Lifeboat Foundation

NASA and SpaceX are targeting 9:29 p.m. EST, Monday, Nov. 4, for the next launch to deliver science investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station. This is the 31st SpaceX commercial resupply services mission to the orbital laboratory for the agency.

Filled with nearly 6,000 pounds of supplies, a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Live launch coverage will begin at 9:10 p.m. on NASA+ and the agency’s website. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

BEIJING, Oct 29 — A Chinese aerospace company has completed a successful test flight of a prototype for a supersonic commercial transport plane that aims to travel at Mach 4, which is twice as fast as the retired Concorde.

Beijing-based Space Transportation, also known as Lingkong Tianxing Technology, announced on Sunday that its Yunxing prototype had flown successfully the day before.

In a report by South China Morning Post, the company said it plans to conduct an additional assessment of its engine technology in November.

Solar cells could be printed out like newspapers after Australia’s leading science organisation opened a $6.8 million facility dedicated to flexible solar technology.

The CSIRO launched its state-of-the-art Printed Photovoltaic Facility in south-east Melbourne on Wednesday, following more than 15 years of research into the renewable energy technology.

Researchers said printed, flexible photovoltaic cells could not only lower the cost of solar energy but could be used to deliver power in challenging areas such as space exploration, defence and disaster recovery.

NASA plans to send crewed missions to Mars over the next decade—but the 140 million-mile (225 million-kilometer) journey to the red planet could take several months to years round trip.

This relatively long transit time is a result of the use of traditional chemical rocket fuel. An alternative technology to the chemically propelled rockets the agency develops now is called nuclear thermal propulsion, which uses nuclear fission and could one day power a rocket that makes the trip in just half the time.

Nuclear fission involves harvesting the incredible amount of energy released when an atom is split by a neutron. This reaction is known as a fission reaction. Fission technology is well established in power generation and nuclear-powered submarines, and its application to drive or power a rocket could one day give NASA a faster, more powerful alternative to chemically driven rockets.

A colossal structure in the distant Universe is defying our understanding of how the Universe evolved. In light that has traveled for 6.9 billion years to reach us, astronomers have found a giant, almost perfect ring of galaxies, some 1.3 billion light-years in diameter. It doesn’t match any known structure or formation mechanism.

NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, achieved a key milestone this week for testing a new SLS (Space Launch System) rocket stage to fly on future Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond.

Over a two-week period beginning Oct. 10, crews completed a safe lift and installation of the interstage simulator component needed for future testing of NASA’s exploration upper stage (EUS) in the B-2 position of the Thad Cochran Test Stand. The component will function like the SLS interstage section that helps protect the upper stage during Artemis launches.

Continue reading “NASA Stennis Achieves Milestone in Preparation for Future Artemis Testing” »

They finally came back 💙

Crew-8 astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps all with NASA and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida on Friday (Oct. 25) at 3:29 a.m. EDT (0729 GMT). Their landing after 235 days — including a more than two-week wait on board the International Space Station (ISS) for acceptable conditions — set a record for their spacecraft.

Continue reading “Crew-8 splashes down on SpaceX Dragon Endeavour after weather delays” »

After weeks of hurricane delays, the crew successfully undocked on Wednesday and are on their way back to Earth.

The magnitude of the SpaceX Starship prototype.

Video Credit: Nik Cooper.

#starship #engineering #technology #space #rockets.

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