Lifeboat Foundation

Following a launch in late August and a month-long stay in orbit, SpaceX and NASA are preparing to return the CRS-23 (Commercial Resupply Services 23) mission from the International Space Station (ISS). Cargo Dragon undocked from the station on Thursday, September 30 at 13:12 UTC, with a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean planned for Friday, October 1 at 03:00 UTC.

CRS-23 uses Cargo Dragon C208-2, a Cargo Dragon 2 spacecraft from SpaceX. The spacecraft will conclude its second flight to space when it splashes down on Friday, previously launching on the CRS-21 mission in December 2020.

Continue reading “SpaceX and NASA ready for CRS-23 Dragon return” »

I agree with Elon.

Elon Musk repeated prior criticisms of fellow billionaire space mogul Jeff Bezos, as their respective companies continue to battle in federal court and in front of regulators.

“I think I’ve expressed my thoughts on that front — I think he should put more of his energy into getting to orbit, [rather] than lawsuits,” Musk said Tuesday at the CodeCon 2021 conference in Beverly Hills, California. “You cannot sue your way to the moon, no matter how good your lawyers are,” Musk added. Bezos’ Blue Origin is suing SpaceX, by way of NASA, in the U.S. Federal Court of Claims over a $2.9 billion astronaut lunar lander contract the agency awarded Musk’s company earlier this year.

Continue reading “Elon Musk fires shot at Jeff Bezos, ‘you can’t sue your way to orbit’” »

What do you think Chris Smedley.

⭐️ Join our Discord server! https://discord.gg/AYcSYdTBFG

Continue reading “Can China really be on Mars before SpaceX or NASA?” »

As part of a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch that will send a commercial Moon lander on its way to Earth’s nearest neighbor, rideshare organizer Spaceflight Inc and propellant depot startup OrbitFab have revealed plans for the first high Earth orbit propellant depot.

Known as “Tanker-002,” the co-developed spacecraft will technically be the first propellant depot – essentially a gas station in space – to reach a geostationary orbit ~36,000 km (~22,300 mi) above the Earth’s surface. Based around a variant of Spaceflight’s brand new Sherpa OTV space tug vehicles, OrbitFab hasn’t disclosed the planned capacity of its unique GEO depot but the public specifications of Sherpa suggest that the company will be able to deliver a few hundred kilograms (300−800 lb) of hydrazine accessible via several tiny docking ports.

However, Tanker-002 isn’t interesting solely for its unique position as a tanker in GEO. How Spaceflight and OrbitFab plan to get the small spacecraft into position will be a feat of engineering and trajectory design in its own right.

That looked dangerous.

Credit: SpaceX, Inspiration4 – John Kraus Photos.

Read more

Five years ago, Elon Musk unveiled his vision for getting us all to Mars.