Photo Credit: Virgin Orbit Less than eight months after its maiden mission suffered a premature engine shutdown, Virgin Orbit has triumphantly flown its LauncherOne rocket to space for the very first time. The air-launched booster was laden with a battery of nine CubeSats for NASA experimenters and eight academic institutions spanning the United States from Tennessee to California, from Florida ...
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Virgin’s satellite launcher reaches orbit for first time
Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket fires its NewtonThree main engine moments after release from the Boeing 747 carrier jet, named “Cosmic Girl.” Credit: Virgin Orbit An air-launched rocket built by Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit reached orbit Sunday for the first time, delivering 10 experimental CubeSats for NASA and positioning the company for the start of commercial operations. The success adds another ...
Read More »Thanks to Perseverance, We’re Finally Going to Hear What Mars Sounds Like
Many consider the various rovers we’ve sent to Mars as the next best thing to sending a geologist to the Red Planet. Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity have carried all the necessary equipment similar to what human geologists use on Earth, and are able to navigate the terrain, “see” the landscape with the various cameras, pick up rock and dust samples ...
Read More »Blue Origin successful demonstrates New Shepard crew capsule upgrades
(14 January 2021 – Blue Origin) Blue Origin has successfully completed its 14th mission to space and back today for the New Shepard program. The New Shepard crew capsule outfitted with astronaut experience upgrades landing at Launch Site One. (courtesy: Blue Origin) Mission NS-14 featured a crew capsule outfitted with astronaut experience upgrades for upcoming flights with passengers onboard. Capsule ...
Read More »Lumiata Closes $14M Series B To Predict Health Care Outcomes
Armed with $14 million in Series B funding, Lumiata is putting health care data in the hands of physicians, health systems and payors so they can identify risks and reduce costs. The San Mateo, California-based company says it can take health care-specific datasets and make them ready for machine learning within weeks using a low- to no-code process that is ...
Read More »How to Keep Drones Flying When a Motor Fails
Robotics researchers at the University of Zurich show how onboard cameras can be used to keep damaged quadcopters in the air and flying stably – even without GPS. When one rotor fails, the drone begins to spin on itself like a ballerina. (Picture: UZH) As anxious passengers are often reassured, commercial aircrafts can easily continue to fly even if one ...
Read More »NASA’s SLS Moon Rocket Shuts Down Early in Major Test Fire Before Launch
Although the giant SLS core stage did come to life on the B-2 test stand Jan 16, the four RS-25 engines shutdown early at only 68 seconds into a planned 8-minute test. Photos via NASA TV Eighteen years to the day since the last launch of shuttle Columbia, NASA, Boeing and Aerojet Rocketdyne engineers have taken a significant step towards ...
Read More »Infostellar introduces its new Chief Technology Officer
(11 January 2021 – Infostellar) Infostellar has announced the arrival of Steve Montgomery as the company’s Chief Technical Officer (CTO). In this role, Steve will lead the company’s efforts in building and operating Infostellar’s global network of ground stations, including partner and company-owned assets. Steve will also leverage StellarStation by driving the technical development and expansion of the company’s ground ...
Read More »James Webb Unfolds Sunshield
It’s almost time. Soon the James Webb Space Telescope will be on its way to the Sun/Earth L2 Lagrange point and will begin its at least 5-year science mission. Really, it’s going to happen. Despite several delays since the program began in 1996 and a budget that has exceeded the original by several billion dollars, the launch of the JWST ...
Read More »Space Launch System Performs a Dramatic Hot Fire Test, Blasting With all 4 Engines at Once
Today, at close to 04:30 PM local time (CST), NASA achieved a major milestone with the development of the Space Launch System (SLS) – the heavy launch system they will use to send astronauts back to the Moon and crewed missions to Mars. As part of a Green Run Hot Fire Test, all four RS-25 engines on the SLS Core ...
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