Tag: Space
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SpaceX completes successful hot fire test of its massive Starship rocket
SpaceX conducted a second hot fire test of its Super Heavy booster on Friday afternoon, likely taking a key step toward the next launch of its massive new rocket. A few minutes after the test firing, SpaceX founder Elon Musk characterized it as “successful” on the social media network formerly known as Twitter. SpaceX later…
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SpaceX completes successful hot fire test of its massive Starship rocket
SpaceX conducted a second hot fire test of its Super Heavy booster on Friday afternoon, likely taking a key step toward the next launch of its massive new rocket. A few minutes after the test firing, SpaceX founder Elon Musk characterized it as “successful” on the social media network formerly known as Twitter. SpaceX later…
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SpaceX completes successful hot fire test of its massive Starship rocket
SpaceX conducted a second hot fire test of its Super Heavy booster on Friday afternoon, likely taking a key step toward the next launch of its massive new rocket. A few minutes after the test firing, SpaceX founder Elon Musk characterized it as “successful” on the social media network formerly known as Twitter. SpaceX later…
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The re-flight of a Rutherford engine demonstrates rocket reuse is here to stay
Rocket Lab launched its 40th Electron mission this week and achieved an important milestone in its quest to reuse orbital rockets. As part of the mission, the launch company reused a previously flown Rutherford engine on its first stage for the first time. In terms of orbital rockets, only NASA’s space shuttle and SpaceX’s Falcon…
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Police are investigating an Indian actor for joking about the country’s Moon lander
Three years ago, India sought to land a small spacecraft on the Moon, Chandrayaan 2. However, due to a series of problems, including software errors, the lander crashed into the gray and lonely lunar surface during its final descent. This failure hit a sore spot for the country, which takes pride in its burgeoning space…
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Russia’s Luna 25 spacecraft has crashed into the Moon
Sunday 8:15 am ET update: Russian space officials have confirmed the loss of the Luna 25 spacecraft on the Telegram social media network. The failure occurred during a burn of the vehicle’s propulsion system to move the spacecraft into a “pre-landing” orbit on Saturday morning. However, due to an unspecified problem, the propulsion system instead…
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Mobile User Objective System (MUOS)
A major development effort in the design of the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) is the waveform used in software defined radios (SDR) to provide terminal and manpack UHF communication radios. Due to the complexity of using Spectrally Adaptive Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (SA-WCDMA) in the MUOS environment, Satellite Link Emulator test systems were…
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Intuitive Machines says it is ready to fly to the Moon
A Houston-based company that is one of several US firms building private lunar landers, Intuitive Machines, says its 3-meter-tall Nova-C lander is finally ready to take to the skies. “Our Nova-C lander is completely built,” said Steve Altemus, co-founder and chief executive of Intuitive Machines, in an earnings call on Monday. “We will deliver a…
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Virgin Galactic just flew again, but is the company going anywhere?
SPACEPORT AMERICA, New Mexico—I’m standing on a spaceport runway at the ass end of nowhere. The sun has started to creep over the craggy San Andreas Mountains, illuminating the massive, alien spaceship-like building here in New Mexico that Virgin Galactic calls home. I have traveled all this way in early August to find a little…
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It’s finally time—Virgin Galactic is flying private astronauts into space
SPACEPORT AMERICA, New Mexico—On Thursday morning, Virgin Galactic plans to fly private citizens into space for the first time. The company’s VSS Unity spacecraft is due to be released from its carrier aircraft after 9 am local time (15:00 UTC), and it will then rocket above an altitude of 80 km. The vehicle will carry…