Lifeboat Foundation

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officially closed its investigation into SpaceX’s 2nd failed Starship flight in November 2023. Launched on November 18, this test flight sadly ended in disaster as the giant rocket exploded shortly after takeoff.

However, the closure of the FAA investigation does not mean that SpaceX has a go-ahead for its planned third test flight later this year. Launched from SpaceX’s Starbase in South Texas, both of Starship’s rocket stages failed at around 3.5 and 8 minutes after launch.

The slide system differs notably from the slide wire basket system used over at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. NASA officials said pad 40 will be ready for astronaut launches thi.

A privately built spacecraft on the moon has beamed back new photos from the lunar surface, showing the vehicle’s much-celebrated descent and the moments immediately after touchdown when it tipped over on its side.

The Odysseus lander, built by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, landed on the moon on Feb. 22, making history as the first commercial craft to reach the lunar surface and the first U.S. spacecraft on the moon in more than 50 years.

The following day, Intuitive Machines said Odysseus had pitched over when it touched down near a crater called Malapert A, close to the moon’s south pole. Company officials said the 14-foot-tall lander was operational but that some of the spacecraft’s antennas were pointing at the ground, limiting its ability to communicate with flight controllers back on Earth.

High-speed experiments can help identify lightweight, protective “metamaterials” for spacecraft, vehicles, helmets, or other objects.

An intricate, honeycomb-like structure of struts and beams could withstand a supersonic impact better than a solid slab of the same material. What’s more, the specific structure matters, with some being more resilient to impacts than others.

That’s what MIT engineers are finding in experiments with microscopic metamaterials — materials that are intentionally printed, assembled, or otherwise engineered with microscopic architectures that give the overall material exceptional properties.

The quartet will fly aboard SpaceX’s Dragon Endeavour capsule, which previously flew Demo Mission-2, Crew-2, Crew-6 and Axiom Mission 1.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is expanding its SpaceX Starbase office in Texas. Here’s what we know.

Musk already claims Austin as headquarters for Tesla, and now he’s expanding his SpaceX facility in Brownsville.

Brownsville is currently home to a landing pad, launch facility, launch control center and tracking station. A 40-minute drive along Highway 4 will take you to the unincorporated community of Boca Chica.

SpaceX has an aggressive plan for Starship in 2024, planning to launch the rocket at least nine times this year, according to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) administrator.

Starship is the most powerful and the largest heavy-lift launch vehicle ever built, and it will eventually be responsible for taking people from Earth to Mars, according to SpaceX’s goals for the project.

However, SpaceX has a long way to go before it will get Starship to that point.

The latest offering in space tourism promises to be a lot less bumpy.

Space Perspective, a Florida-based startup, recently unveiled a test capsule for its new Neptune spacecraft. Neptune is expected to start carrying passengers into the stratosphere — using a massive balloon, instead of rockets — as early as next year.

The company touts the pressurized Neptune capsule as “the largest human spacecraft in operation” aside from space stations like the ISS. It also says Neptune is the third commercial suborbital spacecraft to ever be built, after Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo space plane and Blue Origin’s New Shepard crew capsule.

The Dream Chaser spaceplane, developed by Sierra Space and undergoing testing at NASA ’s Armstrong Test Facility, is set for its first demonstration flight to the ISS. This marks a significant step in the commercial resupply program and underscores the ongoing space industrial revolution, aimed at enhancing human life on Earth.

Nose-up and bathed in soft blue lights, Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane and its Shooting Star cargo module cast dramatic shadows onto the walls of NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio, as members of the media got their first glimpse of the towering 55-foot-tall stack on February 1.

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