sail

President Donald Trump talks with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk at Trump Tower last February.Evan Vucci | APTesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said Monday that he thinks former President Donald Trump should, "hang up his hat & sail into the sunset."Writing on Twitter, where Musk has more than 100 million followers, the celebrity CEO said: "I don't hate the man, but it's time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset. Dems should also call off the attack – don't make it so that Trump's only way to survive is…

This kite-like space sail will help deorbit a rocket component within two years.Image: Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight TechnologyEngineers in China have successfully deployed an ultra-thin sail attached to a rocket part to expedite its departure from low Earth orbit and reduce the amount of space junk aimlessly floating above our planet. The 269-square-foot (25-square-meter) sail unfurled after launching from a Long March 2D rocket on June 24. Although the mission was not publicized beforehand, the Shanghai Academy of…

Ubisoft’s long-delayed pirate game Skull and Bones will actually launch this year. In a gameplay showcase that gave us our first look at Skull and Bones in several years, Ubisoft confirmed that it would launch on November 8.  The final version of Skull and Bones is a mix of Ubisoft’s open-world titles, survival games, and a more detailed version of the Assassin’s Creed series’ naval combat. Players start with just a small ship and a spear ,but will be tasked with building up their Infamy (the main…

Just in time for this year’s Pride Month, HBO has announced that Our Flag Means Death will return for a second season of stories about swashbuckling and love on the high seas. In a statement about Our Flag Means Death’s renewal, series creator David Jenkins expressed gratitude to the show’s fandom for its support and commitment to the unexpected romance at the center of the first season. “We felt the show was special while we were making it, but fans’ open-armed embrace of the inhabitants of the Revenge makes heading…

A commercial crew spacecraft’s historic test mission …Recognizing the leadership of our <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>James Webb Space Telescope</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb) is an orbiting infrared observatory that will complement and extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope. It covers longer wavelengths of light, with greatly improved sensitivity,…

on May 24, 2022…

Diffractive solar sails, depicted in this conceptual illustration, could enable missions to hard-to-reach places, like orbits over the Sun’s poles. Credit: MacKenzi MartinAs <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>NASA</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>Established in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that succeeded the National…

NASA has selected a fascinating new project for further development, known as the Diffractive Solar Sail. By bending light before it hits the sail, this device could propel spacecraft more efficiently than conventional propulsion technologies.In the age of chemical rockets and ion thrusters, it seems rather quaint to unfurl a giant sail and coast through the cosmos, but that could be a viable method of propulsion. Solar sails propel spacecraft by tapping into the pressure exerted by sunlight, as photons bounce off the…