Archive for November, 2014

Do Hybrid Motors Have Future After All? The Paraffin Wax Rocket

Do Hybrid Motors Have Future After All? The Paraffin Wax Rocket

Image Credit: IEEE / Emily Cooper In the immediate aftermath of the Virgin Galactic disaster, SpaceShipTwo’s hybrid rocket motor came under suspicion as the most likely culprit. And, although subsequent updates by the NTSB team investigating the accident have instead centered on a problem with the craft’s feathering device and likely human error, many articles […]

Building on SpaceX and Tesla Experience, Elon Musk Looks at Global Broadband Satellites

Building on SpaceX and Tesla Experience, Elon Musk Looks at Global Broadband Satellites

Is Elon Musk about to launch a revolution in satellite construction similar to the one he began at SpaceX which has is already altering the economics of how they are launched? The Wall Street Journal apparently thinks so, based on a story by Rolfe Winkler and Andy Pasztor. According to the report, Musk is considering […]

Posted in: Space Settlement, SpaceX
Stunning Image of Planet Formation from ESO

Stunning Image of Planet Formation from ESO

Actual Image, Not an Artists Impression Image of HL Tauri Planetary Disc 350 Light Years Away / Credit ESO Innerspace regularly highlights images from the European Southern Observatory, particularly on Fridays, when the simple beauty of the cosmos serves as a pleasant counterbalance to the often messy struggles of a species trying to find its […]

Automated Sample Return from ISS: The Terrestrial Return Vehicle

Automated Sample Return from ISS: The Terrestrial Return Vehicle

Image Credit: Intuitive Machines Last month,  CASIS, the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, the organization which operates the U.S. National Laboratory aboard the International Space Station, announced agreements on six new unsolicited proposals designed to improve the quality of science being performed aboard the Station. One in particular stood out, a small […]

Mars Rover Targets Minerals Mapped from Orbit

Mars Rover Targets Minerals Mapped from Orbit

First drill at Mount Sharp / Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS An interesting NASA News Story on the coordination of work between the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in orbit above the Red Planet and the Curiosity Rover on the ground below. Looking quite a bit down the road, one can see an emerging model of how a notional […]

Posted in: Mars, NASA
Antares Accident Update: SpaceX Falcon 9, ULA Atlas V to the Rescue?

Antares Accident Update: SpaceX Falcon 9, ULA Atlas V to the Rescue?

Will Cygnus be on the Manifest?  Image Credit SpaceX One week after the loss of an Antares launch vehicle carrying a Cygnus cargo vessel bound for the International Space Station, Orbital Sciences Corporation held a conference call with investors to discuss what it has learned about the accident thus far, and its plans for going […]

The Show Goes On: XCOR and Fandango Team Up for Interstellar Promotion

The Show Goes On: XCOR and Fandango Team Up for Interstellar Promotion

Image Credit: Interstellar In what has at times appeared to be a headlong rush to write off the future of space tourism as a response to the Virgin Galactic accident, a surprising (or perhaps not so) number of media sources have completely overlooked the fact that there are two other U.S. based companies, XCOR Aerospace […]

Posted in: Space Tourism, XCOR
NTSB: Pilot Error a Major Factor in the Loss of SpaceShipTwo

NTSB: Pilot Error a Major Factor in the Loss of SpaceShipTwo

Only two days in to an investigation which was expected to take up to a year,  the National Safety Transportation Board team looking in to Friday’s Virgin Galactic crash at the Mojave spaceport has made a surprising discovery, one which overturns almost all of the early assumptions about what led to the disaster. Speaking at […]

Investigation of Virgin Galactic Accident Reveals Some Clues, Reaction Reveals Much About Human Nature

Investigation of Virgin Galactic Accident Reveals Some Clues, Reaction Reveals Much About Human Nature

Two days after Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo broke up in the skies over the Mojave Desert, the National Transportation Safety Board “go team” is on site. B Roll video release of the accident site is beginning to reveal some aspects of the disaster which took the life of Scale Composites test pilot Michael Alsbury, badly injured […]

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