up again soon. “Data point one is that the engine…
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Virgin Galactic has ceased flying its only space plane. Now what?
On Saturday, the VSS Unity space plane made its final flight, carrying four passengers to an altitude of 54.4 miles (87.5 km) above the New Mexico desert. The spacecraft will now be retired after just seven commercial space flights, all made within the last year. Although the flight was characterized by its chief executive Michael…
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Rocket Report: Starliner soars to space station; Starship’s wild flight
Welcome to Edition 6.47 of the Rocket Report! The monumental news of late is that Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft not only successfully launched on an Atlas V rocket, but then subsequently docked with the International Space Station. Congratulations to all involved. It’s been a long road to get here. As always, we welcome reader submissions, and…
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After a drama-filled day, Boeing’s Starliner finally finds its way
A little more than a day after launching into space, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft flew up to the International Space Station and docked with the orbiting laboratory on Thursday. The journey through space was not always easy. In the immediate hours after launch on Wednesday, the spacecraft was beset by two helium leaks in its propulsion…
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As leaks on the space station worsen, there’s no clear plan to deal with them
NASA and the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, still have not solved a long-running and worsening problem with leaks on the International Space Station. The microscopic structural cracks are located inside the small PrK module on the Russian segment of the space station, which lies between a Progress spacecraft airlock and the Zvezda module. After the…
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The Hubble Space Telescope has lost a majority of its gyroscopes
The venerable Hubble Space Telescope is running out of gyroscopes, and when none are left, the instrument will cease to conduct meaningful science. To preserve the telescope, which has been operating in space for nearly three and a half decades, NASA announced Tuesday that it will reduce the Hubble’s operations such that it will function…
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Here’s why a Japanese billionaire just canceled his lunar flight on Starship
On Friday night the dearMoon project—a plan to launch a Japanese billionaire and 10 other ‘crew members’ on a circumlunar flight aboard SpaceX’s Starship vehicle—was abruptly canceled. “It is unfortunate to be announcing that ‘dearMoon’, the first private circumlunar flight project, will be cancelled,” the mission’s official account on the social media site X said.…
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Our only mission at Venus may have just gone dark
JAXA, the Japanese space agency, confirmed Wednesday that it has lost communication with its Akatsuki spacecraft in orbit around Venus. In its update, the space agency said it failed to establish communications in late April after the spacecraft had difficulty maintaining its attitude. This likely means there is some sort of thruster issue on the…