Lifeboat Foundation

After Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft crashed, all eyes are on Chandrayaan-3 as India attempts to become the first nation to land on the moon’s south pole.

The robotic Luna-25 spacecraft appeared to have “ceased its existence” after a failed orbital adjustment, the space agency Roscosmos said.

A US Coast Guard notice gives the first possible date window for the next SpaceX Starship orbital launch attempt.

Page 4 out of 88 pages has a coast guard notice to mariners that starting August 31, 2023 there could be dangerous rocket operations.

SpaceX recently installed the new hot staging ring atop Booster 9 that will attempt this new stage separation method.

The hot staging ring has gone through its own test campaign, including being connected to the “can crusher,” which simulates stresses on the rocket during liftoff and, having passed that test, was then installed.

Hot staging is when the 2nd stage, in this case, Starship, ignites its engines while still connected to then pull away from Booster 9, which will also still be firing some of its own engines but with those throttled down. The hot staging method isn’t a new idea, as it has been used by Russian rockets for years now and also by older American rockets such as the Titan II.

A great video if you have 8 min to spare.

Continue reading “How Jetoptera’s Bladeless Propulsion System Works” »

While the current Oppenheimer blockbuster film focused on the destructive power of nuclear weapons, more peaceful uses of atomic propulsion for space exploration are now gaining once again momentum. ROB COPPINGER reports.

Nuclear fission and fusion power propulsion are under investigation in Europe and the US with an in-space engine demonstration planned by 2027 — with the news last month that Lockheed Martin had been selected to develop a nuclear thermal propulsion system for DARPA’s DRACO programme (see below).

Continue reading “Atomic rockets are back” »

WASHINGTON — Russia’s first lunar mission in nearly half a century suffered an “emergency situation” during an attempted maneuver Aug. 19, putting plans for a landing into question.

In a brief statement posted to its channel on the social media service Telegram, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said that the Luna-25 spacecraft was commanded to perform a maneuver at 7:10 a.m. Eastern to place the spacecraft into a “pre-landing” orbit around the moon.

However, during the planned maneuver “an emergency situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the maneuver to be performed with the specified parameters,” according to a translation of the statement. “The management team is currently analyzing the situation.”

SpaceX has installed a new heat shield and ‘vented interstage’ on its latest Starship Super Heavy booster, which is being prepped for flight in the near future.

Such process is paving the path toward civilian space development and astropolitical uses of space as well, and is creating a growing interdependent relationship between life on and beyond Earth. 2015 can now be identified as a “turning point” in history, signifying a change of paradigm, from “traditional” aerospace to a “new space” age.

As soon as the U.N. 2030 Agenda ^[1] was published, some relevant criticalities appeared. The general criteria supporting the concept of sustainability developed by the agenda is an unquestioned limitation to the boundary of Earth’s atmosphere. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, was conceptualized during the traditional aerospace age: outer space was not considered, as a dimension that helps to increase the sustainability of development. Space science and technologies are supporting social and environmental goals on Earth, for many years. Yet that will not be enough, to warrant a really sustainable development. To allow a real sustainable development, it is indispensable and urgent to start civilian space development, outside Earth boundaries. Therefore the UN 2030 Agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals needs to be updated.