Lifeboat Foundation

An international team of researchers have come up with a fusion-based spacecraft thruster that uses a hydrogen isotope called deuterium as a fuel source, as Popular Mechanics reports.

Their “direct fusion drive,” (DFD) — as detailed in a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed preprint — is theoretically able to speed up a spacecraft to a blistering 44 kilometers per second, covering the distance from here to Neptune and beyond in less than a decade.

While electric propulsion systems powered by the rays of the Sun have allowed us to explore the inner reaches of our solar system, venturing beyond Jupiter would require gigantic solar arrays, the team argues in its paper.

NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, participated in the first media event following their mission and splashdown, where they answered questions about their historic mission on the International Space Station and return to Earth.

SpaceX ’s Crew Dragon, named Resilience, carrying Hopkins, Glover, Walker, and Noguchi, splashed down at 2:56 a.m. May 2 under parachutes in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Panama City, Florida, and was successfully recovered by SpaceX. After returning to shore, the astronauts immediately flew back to Houston, where they were greeted by their families and colleagues.

Continue reading “‘I Felt Really Heavy!’ – NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 Astronauts Discuss Their Historic Mission and Return to Earth” »

Starship has an explosive flight record, but SpaceX may finally be mastering the spaceship’s landing. That’s crucial to making it reusable.

The current revolution in space flight and other developments for Mars Colonization. See what visionary and lead space activist Dr. Robert ‘Bob’ Zubrin has to say about these and many other driving topics!

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The capsule just returned from space with four astronauts.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft Resilience may have just returned to Earth, but it already has a new mission: to carry the first private astronaut flight for SpaceX.

After completing a 167-day stay at the International Space Station (ISS), Resilience splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday morning (May 2). Safely strapped inside were four astronauts: NASA’s Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, as well as Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

SpaceX is performing a test flight of Starship SN15. The prototype will aim to be the first Starship vehicle to softly land during a high altitude flight test. Like the previous Starship prototypes, SN15 is expected to fly to approximately 10 kilometers.

Updates: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=52398.

Continue reading “LIVE: Starship SN15 Flight Test” »

SpaceX has once again scrubbed the latest major flight test of its Starship rocket. The next-generation spacecraft was set to launch from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, on Tuesday, but cancelled it for reasons unknown.

Starship SN15’s high-altitude flight test follows four previous attempts that all ended in massive explosions. SpaceX boss Elon Musk said previous issues with the rocket’s Raptor engines have been fixed “six ways to Sunday”, though if it fails to land cleanly there are more Starship prototypes currently under development.

Airspace clearance had been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), road closures were in place with Cameron County, and marine hazard notices had been issued. The test was expected to take place between 12pm and 8pm local time (6pm — 2am BST) on Tuesday, however a backup launch window is also in place for Wednesday.

The Virgin Galactic spaceship, VSS Imagine has been unveiled, revealing a more modular spacecraft designed to resolve challenges.

“For us to make the business start to scale, at the places that we’re aspiring towards, we need two things,” says Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier. “We need many more ships than we have right now and we also need the ships that we bring forward to be built in a way that they’re able to be maintained in a way that we can have much quicker than what we have with Unity.” In order to achieve those two elements of success, Virgin Atlantic has unveiled their latest spacecraft, the VSS Imagine. The new addition to the fleet is the third spacecraft built by Virgin Galactic and “has been designed in a way that’s taken the learnings we’ve had from all the flight testing on Unity.”

Of the many challenges astronauts will face in future missions to the Moon and Mars, keeping healthy is one of the most crucial.

But, in recent days, astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) found startling solutions to sustain them on long-lasting missions. They recently enjoyed a fresh supply of vegetables due in large part to the efforts of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission commander and Expedition 64 crew member, Michael Hopkins.

Insider spoke to two NASA scientists, Matt Romeyn and Gioia Massa, who work on the crop-production experiments, known as Veg-03Kand VEG-03L. Romeyn is the lead scientist on the experiments and Gioia is a Kennedy Space Centre plant scientist.