Boeing's Starliner joins select club of crewed US spaceships
Saturday, 04 May 2024 07:17Throughout the annals of American space exploration, a select few spacecraft have had the distinction of carrying human beings beyond Earth.
Next week, Boeing is poised to join this elite group with the long-awaited launch of its Starliner capsule, just the sixth class of vessel built in the United States for NASA astronauts.
Here's a recap of their storied past, marked by groundbreaking triumphs and some devastating setbacks.
Mercury
Known as America's "man-in-space" program, Project Mercury was born just days after NASA itself was formed in 1958, and officials settled on the term "astronauts" for its space explorers.
On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to fly in space during a 15-minute suborbital flight in the one-man, cone-shaped capsule—about a month after the Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin became the first human to achieve the feat.
China launches first probe to collect samples from far side of Moon
Friday, 03 May 2024 19:59China launched a probe on Friday to collect samples from the far side of the Moon, a world first as Beijing pushes ahead with an ambitious programme that aims to send a crewed lunar mission by 2030. A rocket carrying the Chang'e-6 lunar probe blasted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in southern China's Hainan province just before 5:30 pm (0930 GMT), AFP journalists near the site s
SpaceX completes bicoastal launches, adding to Starlink's megaconstellation
Friday, 03 May 2024 19:59SpaceX launched another group of 23 satellites from Kennedy Space Center on Thursday night via a Falcon 9 rocket, adding to the Starlink megacluster of Internet satellites now in low-Earth orbit. The launches have become nearly routine as have the return of reusable fuel cell booster rocket to a drone awaiting below. Thursday night, the booster, guided by short rocket bursts, returne
Satellogic unveils expansive high-resolution image dataset for AI training
Friday, 03 May 2024 19:59Satellogic Inc. (NASDAQ: SATL) has made public a substantial open dataset from its collection. This dataset is composed of approximately 3 million unique location images, doubling to 6 million with revisits, and is designed to enhance the training of AI foundation models. Each 384x384 pixel image contributes to the overall 900 Gigapixels, covering diverse land uses, objects, geographies, and sea
Millennium Space Systems secures $414 million contract from Space Development Agency
Friday, 03 May 2024 19:59Millennium Space Systems, a subsidiary of Boeing [NYSE: BA], has been awarded a contract potentially worth $414 million by the Space Development Agency. The contract involves the delivery of the Fire-control On Orbit-support-to-the-war Fighter, known as FOO Fighter or F2. The company will act as the end-to-end operational prime, responsible for deploying a constellation of eight satellites along
BAE Systems to construct new atmospheric sensor for NOAA's GeoXO satellites
Friday, 03 May 2024 19:59BAE Systems (LON: BA) has been tasked by NASA to develop the Atmospheric Composition instrument (ACX) for deployment on NOAA's upcoming Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite constellation. This initiative is part of an effort to enhance Earth observation capabilities previously established by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites-R series (GOES-R). The GeoX
Air Force project blends military and commercial space networks
Friday, 03 May 2024 17:17HyImpulse successfully launch their SR75 rocket from Southern Launch
Friday, 03 May 2024 15:55HyImpulse has successfully launched their SR75 rocket from the Koonibba Test Range, operated by Southern Launch, marking a significant step in Australia's commercial launch capabilities. The SR75, one of the largest rockets launched commercially in Australia, drew an audience of locals and VIPs from across Australia and Europe who witnessed the event on South Australia's Far West Coast.
Webb telescope's study suggests life on exoplanet remains unconfirmed
Friday, 03 May 2024 15:55Excitement was high when NASA's James Webb Space Telescope reported potential signs of life on a distant exoplanet. However, a new study by UC Riverside researchers published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters tempers these claims, discussing both the limitations and future possibilities of confirming life on such planets. The research focuses on the exoplanet K2-18b, which in 2023 appea
SpaceX successfully launches Maxar Intelligence next-gen satellites
Friday, 03 May 2024 15:55SpaceX successfully launched the Maxar 1 mission carrying two next-generation WorldView Legion satellites Thursday in California. The mission launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base at approximately 11:36 a.m. local time. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was used. The 20th launch and landing of the Falcon 9 first stage was completed by 11:45 a.m. Pacific Time. The two satellites
Sidus Space fulfills order and supplies key components for NASA's Mobile Launcher 2
Friday, 03 May 2024 15:55Sidus Space (NASDAQ: SIDU), a Space and Data-as-a-Service satellite company, has successfully delivered two electronic LCS cabinets to Bechtel as part of NASA's mobile launcher 2 project. These cabinets are essential to the Launch Control System and signify a major milestone in Sidus Space's involvement in NASA's Artemis Campaign, which focuses on lunar exploration and colonization. Sidus Space
NASA Doubles Down, Advances 6 Innovative Tech Concepts to New Phase
Friday, 03 May 2024 15:55One of the 'science fiction-like' concepts - for a lunar railway system to provide payload transport on the Moon - is being developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts program (NIAC) has selected six visionary concept studies for additional funding and development. Each study has already completed the initial NIAC phase, showing their futuristic ideas
'Baby asteroid' just a toddler in space years, researchers say
Friday, 03 May 2024 15:55An asteroid discovered last November is in fact a solar system toddler - just 2-3 million years old, a Cornell University-led research team estimates using novel statistical calculations. The team derived the age of Selam, a "moonlet" circling the small asteroid Dinkinesh in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, based only on dynamics, or how the pair moves in space. Their calcu
China to launch first probe to return samples from Moon's far side
Friday, 03 May 2024 15:55China is set Friday to launch a probe to collect samples from the far side of the Moon, a world first as Beijing pushes ahead with an ambitious programme that aims to send a crewed lunar mission by 2030. A rocket carrying the Chang'e-6 lunar probe is scheduled to blast off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern China's Hainan province just before 5:30 pm (0930 GMT), officials have
Noise can enhance quantum teleportation quality
Friday, 03 May 2024 15:55Quantum teleportation, the process where the state of a quantum particle, or qubit, is transferred from one place to another without moving the particle itself, typically relies on entanglement between an additional pair of qubits. Ideally, this transfer should occur flawlessly, but real-world conditions introduce noise that can degrade teleportation quality. Researchers at the University