Space News and Discussions

[firestar464]

ULA rolls Vulcan Centaur rocket to pad ahead of 2nd-ever launch (photos)

https://www.space.com/ula-vulcan-centau ... nch-photos

[firestar464]

NASA powers down Voyager 2 plasma instrument to extend mission

https://www.quantamagazine.org/john-whe ... -20240925/

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[firestar464]

ULA’s launches second test flight of its Vulcan Centaur rocket from Cape Canaveral

https://wsvn.com/news/local/florida/ula ... canaveral/

[firestar464]

Blue Origin to debut 2nd human-rated New Shepard rocket on Oct. 7 launch (photo)

https://www.space.com/blue-origin-new-s ... -27-launch

SpaceX to launch European Space Agency’s Hera asteroid mission

https://mynews13.com/fl/orlando/space/2 ... id-mission

[firestar464]

Mission to asteroids: ESA Hera mission launches atop a SpaceX rocket from Cape Canaveral

https://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech ... 518907007/

[firestar464]

Blue Origin Scrubs New Shepard Launch

https://aviationweek.com/space/commerci ... ard-launch

God it was so painful to listen to the Blue Origin people glaze the company to kill time

[Time_Traveller]

NASA receives signal from 290 million miles away in major space breakthrough

13:17, 9 Oct 2024



NASA has successfully sent a laser signal from Earth to a spacecraft about 290 million miles away in a major space breakthrough that could potentially transform our exploration of the solar system.

The huge milestone was reached by NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, which is looking at the possibility of using lasers to send messages deep into space, on July 29. The signal was sent to the Psyche spacecraft, a mission launched on October 13, 2023, to explore a 140-mile-wide (225 kilometres) metallic asteroid called 16 Psyche.

The signal travelled 460 million kilometres - roughly the same distance between Earth and Mars when the two planets are farthest apart. NASA hopes that the laser technology can help empower future crewed missions to Mars.

"The milestone is significant. Laser communication requires a very high level of precision, and before we launched with Psyche, we didn't know how much performance degradation we would see at our farthest distances," said Meera Srinivasan, the project's operations lead at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "Now the techniques we use to track and point have been verified, confirming that optical communications can be a robust and transformative way to explore the solar system."

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the test broke the record for "the farthest laser communication ever sent" as he congratulated the team on the "extraordinary achievement". He wrote on X, formerly called Twitter: "NASA has broken the record for the farthest laser communication ever sent! We sent a laser signal to our Psyche spacecraft about 290 million miles away. Congrats, team. This extraordinary achievement will transform the way we explore the solar system."

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/n ... l-33852519

[weatheriscool]

FAA Gives SpaceX Starship License for Flight 5 and 6
October 12, 2024 by Brian Wang

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2024/10/f ... and-6.html
The FAA has given SpaceX Starship the license to fly flight 5 and flight 6.

The FAA has granted SpaceX the license to launch Starship 5 as early as tomorrow from Boca Chica, Texas.

This approval, ahead of schedule, confirms all safety, environmental, and licensing requirements have been met.

SpaceX’s “Mechazilla” launch tower will attempt to catch the Super Heavy booster mid-air after stage separation—a groundbreaking recovery attempt.

The FAA has also approved the mission profile for Starship 6.

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[firestar464]

Meanwhile New Shepard failed again

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[wjfox]

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[firestar464]

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[firestar464]

[weatheriscool]

China's Long March 9 Rocket Is Becoming More and More Like Starship
The Long March 9 has been adopting Starship traits for a few years, but now it's pretty blatant.
By Ryan Whitwam November 6, 2024

China's Long March rocket family has been growing in recent years, but the current lineup doesn't include a super-heavy lift vehicle to compete with SpaceX. The Long March 9 was announced in 2016 as a big but pretty typical rocket, but the design has morphed over the years to borrow traits from SpaceX's in-development Starship. The latest version of Long March 9, which was revealed at the Zhuhai air show, even looks a lot like the SpaceX rocket.

When it was first revealed in 2016, the Long March 9 had solid boosters and an expendable design. However, that's right around the time SpaceX's reusable Falcon 9 booster began changing the launch calculus. In 2022, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced Long March 9 would have a reusable first stage.

The latest update from Zhuhai shows a vehicle bearing a striking resemblance to Starship. China now plans to make the entire rocket reusable like the Starship. The upper stage has even grown flaps in similar locations as seen on Starship, reports Ars Technica.

https://www.extremetech.com/aerospace/c ... e-starship