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Branson's Virgin Orbit reaches space for first time
Washington (AFP) - Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit project on Sunday successfully flew a rocket into space from the wing of a 747 plane, paving the way for a new method of launching low-cost satellites. It was the company's second attempt at the feat after a failed test in May. "LauncherOne has reached orbit! Everyone on the team who is not in mission control right now is going absolutely bonkers," the company tweeted from its Twitter account at 2:49 pm (2049 GMT). The plane took off from Mojave Air and Space Port in the desert north of Los Angeles and launched the rocket over the Pacific Oce...
AFP
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NASA test of mega Moon rocket engines cut short
Washington (AFP) - NASA conducted a test firing of the engines for its giant Space Launch System (SLS) lunar rocket on Saturday but they shut down earlier than planned, the space agency said. The "hot-fire" test at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi was supposed to last a little over eight minutes -- the time the engines would burn in flight -- but they shut down just over a minute into the burn. "Teams are assessing the data to determine what caused the early shutdown, and will determine a path forward," NASA said in a statement. The SLS rocket is intended to launch the Artemis missions ...
AFP
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Chuck Yeager, first pilot to break sound barrier, dies aged 97
Washington (AFP) - Chuck Yeager, a World War II fighter ace who was the first human to travel faster than sound and whose gutsy test pilot exploits were immortalized in the bestselling book "The Right Stuff," died Monday, his wife said. He was 97. "It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you that my life love General Chuck Yeager passed just before 9pm ET," Victoria Yeager tweeted on her husband's account. "An incredible life well lived, America's greatest Pilot, & a legacy of strength, adventure, & patriotism will be remembered forever." She did not specify the cause of his death. Yeager rocket...
AFP
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NASA outlines science goals for future astronauts on Moon
Washington (AFP) - The US space agency NASA published a voluminous report on Monday outlining the scientific priorities for the Artemis III astronauts it intends to send to the Moon in 2024. One of the goals will be to bring back a total of 85 kilograms (187 pounds) of lunar samples, both from the surface and sub-surface, more than the average 64 kilograms brought back by Apollo mission members between 1969 and 1972. "The Moon holds vast scientific potential and astronauts are going to help us enable that science," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Direc...
AFP
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NASA buying Moon dust for $1
Washington (AFP) - The US space agency NASA awarded contracts to four companies on Thursday to collect lunar samples for $1 to $15,000, rock-bottom prices that are intended to set a precedent for future exploitation of space resources by the private sector. "I think it's kind of amazing that we can buy lunar regolith from four companies for a total of $25,001," said Phil McAlister, director of NASA's Commercial Spaceflight Division. The contracts are with Lunar Outpost of Golden, Colorado for $1; ispace Japan of Tokyo for $5,000; ispace Europe of Luxembourg for $5,000; and Masten Space Systems...
AFP
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Astronauts board ISS from SpaceX's 'Resilience'
Washington (AFP) - Four astronauts carried into orbit by a SpaceX Crew Dragon boarded the International Space Station on Tuesday, the first of what NASA hopes will be many routine missions ending US reliance on Russian rockets.The "Resilience" spacecraft docked autonomously with the space station some 260 miles (400 kilometers) above the Midwestern US state of Ohio at 11:01pm on Monday (0401 GMT Tuesday), completing a 27.5-hour journey.The crew's three Americans -- Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker -- along with Japan's Soichi Noguchi, each floated in zero gravity through a hat...
AFP
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SpaceX-NASA launch postponed to Sunday due to weather
Washington (AFP) - NASA on Friday said the planned launch of a crewed SpaceX vessel to the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday had to be postponed by a day due to inclement weather."Due to onshore winds and recovery operations, @NASA and @SpaceX are targeting launch of the Crew-1 mission with astronauts to the @Space_Station at 7:27 p.m. EST Sunday, Nov. 15 (0027 GMT Monday)," NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted. "Recovery operations" refers to the ships that have to be moved into place in case the mission is aborted after launch and the crew is forced to splash down in the oc...
AFP
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NASA says probe successfully stowed sample from asteroid
Washington (AFP) - NASA said Thursday its robotic spacecraft Osiris-Rex was able to stow a rock and dust sample scooped up from the asteroid Bennu, after a flap that had wedged open put the mission at risk."We are here to announce today that we've successfully completed that operation," said Rich Burns, the mission's project manager.The probe is on a mission to collect fragments that scientists hope will help unravel the origins of our solar system, but hit a snag after it picked up too big of a sample.Fragments from the asteroid's surface in a collector at the end of the probe's three-meter (...
AFP
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A nuclear powered engine is helping get a crew to Mars by the 2030s
A nuclear powered engine is helping get a crew to Mars by the 2030s.NASA are hoping to send crew to Mars in the 2030s with the help of Ultra Safe Nuclear Technologies, which could cut the journey length down from seven months to just three months.Dr. Michael Eades, principal engineer at USNC-Tech, said: "We want to lead the effort to open new frontiers in space, and do it quickly and safely. Our engine maximises the use of proven technology, eliminates failure modes of previous NTP concepts, and has a specific impulse more than twice that of chemical systems."NASA do not yet have a set date fo...
BANG Showbiz
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NASA works to head off losing too much Osiris-Rex asteroid dust
Washington (AFP) - NASA said Friday that its robotic spacecraft Osiris-Rex had succeeded in collecting a large sample of particles from the Bennu asteroid this week -- but so much that it was leaking.The team in charge of the probe is now working to quickly stow the remaining samples that would eventually be delivered back to Earth to provide key scientific insights."A substantial fraction of the required collected mass is seen escaping," mission chief Dante Lauretta said in a phone briefing with journalists.Osiris-Rex is set to come home in September 2023, hopefully with the largest sample re...
AFP
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