Lifeboat Foundation

NASA announced that James Webb telescope course corrections used less fuel than expected, which means Webb can expect to work for more than 10 years.

And as NASA announced Wednesday morning, Webb may get to peer deep into the universe for even longer than expected: Webb used less of its limited supply of propellant during two course-correction thruster burns after launch than expected, and the space agency says it should have enough left over to enable operations “significantly” longer than the expected 10-year mission.

The James Webb just deployed another important instrument — the aft momentum flap — that will keep the telescope steady as it makes its groundbreaking observations.

On December 25th, 2021, astronomers and space exploration enthusiasts got the greatest Christmas present of all! After years of delays, cost overruns, and additional testing, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launched from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. In what was a real nail-biter, the Ariane 5 rocket and its precious payload reached orbit without a hitch. But as is so often the case, the deployment of the JWST was just the first in a series of “hurry up and wait” episodes.

Continue reading “JWST Just Deployed a Sail That Lets it Stop Getting Pushed Around by the Sun’s Radiation” »

Hypersonic air travel is anything that travels at Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound. The U.S. was once a leader in developing supersonic and hypersonic technology, but has taken “our foot off the gas,” according to Mark Lewis, executive director of the National Defense Industrial Association’s Emerging Technologies Institute.

Watch the video to find out more about how the U.S. fell behind Russia, China and possibly North Korea, and how we’re spending billions to catch up.

Continue reading “How The U.S. Fell Behind In Hypersonic Technology” »

NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems fully assembled NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion Spacecraft, and our launch and recovery teams are fully certified for NASA Artemis I, launching next year. Artemis I will be the uncrewed start of humanity’s return to the Moon! 🌕

Risen Energy Co. is planning to build a 45 billion yuan ($7 billion) integrated solar power factory in Inner Mongolia that’ll run on clean energy.

The company tells its annual developers’ conference, Baidu Create, that an expanding pool of talent is contributing to China’s AI development, with innovations in transportation, health care and space exploration.

I do not own this video. It is owned by ABC Australia. Interstellar voyage to find the second Earth — space documentary.
Support me: http://www.paypal.me/sovereignspace.

A documentary showcasing interstellar travel to visit an Earth-like planet, a bona fide Earth 2.0 to see if there is life on it. Follow this amazing adventure in state of the art CGI and with the world’s leading scientists.

After a successful launch of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Dec. 25, and completion of two mid-course correction maneuvers, the Webb team has analyzed its initial trajectory and determined the observatory should have enough propellant to allow support of science operations in orbit for significantly more than a 10-year science lifetime. (The minimum baseline for the mission is five years.)

The analysis shows that less propellant than originally planned for is needed to correct Webb’s trajectory toward its final orbit around the second Lagrange point known as L2, a point of gravitational balance on the far side of Earth away from the Sun. Consequently, Webb will have much more than the baseline estimate of propellant – though many factors could ultimately affect Webb’s duration of operation.

Webb has rocket propellant onboard not only for midcourse correction and insertion into orbit around L2, but also for necessary functions during the life of the mission, including “station keeping” maneuvers – small thruster burns to adjust Webb’s orbit — as well as what’s known as momentum management, which maintains Webb’s orientation in space.

Dec 29 (Reuters) — Billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX has raised $337.4 million in equity financing, the rocket company disclosed in a regulatory filing on Wednesday.

SpaceX, which counts Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) and Fidelity Investments among its investors, hit $100 billion in valuation following a secondary share sale in October, according to CNBC. It had raised about $1.16 billion in equity financing in April.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to Reuters request for more details on the latest funding round.

Space travel — and tourism — soared to new heights this year.

Space travel — and tourism — soared to new heights this year. Here’s a look back at some of the biggest space launches of 2021.