January 12th, 2025
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China’s Shenzhou-19 crew — Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong, and Wang Haoze – have been carrying out an array of space station assignments, including an in-orbit test for a pipe inspection robot. The three-person crew was rocketed to the country’s space station on October 30 for a six-month mission. As reported by China Central Television (CCTV), […]
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Want to build glasshouses on the Moon? Consider this idea: a large-scale, monolithic lunar glass habitat in a low-gravity environment. This approach involves on-the-spot melting of lunar glass compounds to fabricate a large spherical shell structure. The concept is considered a “significant departure” from current habitat construction methods. This novel approach is just one of […]
Glad to be on the January 10th episode of This Week In Space podcast: Episode 143 — King Starship – Will 2025 be SpaceX’s Game-Changing Year? This episode comes fully-equipped with details on the upcoming flight of the SpaceX Starship on its 7th test flight…and what next? I join made-in-space colleagues, Rod Pyle and […]
This year, the Sierra Space Dream Chaser spaceplane is to make its way to the International Space Station. A multiple-hour simulation on December 5 matched up both Sierra Space and NASA Johnson Space Center controllers to ring out procedures, even simulating a number of flight controller problems. In addition to thousands of hours of cumulative […]
Research work on building China’s Chang’e-7 lunar exploration mission includes sending a flag that can flutter in the Moon’s thin and tenuous atmosphere. “We know that the Moon is vacuum with no air, so it is difficult to make a flag flutter by wind like on Earth,” said Zhang Tianzhu, deputy head of the institute […]
“It’s time to fly,” said Jarrett Jones, SVP, for the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket program. New Glenn’s first liftoff is now targeted for no earlier than January 10. The booster’s inaugural mission (NG-1) will lift off from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The three-hour launch window opens at 1 […]
That U.S. Space Force X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-7) has silently slipped past one-year of flight time. The craft is engaged in performing aerobrake maneuvers, a technique to alter its orbit around Earth, as well as safely dispose of its attached service module. Lofted in December of 2023, the military spaceplane was placed in an […]
There is a possible candidate for that large metallic ring that fell from the sky on December 30 in Africa, reportedly crashing “red-hot” into Mukuku village, in Makueni county – in the country’s south. Investigators with the Kenya Space Agency (KSA) officials in Nairobia reported that the object, which is roughly 8 feet (2.5 meters) […]
The seventh flight test of the SpaceX Starship atop its Super Heavy booster is being readied for launch. According to SpaceX, the upcoming flight test, reportedly targeted for January 10, will launch a new generation ship “with significant upgrades.” In addition, there will be an attempt for Starship’s first payload deployment test, fly multiple […]
About that possible space debris landing in Africa. Comment from “Ed”: “Check out the Ariane 5 Space Debris (33155) that reentered around the same time. It was equatorial and more likely to be a candidate at the time of reentry.” However, the reentry messages from space track, Ed adds, would have both the […]
