Astronautics

Space tourism has unlocked a new brand of luxury travel, one which promises expensive meals and designer flight suits with views of Earth’s curvature as a backdrop. A Florida-based startup is offering six passengers the chance to ride on board its balloon-propelled capsule while chowing down on what it claims to be the first Michelin-starred meal in space. And, honestly, we hate to be that guy, but Space Perspective’s capsule will not reach space. Do We Have to Send Humans to Mars for Exploration?This week, Space…

Artist’s depiction of OSAM-1 docking with a satellite.Image: NASAAn ambitious NASA project designed to test satellite refueling in space, known as OSAM-1, has been discontinued after significant technical, cost, and scheduling difficulties. The cancellation comes in the wake of an October 2023 report from NASA’s Office of Inspector General that cited “poor performance” by Maxar, the primary contractor for the project. - George Dvorsky Read More Artist’s depiction of OSAM-1 docking with a satellite.Image: NASAAn…

Jupiter’s icy moon Europa produces plenty of oxygen every day, according to new findings based on data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The moon has long been of interest to astrobiologists because of the possibility that life could exist in its subsurface ocean. - Isaac Schultz Read MoreRead more... Jupiter’s icy moon Europa produces plenty of oxygen every day, according to new findings based on data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The moon has long been of interest to astrobiologists because of the possibility that life…

California startup Varda Space released raw footage of its capsule reentering the atmosphere. This mission marked two significant achievements: bringing home the first batch of pharmaceutical crystals manufactured in orbit outside the International Space Station (ISS), and making Varda Space, with help from Rocket Labs, the first private company to land a capsule on U.S. soil.Taking out the Trash (in Space)The 27-minute long video was uploaded to the company’s Youtube page, revealing the full journey of the company’s W-1…

After eight years of experimenting with flames in space, NASA lit a fire inside a cargo spacecraft for the last time and sent its Saffire experiment toward a burning reentry into Earth’s atmosphere.Nvidia’s Almost Worth 2 Trillion. Is It a Bubble, or Is It Just Getting Started?NASA’s Spacecraft Fire Safety Experiments, also known as Saffire, came to a fitting end on January 9, flying aboard a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft that burned up as it plunged through the atmosphere for its planned reentry.The series of…

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a reentry license to Varda Space’s manufacturing capsule, allowing the first batch of space drugs to return back to Earth.This is the Coolest Galaxy S24 AI Feature That Few Are Talking AboutCalifornia-based Varda Space Industries had been struggling to land its first orbital factory, which was originally meant to return to Earth in September 2023 but was denied reentry. Following months of trying, the company was finally granted its reentry license from the FAA, which will…

The 46-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft is on the fritz again, and this time it may be critical. As one engineer said, “this is, by far, the most serious since I’ve been project manager.” Here are our top science stories from this week.Read more... The 46-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft is on the fritz again, and this time it may be critical. As one engineer said, “this is, by far, the most serious since I’ve been project manager.” Here are our top science stories from this week.Read more... FOLLOW US ON GOOGLE NEWS…

NASA’s Space Shuttle operated in low-Earth orbit for 30 years before its retirement in 2011. However, the US space agency’s replacement for this vehicle, Orion, returned to the conical capsule design familiar from the Apollo missions. This was because NASA intended that this newer craft be used for exploring targets in deep space, such as the Moon.The Animal Kingdom Imagines a World of Humans Turning Into AnimalsBut in recent years, we have seen a return of the spaceplane design. Since 2010, the U.S. Space Force (and…

Image: SafranThis striking scanning electron microscope image offers an intimate view of a test glass surface, part of a project to enhance the lifespan of atomic clocks in navigation satellites. The plasma-etched features, each less than 10 micrometres across, are crucial for the operation of these highly accurate clocks. They function by inducing switches between an atom’s energy states using light, laser, or maser energy (a device that produces and amplifies electromagnetic waves), leading to the emission of a stable…

Earth’s orbit will be monitored by a watchful set of robotic eyes, the first commercial constellation of satellites with the ability to keep track of objects in space to avoid collisions between spacecraft.Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their ViewCanadian startup NorthStar is getting ready to launch the first four of its Space Situational Awareness (SSA) satellites equipped with advanced optical devices for detecting space objects and star trackers for accurate positioning. The…