Nearly 30 years after her historic spaceflight, we meet with the first British astronaut to talk about the future of space travel, global warming and Brexit Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24332490-700-helen-sharman-first-british-astronaut-speaks-out-on-science-climate/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Tag: Spaceflight
SpaceX Tries Buying Out Homeowners Around Starhopper’s Texas Launchpad
SpaceX “built its experimental spaceport in and around Boca Chica Village, a decades-old community of about 20 elderly residents,” reports Business Insider. But now “SpaceX is trying to buy as much of Boca Chica Village as it can and move people out…following an accidental brush fire, public-safety notices warning of the possibility for explosions, and a push to have the Federal…
Contact with India moon lander lost, moments before touchdown
The Vikram lander was to have made India the 4th nation of Earth to soft land on the moon. Contact with it was lost just 1.3 miles (2.1 km) above the moon’s surface. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/india-chandrayaan-2-vikram-lander-lost-contact…
US Air Force’s Mysterious X-37B Space Plane Sets New Record For Time In Space
“An Air Force X-37B spaceplane just completed its 718th day in orbit, making it the longest mission yet for a secretive military test program,” reports CNN: The US military has launched five uncrewed X-37B spaceplanes into orbit over the past decade, and each flight has been longer than its predecessor… What is known is that the military is using the planes…
SpaceX Launches Starship ‘Hopper’ On Dramatic Test Flight
SpaceX launched its sub-scale Starship ‘hopper’ spacecraft on a brief unpiloted up-and-down test flight at the company’s Boca Chica, Texas, test facility Tuesday, a dramatic demonstration of rocket technology intended to pave the way to a new, more powerful heavy lift booster and, eventually, crew-carrying interplanetary spacecraft. Spaceflight Now reports: Running a day late because of a last-second technical glitch, the…
US Govt Considers Changing Requirements for Rocket Launches. Commercial Space Group Objects
Long-time Slashdot reader apoc.famine writes: In a proposed change to the licensing of spaceflight operations, the FAA writes: “This action would fundamentally change how the FAA licenses launches and reentries…by proposing a regulatory approach that relies on performance-based regulations rather than prescriptive regulations…..This action would also enable flexible timeframes, remove unnecessary ground safety regulations, redefine when launch begins to allow specified…
Spaceflight consistently affects the gut
A new Northwestern University study discovered that spaceflight—both aboard a space shuttle or the International Space Station (ISS)—has a consistent effect on the gut microbiome Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-08-spaceflight-affects-gut.html…
X-37B Military Space Plane’s Latest Mystery Mission Hits 700 Days
The U.S. Air Force’s X-37B military space plane has now been circling Earth for 700 days, just a few weeks shy of the vehicle’s spaceflight-duration record. Source: https://www.livescience.com/x-37b-military-space-plane-otv5-700-days.html
NASA Cut 385 Acres of Trees In Florida For a Better View of Launch Pads
McGruber quotes UPI:
NASA has cut down trees on more than 385 acres of Kennedy Space Center in Florida to allow a better view of launch pads where human spaceflight is set to return after a lull of many years. The last astronauts to launch into space from the site were aboard space shuttle Atlantis in 2011. Since then, trees have grown…
Space-tourism biz Virgin Galactic going public after merger
Richard Branson’s space-tourism venture, Virgin Galactic, is planning to go public, creating the first publicly listed human spaceflight firm. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-07-space-tourism-biz-virgin-galactic-merger.html…