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SpaceX official says company about to launch a Falcon 9 for the third time
"We're turning this into routine access to space."
SpaceX flew the Block 5 variant of its Falcon 9 rocket for the first time on May 11, 2018.
SpaceX has re-used its Falcon 9 rocket 16 times, but the company has never flown a single first stage more than twice. However, in May of this year the company debuted a newer version of its Falcon 9 rocket, dubbed Block 5, that is specifically optimized for reusability across multiple flights.
SpaceX has since flown a handful of Block 5 rockets twice, but it has not taken the step of flying one of these rockets for the third time. However, that may happen quite soon, according to Lars Hoffman, senior director of government sales for the California-based rocket company.
"We're turning this into routine access to space."
SpaceX flew the Block 5 variant of its Falcon 9 rocket for the first time on May 11, 2018.
SpaceX has re-used its Falcon 9 rocket 16 times, but the company has never flown a single first stage more than twice. However, in May of this year the company debuted a newer version of its Falcon 9 rocket, dubbed Block 5, that is specifically optimized for reusability across multiple flights.
SpaceX has since flown a handful of Block 5 rockets twice, but it has not taken the step of flying one of these rockets for the third time. However, that may happen quite soon, according to Lars Hoffman, senior director of government sales for the California-based rocket company.
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Any salt-rich waters on Mars could hold enough oxygen for aerobic life
It's still simple life, though, and the oxygen is mostly at the frigid poles.
It's still simple life, though, and the oxygen is mostly at the frigid poles.
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SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket seems to be a hit with satellite companies
A six-hour coast on the Falcon Heavy's demo flight proved to be a shrewd move.
This maiden flight of the Falcon Heavy was a success.
When the Falcon Heavy rocket launched for the first time in February, some critics of the company wondered what exactly the rocket's purpose was. After all, the company's Falcon 9 rocket had become powerful enough that it could satisfy the needs of most commercial customers. One such critic even told me, "The Falcon Heavy is just a vanity project for Elon Musk."
At the time, the rocket only had a couple of launches on its manifest, including the 6-ton Arabsat 6A satellite for Arabsat of Saudi Arabia, and the Space Test Program-2 mission for the US Air Force. However, since that time SpaceX has seen the rocket certified for national security missions by the US military and has signed several additional launch contracts.
Last week, the Swedish satellite company Ovzon signed a deal for a Falcon Heavy launch as early as late 2020 for a geostationary satellite mission. And just on Thursday, ViaSat announced that it, too, had chosen the Falcon Heavy to launch one of its future ViaSat-3 satellite missions in the 2020 to 2022 time frame.
A six-hour coast on the Falcon Heavy's demo flight proved to be a shrewd move.
This maiden flight of the Falcon Heavy was a success.
When the Falcon Heavy rocket launched for the first time in February, some critics of the company wondered what exactly the rocket's purpose was. After all, the company's Falcon 9 rocket had become powerful enough that it could satisfy the needs of most commercial customers. One such critic even told me, "The Falcon Heavy is just a vanity project for Elon Musk."
At the time, the rocket only had a couple of launches on its manifest, including the 6-ton Arabsat 6A satellite for Arabsat of Saudi Arabia, and the Space Test Program-2 mission for the US Air Force. However, since that time SpaceX has seen the rocket certified for national security missions by the US military and has signed several additional launch contracts.
Last week, the Swedish satellite company Ovzon signed a deal for a Falcon Heavy launch as early as late 2020 for a geostationary satellite mission. And just on Thursday, ViaSat announced that it, too, had chosen the Falcon Heavy to launch one of its future ViaSat-3 satellite missions in the 2020 to 2022 time frame.
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Earth’s dust cloud satellites confirmed
A team of Hungarian astronomers and physicists may have confirmed two elusive clouds of dust, in semi-stable points just 400,000 kilometres from Earth. The clouds, first reported by and named for Polish astronomer Kazimierz Kordylewski in 1961, are exceptionally faint, so their existence is controversial. The new work appears in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
A team of Hungarian astronomers and physicists may have confirmed two elusive clouds of dust, in semi-stable points just 400,000 kilometres from Earth. The clouds, first reported by and named for Polish astronomer Kazimierz Kordylewski in 1961, are exceptionally faint, so their existence is controversial. The new work appears in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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Watch closely as NASA deploys the world's biggest parachute at supersonic speeds
Engineers hope it will land a rover safely for the future Mars 2020 mission
Engineers hope it will land a rover safely for the future Mars 2020 mission
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There’s a new record-holder for closest human object to the Sun
The Parker Solar Probe gets to within 42.7 million km, and it's just getting warm.
