Now, an experimental NASA technology designed to cool equipment in space could drastically reduce electric vehicle (EV) charging times to five minutes or less, a NASA blog post reveals.
Thanks in large part to delays suffered by Arianespace’s next-generation Ariane 6 rocket, a small fleet of European satellites are simultaneously converging on the United States to hitch rides into orbit with SpaceX.
SpaceX launching European payloads is nothing new. The company has occasionally launched spacecraft built in Europe for European space agencies or companies, but the combination is exceedingly rare. For several reasons, however, what was once alien is beginning to become commonplace, and that fact is about to be made even clearer over the remainder of 2022.
SpaceX kicked off a string of six or seven launches of spacecraft built by or for Europe on October 15th. Over the weekend, the company’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket – 70 meters (230 ft) tall, 3.7 meters (12 ft) wide, and capable of producing up to 770 tons (1.7M lbf) of thrust at liftoff – successfully launched the Hotbird 13F communications satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) for the French satcom company Eutelsat.
This week, in-space refueling company Orbit Fab won a $13.3 million USSF contract to gas up geostationary (GEO) military satellites starting in 2025. Under the four-year contract, which was first reported by Bloomberg, the Colorado-based space startup will deliver hydrazine propellant to at least one Space Force satellite in GEO.
If you build it, they will come
Jeremy Schiel, cofounder and chief development officer of Orbit Fab, says he expects the Defense Department’s buy-in to boost the company’s credibility on the commercial market.
Astronomers just detected what may be the most powerful flash of light ever seen.
The so-called gamma-ray burst, the most energetic type of electromagnetic explosion known to exist in the universe, was first spotted by telescopes Sunday (Oct. 9).
Gamma-ray bursts, which were discovered accidentally by U.S. military satellites in the 1960s, are likely produced when giant stars explode at the ends of their lives before collapsing into black holes, or when ultradense stellar remnants known as neutron stars collide. Within seconds, these explosions unleash as much energy as the sun will emit during its entire 10-billion-year lifetime.
SpaceX’s 25th cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched from Pad 39A on July 15, 2022. The Cargo Dragon carried up to 13,000 lbs of scientific payload and tech, including 8 Cubesats. The capsule docked with the ISS on July 16, 2022.
The Dragon Capsule carried out a variety of experiments that are designed to help scientists understand more about the world around us. The scientific research performed in the microgravity aboard the ISS can’t be replicated anywhere else. Consider the ISS like an orbital laboratory, performing science for the Earth — off the Earth.
These experiments include studies of the immune system, including how it responds to stress and medications.
Circa 2008 0.0!
A normal digital camera can take snaps of objects not directly visible to its lens, US researchers have shown. The “ghost imaging” technique could help satellites take snapshots through clouds or smoke.
Physicists have known for more than a decade that ghost imaging is possible. But, until now, experiments had only imaged the holes in stencil-like masks, which limited its potential applications.
Continue reading “Quantum camera snaps objects it cannot ‘see’” »
The launchers are for DF-17 missiles, which can allegedly breach U.S. missile defenses.
China is making launchers for its series of road-mobile missiles named “Dongfeng,” which could avoid being detected by drones, radars, and satellites.
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology will be utilized for the Dongfeng launchers, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Thursday, quoting Chinese state TV broadcaster CCTV.
“All bets are off if the nukes start flying,” Musk recently tweeted.
Elon Musk reportedly rejected a request from within Ukraine to extend SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet coverage to Crimea, according to a newsletter from political analyst Ian Bremmer.
However, Musk has taken to Twitter after those reports were published and has cast doubt on their veracity by claiming that “nobody should trust Bremmer”.
Continue reading “Elon Musk denies blocking Starlink over Crimea due to fear of nuclear war” »
Intentional or non-intentional, we do not know, but the drone ship captured the best moments of the night.
SpaceX’s third Falcon 9 launch in as many days might not have been a record-breaking achievement for the company, but it was still every bit as exciting its any other launch. The space company’s trusted workhorse put up quite a show by producing a rather rare phenomenon in the night sky called the space jellyfish.
Continue reading “SpaceX’s drone ship captured a breathtaking view of the Falcon 9 ‘jellyfish’” »
