JAXA tested a rotating detonation engine (RDE) in a sounding rocket and it’s been a success. What does this mean for the future of deep space exploration?
The selected companies will develop lander design concepts, evaluating their performance, design, construction standards, mission assurance requirements, interfaces, safety, crew health accommodations, and medical capabilities. The companies will also mitigate lunar lander risks by conducting critical component tests and advancing the maturity of key technologies.
The work from these companies will ultimately help shape the strategy and requirements for a future NASA’s solicitation to provide regular astronaut transportation from lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon.
Four private astronauts are currently circling the globe in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, and you can see the capsule from Earth — if you’re in the right place at the right time.
The Crew Dragon launched into space on Wednesday (Sept. 15), carrying the Inspiration4 mission on a three-day orbital trip. It is currently traveling around Earth in a nearly circular orbit up to 367 miles (590 kilometers) above our planet, according to SpaceX, and completes an orbit about every hour and a half.
SpaceX’s all-civilian mission is set to launch soon. Its Crew Dragon capsule is more unique than it seems.
The SpaceX capsule is much higher and will spend substantially more time in space than that of its rivals, Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin or Sir Richard Branson-owned Virgin Galactic.
Those two companies have yet to reach orbit and have only launched passengers barely across the official US-recognized border of space.
When Bezos traveled to space on his company’s flight, one of his fellow passengers, 82-year-old Wally Funk, gave a lukewarm review of the trip.
Civilian Space Development has kicked-off: the work begins now!
Newsletter 17.09.2021 by Bernard Foing & Adriano V. Autino
During the last months we have seen the first civilian passengers fly to space, onboard Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic vehicles. September 15th, four civilian astronauts, onboard a Space X Dragon capsule, passed the 500 km orbit, more than 100 km higher than the ISS.In 2016 we started to publicly talk about and promote Civilian Space Development, while the whole space community kept on talking only about space exploration. Earlier, in 2,008 we founded the Space Renaissance movement, and a couple of years later the Space Renaissance International, as a philosophical association targeted to complete the Kopernican Revolution, supporting the Civilization expansion into space. Nowadays the concept of civilian space flight is everywhere on the media, and many people in the space community talk about a space renaissance. Of course the Coronavirus pandemics accelerated the awareness of the urgency to expand humanity into outer space. And space tourism — the first stage of civilian space settlement — is now a reality, in its first steps.
Of course nobody could be more happy than ourselves, for the above development, and of course**2 we want to congratulate with Elon, Richard and Jeff, for such a great achievement!
Continue reading “Civilian Space Development has kicked-off: the work starts now!” »
“The door is open now. The view is pretty incredible.”
Watch four “amateur astronauts” and a floating stuffed dog go to space.
The four crew members — Shift4 Payments founder Jared Isaacman, scientist Sian Proctor, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital employee Hayley Arceneaux, and aeronautical engineer Chris Sembroski — are the first all-civilian crew to fly aboard a private vehicle to low-Earth orbit.
Continue reading “Watch: Civilian astronauts depart Earth on Inspiration4 mission” »
Dubbed Inspiration4, the mission launched Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida just after 8 p.m.
During their live-streamed ascent, some of the crew gave a “thumbs up” and pumped their fists in the air in celebration of the successful liftoff.
The four private citizens — two men and two women — will spend three days circling the world at an altitude of 335 miles — about 75 miles higher than the International Space Station and on a level with the Hubble Space Telescope.
Space has seen a number of high-profile, incredibly rich tourists in the past few months. The so-called “billionaire space race” kicked off in July, when Richard Branson rode his Virgin Galactic space plane to the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere. Shortly after, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos rode his rocket a little further. Whether they made it to “space,” though, has been hotly debated. Most space watchers agree these short suborbital trips aren’t quite the same as getting into low Earth orbit.
There will be no debate about the Inspiration4 mission. This flight takes the crew of four higher than Bezos or Branson and is different from those flights in key ways, even if it was bankrolled by another billionaire in Isaacman.
Continue reading “SpaceX Inspiration4 mission blasts off on history-making journey to orbit” »
Theoretical physics video nominated for international award.
A West Vancouver student may have the keys to interstellar travel. He just needs a few votes and a whole lot of mass.
Continue reading “West Vancouver student video explains how we could warp to Alpha Centauri” »
