Collaborate Disseminate
Like the seafarers of old, future spacecraft could be getting around under the power of sails. But of course, with no wind in space, these sails are catching another method of propulsion – photons from starlight. The tech is soon due to be de… Continue reading LightSail 2 CubeSat launches next week to test photon propulsion system that could take us interstellar
Have you looked up into the night sky recently and seen a bizarre line of luminous dots? Have you noticed an uptick in the number of UFO reports mentioned in the news and social media? If so, you may have already been touched by what many have come to affectionately …read more
Continue reading See Starlink’s “Space Train” Before it Leaves the Station
It’s true that I’m not known for keeping particularly regular hours, but even I had my doubts about this plan. We’d go to sleep around midnight, wake up at 3 AM, drive up the coast aimlessly, then turn around and attend a full-day event where we’d have to maintain at …read more
Continue reading There and Back Again: A Falcon 9 Launch Story
The first of SpaceX’s functional Starlink satellites have been launched into space, with the company successfully putting the first pieces in place for what it hopes will be a vast network blanketing the entire globe in high-speed broadband i… Continue reading SpaceX launches first bunch of satellites for its Starlink mega-constellation
When it comes to SpaceX, or perhaps more accurately its somewhat eccentric founder and CEO Elon Musk, it can be difficult to separate fact from fiction. For as many incredible successes SpaceX has had, there’s an equal number of projects or ideas which get quietly delayed or shelved entirely once …read more
Continue reading Everything We Know About SpaceX’s Starlink Network
There’s no shortage of ways a satellite in low Earth orbit can fail during the course of its mission. Even in the best case scenario, the craft needs to survive bombardment by cosmic rays and tremendous temperature variations. To have even a chance of surviving the worst, such as a …read more
Continue reading Why Satellites of the Future Will be Built to Burn
The world’s most powerful operational rocket is open for business. Continue reading Watch SpaceX Land Three Falcon Boosters for the First Time
Things aren’t looking good for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS). Occasionally referred to as the “Senate Launch System”, or even less graciously, the “Rocket to Nowhere”, the super heavy-lift booster has long been a bone of contention for those in the industry. Designed as an evolution of core Space Shuttle …read more
On February 22nd, a Falcon rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral carrying the Indonesian communications satellite Nusantara Satu. While the satellite was the primary payload for the mission, as is common on the Falcon 9, the rocket had a couple of stowaways. These secondary payloads are generally experiments or …read more
You’ve got to admit, things have been going exceptionally well for SpaceX. In the sixteen years they’ve been in operation, they’ve managed to tick off enough space “firsts” to make even established aerospace players blush. They’re the first privately owned company to not only design and launch their own orbital-class …read more
Continue reading When New Space Loses Out to NASA Pragmatism