Lifeboat Foundation

The hotel giant will help “reimagine the human experience in space, making extended stays more comfortable”.

In Stanley Kubrick’s landmark film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, a Hilton hotel is seen orbiting the Earth. More than 20 years later, sci-fi fantasy has become reality.

Hotel behemoth Hilton has signed on to design astronaut facilities for an Earth-orbiting commercial space station Starlab, Voyager Space, a global leader in space exploration, announced. Starlab is currently under development by Voyager Space Holdings and Lockheed Martin, who first announced the orbiting complex in 2021.

Circa 2016 face_with_colon_three

Imagine if we could get to Mars in 40 days instead of seven months! It could happen if we used plasma rockets, which travel at 34 miles per second. But how do we make this a reality?

SpaceX has completed a record-breaking test of a Starship booster and rolled a newer Super Heavy prototype to the launch pad just hours apart.

Almost six weeks after SpaceX began Super Heavy Booster 7’s static fire test campaign, the company has broken new ground by simultaneously igniting seven Raptor engines at once. A matter of hours later, confirming SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s plans in real time, the company transported a second Super Heavy prototype (Booster 8) from the factory to the launch pad, where it joined Booster 7.

According to Musk, those rockets will soon switch places, ensuring that no time is wasted while SpaceX continues to gradually work towards Starship’s first orbital launch attempts.

SUSIE’s vertical landing capabilities draw comparisons to SpaceX’s Starship. Europe’s not quite there yet, but it’s a step in the right direction.

French aerospace giant ArianeGroup revealed a new concept for a reusable upper-stage spacecraft called Smart Upper Stage for Innovative Exploration, or SUSIE.

Continue reading “Europe’s new reusable spacecraft is more like a ‘large Crew Dragon’ than Starship” »

Elon Musk said the “next big test” is likely a full stack wet dress rehearsal of Starship.

SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket continues to pass key tests on its road to sending the Mars-bound launch system up to orbit for the first time.

The private space firm fired seven Raptor engines on its Starship Super Heavy prototype, called Booster 7, on Monday, September 19. As Space.com points out, it is the highest number of next-generation engines ever tested simultaneously.

Artificial gravity is the new black.

Vast, a California-based startup, has revealed that the company will develop artificial-gravity space stations to enhance human productivity in space. With a team of exceptional engineers, industry experts, k and an aerospace engineer and former vice president at SpaceX, Hans Koenigsmann, the company aims to create a setting where people can live as well as work in space.

The solar system has an incredible amount of resources.

Continue reading “A startup will build the world’s first artificial-gravity space stations” »

SpaceX has had many successful launches, compared with Boeing, which hasn’t flown its Starliner rocket yet, NASA’s administrator told Newsweek.

It could support non-combat activities such as humanitarian relief operations and medical missions.

Commercial space company Sierra Space, which is developing the shuttle-shaped Dream Chaser spacecraft for transportation solutions, has signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) transportation command for point-to-point global terrestrial delivery of military materiel and personnel.

Both organizations will develop solutions using the Dream Chaser spaceplanes, Shooting Star cargo modules, and on-orbit infrastructure that provides unique capabilities for precise, cost-effective, and timely global delivery of Department of Defense logistics and personnel through space.

The company’s developing a rocket reuse method that uses helicopters to pluck boosters out of the sky.

Rocket Lab, the company that’s building the technology to pluck first-stage rocket boosters out of the sky for reuse, reached a new reusability milestone, a press statement from the company earlier this month confirmed.

Continue reading “Rocket Lab fired up a used engine for the first time after retrieving it from space” »