February 27th, 2022
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A petition from the American Bird Conservancy is telling SpaceX and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to prioritize birds and wildlife habitat at SpaceX’s Boca Chica operations facility. That sprawling facility is home base for development of the SpaceX Starship. “SpaceX is putting vulnerable birds and other wildlife at risk in the coastal region of […]
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China launched a Long March-8 rocket on Sunday from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in the southern Hainan Province. Tagged as a new generation carrier rocket, the Long March-8 Y2 placed 22 satellites into Earth orbit, setting a domestic record for the most spacecraft launched by a single booster. A two-stage medium-lift carrier rocket, the […]
A sweeping look at futuristic space technology concepts has been advanced by the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. Whether a Venus atmosphere and cloud particle sample return to Earth, a “digital thread” idea to make a custom-fitted Mars suit, or quick-action kinetic penetrators that pulverize and disassemble an Earth-threatening asteroid or small comet – […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3397 duties. Reports Mariah Baker, a planetary geologist in the Center for Earth & Planetary Studies at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum: “If all goes according to plan, the rover’s drive on sol 3397 will position us at the edge of […]
The upcoming Moon rush by government and private groups offers the prospect of “lunar traffic jams.” However, at this moment in time, nobody is keeping a tracking eye on how many artificial objects are already up there, or where they are at any given moment. Without a way to keep track of traffic, the orbital […]
The search is on to find innovative engineering approaches that will integrate power transmission and energy storage to accommodate long-duration robotic and human missions to the Moon. NASA has launched the Watts on the Moon Phase 2 Challenge today and will award up to $5 million across the two phases. HeroX, a crowdsourcing platform, […]
There’s an on-going saga regarding what object will smash into the Moon’s far side next month. First thought to be a SpaceX upper stage, it was then tagged as a leftover from China’s Chang’e 5-T1 lunar mission in 2014. But China has indicated it’s not their hardware, a flat fact coming from Foreign Ministry […]
That errant upper stage set to impact the Moon’s far side needs a name! First thought to be a SpaceX upper stage, then tagged as a left over from China’s Chang’e 5-T1 lunar mission, China appears to have indicated it’s not their hardware. From Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin’s Regular Press Conference on February 21, […]
Escaping Gravity: My Quest to Transform NASA and Launch a New Space Age by Lori Garver; Diversion Books (2022); 304 pages; Hardcover: $28.99 Wow! This must-read book is divided into 3 parts: “Gravity,” “Force,” and “Motion.” More to the point, this behind-the-scenes account mixes that trio into a powerful, explosive concoction that blows the lid […]
This image I posted of hardware on the surface of Mars generated quite a number of comments: A few folks got close, or provided a partial ID…others were far afield! Some of my favorites: “I hope it wasn’t something mission critical.” “Looks like a camera lens or a […]