The Parker Solar Probe gets to within 42.7 million km, and it's just getting warm.
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NASA is about to turn off the Kepler spacecraft, and it will drift away
Kepler will live on in troves of data that scientists have yet to process.
After more than nine years in operation, the Kepler Space Telescope has run out of hydrazine fuel. Mission managers will now send a command to the spacecraft, which is presently trailing Earth in a heliocentric orbit about 150 million kilometers away, to turn off the spacecraft's transmitters. It will be cast adrift into the silent blackness of space.
Kepler will live on in troves of data that scientists have yet to process.
After more than nine years in operation, the Kepler Space Telescope has run out of hydrazine fuel. Mission managers will now send a command to the spacecraft, which is presently trailing Earth in a heliocentric orbit about 150 million kilometers away, to turn off the spacecraft's transmitters. It will be cast adrift into the silent blackness of space.
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- Joined
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Russian computer failure on ISS is nothing to worry about – they're just going to turn it off and on again
The one place where you really don't want your comp to die
It's never a nice feeling with your computer keels over, wiping out work, sometimes requiring hours of maintenance and basically ruining your day.
But spare a thought for the three astronauts currently in the International Space Station who discovered earlier today that one of the three computers in the station's Russian module had failed.
Russian space agency Roscosmos confirmed the failure on Tuesday but has yet to provide any details beyond the fact that it plans to reboot the machine on Thursday and that its failure doesn't put the crew in danger because the other two machines can keep that part of the station operational.
"One of the three computers on the ISS disappeared," the agency said in a statement (according to our translation of the original Russian). "In other words, the program crashed. To restore the computer, it is necessary to restart it."
The one place where you really don't want your comp to die
It's never a nice feeling with your computer keels over, wiping out work, sometimes requiring hours of maintenance and basically ruining your day.
But spare a thought for the three astronauts currently in the International Space Station who discovered earlier today that one of the three computers in the station's Russian module had failed.
Russian space agency Roscosmos confirmed the failure on Tuesday but has yet to provide any details beyond the fact that it plans to reboot the machine on Thursday and that its failure doesn't put the crew in danger because the other two machines can keep that part of the station operational.
"One of the three computers on the ISS disappeared," the agency said in a statement (according to our translation of the original Russian). "In other words, the program crashed. To restore the computer, it is necessary to restart it."
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New Horizons On Approach to the First Exploration of a Kuiper Belt Object
Take a look behind the scenes as the New Horizons team gears up for the historic first flyby of a body in the remote Kuiper Belt, in this first of a four-part series from the mission's Principal Investigator Alan Stern.
Take a look behind the scenes as the New Horizons team gears up for the historic first flyby of a body in the remote Kuiper Belt, in this first of a four-part series from the mission's Principal Investigator Alan Stern.
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UFOs spotted off Irish coast under investigation
The Irish Aviation Authority is investigating reports of bright lights and UFOs off the south-west coast of Ireland.
It began at 06:47 local time on Friday 9 November when a British Airways pilot contacted Shannon air traffic control.
She wanted to know if there were military exercises in the area because there was something "moving so fast".
The air traffic controller said there were no such exercises.
The pilot, flying from the Canadian city of Montreal to Heathrow, said there was a "very bright light" and the object had come up along the left side of the aircraft before it "rapidly veered to the north".
She was wondering what it could be but said it did not seem to be heading for a collision.
Another pilot from a Virgin plane joined in and suggested it might be a meteor or another object re-entering the earth's atmosphere.
Once again:
The Irish Aviation Authority is investigating reports of bright lights and UFOs off the south-west coast of Ireland.
It began at 06:47 local time on Friday 9 November when a British Airways pilot contacted Shannon air traffic control.
She wanted to know if there were military exercises in the area because there was something "moving so fast".
The air traffic controller said there were no such exercises.
The pilot, flying from the Canadian city of Montreal to Heathrow, said there was a "very bright light" and the object had come up along the left side of the aircraft before it "rapidly veered to the north".
She was wondering what it could be but said it did not seem to be heading for a collision.
