Archive for June, 2016

SpaceX Scores Another Successful Commercial Launch, But Breaks Landing Streak

SpaceX Scores Another Successful Commercial Launch, But Breaks Landing Streak

It was definitely a case of mixed results for SpaceX today, as the company carried off another successful commercial launch of its Falcon 9 booster, but saw an attempted fourth consecutive drone ship landing come up short when one of three engines performing a last second deceleration burn under-performed, resulting in a hard landing on […]

Posted in: SpaceX
SpaceX, Blue Origin and Orbital ATK Make for Busy Week in Commercial Space

SpaceX, Blue Origin and Orbital ATK Make for Busy Week in Commercial Space

  It is a busy week for commercial space. Orbital ATK  An Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo vessel departed the International Space Station at 9:30 AM EDT this morning, heading for its usual path of destruction high over the Pacific Ocean, but not before it performs a unique fire in space experiment, as well as releases […]

Posted in: Uncategorized
Radically Upgrading the Estimate of Alien Civilizations in the Milky Way

Radically Upgrading the Estimate of Alien Civilizations in the Milky Way

You may recall the Drake Equation, the famous estimate of the total number of potential technologically advanced civilization in the Milky Way, with which we might make radio contact. The right hand side of the equation, courtesy of Wikipedia are : R* = the average rate of star formation in our galaxy fp = the […]

Posted in: Exo Planets
Affordable Science May Power Spacex’s Red Dragon to Mars; Again and Again, and Again

Affordable Science May Power Spacex’s Red Dragon to Mars; Again and Again, and Again

As much of the space community waits for September and the promised big reveal of SpaceX’s Mars colonization plans, company founder Elon Musk is finding it difficult to keep from spilling the beans about what is coming. In this interview in the Washington Post, an interesting venue considering the paper’s owner,  Musk shares a bit […]

Posted in: Mars, SpaceX
SpaceX Gears Up for Next Launch, First Re-flight in Fall

SpaceX Gears Up for Next Launch, First Re-flight in Fall

With “four on the floor” inside its new hangar at the Kennedy Space Centers’s launch pad 39-A, SpaceX has indicated it is now aiming for a fall re-flight of one of the Falcon 9 first stages which have been landed thus far. The news came, as it often does, via Elon Musk’s Twitter account: Fourth […]

Posted in: SpaceX
Astrobotic Technology Introduces New Lunar Lander, Luxembourg Reaches For it All

Astrobotic Technology Introduces New Lunar Lander, Luxembourg Reaches For it All

Two recent news items highlight the slow, but steady progress being made to set the stage for the robotic exploration and utilization of space beyond low Earth orbit. First, the tiny European nation of Luxembourg, already home to two of the world’s largest ComSat companies, announced a new initiative, called spaceresources.lu  to promote space mining and […]

Posted in: Asteroids, Moon
Elon Mars Colonization Takeaway: 2016 May Be the Last Year We Don’t Launch Commercial Missions to Mars

Elon Mars Colonization Takeaway: 2016 May Be the Last Year We Don’t Launch Commercial Missions to Mars

During the course of a wide ranging interview on stage at the Code Conference 2016 in Broomfield, Colorado,  SpaceX founder and CTO Elon Musk gave a bit of preview regarding his Mars colonization plans which will be revealed in September at the International Astronautical Congress in Monterrey, Mexico. While he was reluctant to give any […]

Posted in: Mars, SpaceX
Russian Space Problems Continue

Russian Space Problems Continue

Russia’s space problems continue. Yesterday, TASS reported the following: “Launch of Soyuz MS manned spacecraft, which is due to take a new expedition to the International Space Station, has been rescheduled for July 7 from June 24 due to control system flaws that may disrupt the ship’s docking with the ISS, a source in the […]

Posted in: Russian Space
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