Archive for the 'Space' Category
Software Update Destroys $286 Million Japanese Satellite
May 10th, 2016Via: Hackaday: The Japanese X-ray telescope Hitomi has been declared lost after it disintegrated in orbit, torn apart when spinning out of control. The cause is still under investigation but early analysis points to bad data in a software package pushed shortly after an instrument probe was extended from the rear of the satellite. JAXA, […]
SpaceX Undercut ULA Rocket Launch Pricing by 40 Percent
April 28th, 2016In other words, the Air Force can show they’re saving money *wink*, while funneling billions of dollars for black world R&D to the usual suspects via some other mechanism. Via: Reuters: The U.S. Air Force will save 40 percent by buying a GPS satellite launch from Elon Musk’s SpaceX compared with what United Launch Alliance […]
SpaceX Plans to Send Dragon Spacecraft to Mars in 2018
April 27th, 2016Via: Ars Technica: SpaceX announced Wednesday that it intends to begin sending uncrewed Dragon spacecraft to Mars as early as 2018. This is the first step in the company’s plan to one day land humans on Mars, which is the goal founder Elon Musk set for SpaceX when he created the company in 2002.
The Plan to Send Featherweight Robotic Spacecraft to the Nearest Star at One-Fifth of the Speed of Light
April 13th, 2016100 billion-watt laser??? Via: Guardian: In an unprecedented boost for interstellar travel, the Silicon Valley philanthropist Yuri Milner and the world’s most famous cosmologist Stephen Hawking have announced $100m (£70m) for research into a 20-year voyage to the nearest stars, at one fifth of the speed of light. Breakthrough Starshot – the third Breakthrough initiative […]
SpaceX: Falcon 9 First Stage Landing
April 8th, 2016Via: CBS: An upgraded SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rocket boosted a Dragon cargo ship into orbit Friday, kicking off a two-day flight to the International Space Station to deliver 3.5 tons of cargo, including an innovative inflatable module that could pave the way to future deep space habitats and commercial space stations. And in a […]
Bezos Plans Off World Colonies
March 9th, 2016Via: al.com: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ vision of “millions of people living and working in space” drives his space company Blue Origin. … “We’re not going to find another Earth,” Bezos said, “and we can’t cover the whole surface of the Earth with solar cells. We only have a few hundred years to figure this […]
Gravitational Waves Detected
February 11th, 2016Via: Guardian: Physicists have announced the discovery of gravitational waves, ripples in spacetime first anticipated by Albert Einstein a century ago. “We have detected gravitational waves. We did it,” said David Reitze, executive director of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Ligo), at a press conference in Washington. The announcement is the climax of a century […]
SpaceX Has Successfully Launched and Landed a Falcon 9 Rocket
December 22nd, 2015Via: Reuters: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida on Monday with a payload of communications satellites before the reusable main-stage booster turned around, soared back to Cape Canaveral and landed safely near its launch pad in a dramatic spaceflight first. The successful mission, capped by delivery of all 11 satellites to orbit […]
American Satellite Started Transmitting 46 Years After Being Abandoned in 1967
December 8th, 2015Via: The Vintage News: An American satellite, abandoned in 1967 as a piece of Space Junk has begun transmitting again after 46 years. An Amateur Radio Astronomer in North Cornwall accidentally picked up the signal in 2013 and after cross checking with various lists, has identified it as LES1 built by the Massachusetts Institute of […]
Blue Origin: Successful Reusable Rocket Test
November 24th, 2015Via: NPR: It started with a boom and ended with a touchdown: Blue Origin, the space company founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, has sent a craft past the edge of space and then landed its rocket safely – and vertically — in Texas. The flight of the New Shepard spacecraft was the second full […]