Another pilot from a Virgin plane joined in and suggested it might be a meteor or another object re-entering the earth's atmosphere.
Once again:
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NASA’s daring asteroid mission unfurls its sampling arm for the first time
The spacecraft will "arrive" at Bennu officially in about two weeks.
The spacecraft will "arrive" at Bennu officially in about two weeks.
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Enigmatic ridges on Pluto may be the remains of vanished nitrogen glaciers
But we don't know of any mechanism that can create Pluto's "washboard" terrain.
Enlarge / Washboard terrain fills the basins in the right of this image.
But we don't know of any mechanism that can create Pluto's "washboard" terrain.
Enlarge / Washboard terrain fills the basins in the right of this image.
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Feature piece from the Guardian:
Space: how far have we gone – and where are we going?
Billionaire entrepreneurs are trying to create rockets fit for human travel, while government agencies spend billions furthering their explorations. But we are still a long way off from making our way to the red planet
by Oliver Holmes
Space: how far have we gone – and where are we going?
Billionaire entrepreneurs are trying to create rockets fit for human travel, while government agencies spend billions furthering their explorations. But we are still a long way off from making our way to the red planet
by Oliver Holmes
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NASA picks a landing spot on Mars for its 2020 rover
Nailing the landing will require technology developed since Curiosity's launch.
Enlarge / The delta within Jezero Crater.
On Monday, NASA announced that it had chosen a landing spot for its upcoming Mars 2020 rover. The site (more or less at center here) is called Jezero Crater, and it contains a delta formed by flowing water. NASA says that landing in its difficult terrain requires new technology that allows increased steering in the atmosphere.
Mars 2020 will be based on the design of the Curiosity rover, which is currently operating in Gale Crater, but it will have a different suite of instruments. The mission will have two focuses: to give us a better perspective on whether Mars has ever hosted life and to cache rocks for a sample return mission.
Nailing the landing will require technology developed since Curiosity's launch.
Enlarge / The delta within Jezero Crater.
On Monday, NASA announced that it had chosen a landing spot for its upcoming Mars 2020 rover. The site (more or less at center here) is called Jezero Crater, and it contains a delta formed by flowing water. NASA says that landing in its difficult terrain requires new technology that allows increased steering in the atmosphere.
Mars 2020 will be based on the design of the Curiosity rover, which is currently operating in Gale Crater, but it will have a different suite of instruments. The mission will have two focuses: to give us a better perspective on whether Mars has ever hosted life and to cache rocks for a sample return mission.
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Big Falcon Namechange for Musk's rocket: BFR becomes Starship
♪We built this rocket on debt and bull*♪
Elon Musk took to Twitter last night to announce the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) will henceforth have the considerably more ambitious moniker Starship.
We at The Register can only hope this is in reference to the '80s band, famed for such classics as "We Built This City" and 1987's "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now". Mainly because the launcher formerly known as BFR is unlikely to be troubling the stars any time soon, being aimed squarely at the Moon and Mars.
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To be fair to Musk, he isn't alone in selecting names with delusion of grandeur. Boeing has named its commercial crew capsule "Starliner", despite the fact that it is unlike to stray beyond LEO. Presumably this is because "overpriced taxi to the International Space Station" is a bit of a mouthful.
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As Starship themselves observed: "Who cares they're always changing, corporation names."
-EDIT-
Slightly more serious and in depth look at all this on ARS:
What is going on with SpaceX and all these Big Falcon Rocket changes?
♪We built this rocket on debt and bull*♪
Elon Musk took to Twitter last night to announce the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) will henceforth have the considerably more ambitious moniker Starship.
We at The Register can only hope this is in reference to the '80s band, famed for such classics as "We Built This City" and 1987's "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now". Mainly because the launcher formerly known as BFR is unlikely to be troubling the stars any time soon, being aimed squarely at the Moon and Mars.
-
To be fair to Musk, he isn't alone in selecting names with delusion of grandeur. Boeing has named its commercial crew capsule "Starliner", despite the fact that it is unlike to stray beyond LEO. Presumably this is because "overpriced taxi to the International Space Station" is a bit of a mouthful.
-
As Starship themselves observed: "Who cares they're always changing, corporation names."
-EDIT-
Slightly more serious and in depth look at all this on ARS:
What is going on with SpaceX and all these Big Falcon Rocket changes?
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