All posts tagged: rocket

NASA May Shrink Boeing’s Moon-Mission Role While Handing SpaceX Core Rocket Responsibilities

NASA May Shrink Boeing’s Moon-Mission Role While Handing SpaceX Core Rocket Responsibilities

Published by Jenni Sidey

President Donald Trump’s NASA chief could soon announce Boeing’s diminishing role in returning astronauts to the Moon, while leaning heavily on Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket company to do the heavy lifting. Boeing’s Space Launch System (SLS), originally the rocket backbone of the Artemis mission, would no longer carry the Lockheed Martin-built Orion crew capsule to the Moon. Under the new plan, SpaceX’s Starship would take the lead. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman plans to meet with the companies working on the Artemis program next Tuesday, including Boeing, SpaceX, and Blue Origin, to discuss progress and current paths forward. Sources close to the program said any significant changes could face immediate Congressional scrutiny. “NASA is committed to using the SLS architecture through at least Artemis V, which is necessary to support both human landing system providers, and their associated acceleration plans to return American astronauts to the Moon,” Isaacman said in a statement. “We’re incredibly supportive of both our HLS providers and their plans to accelerate America’s path forward to the moon,” Isaacman added. SpaceX will ultimately …

North Korea tests nuclear-capable rocket launchers amid US-South Korea military drills

North Korea tests nuclear-capable rocket launchers amid US-South Korea military drills

Published by Sam Flores

North Korea tested nuclear-capable rocket launchers, state media reported on Sunday, a day after Seoul detected the launch of around 10 ballistic missiles. The test comes after South Korean and US forces kicked off their springtime military drills, due to run until March 19. North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the testing on Saturday of the multiple rocket launcher system (MRLS), the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. It said the test involved 12 600mm-calibre ultra-precision multiple rocket launchers and two artillery companies. Kim said the drill gave Pyongyang’s enemies, within the 420 kilometres striking range, a sense of “uneasiness” and “a deep understanding of the destructive power of tactical nuclear weapons”, KCNA reported. The rockets battered an island target in the East Sea of Korea more than 360 kilometres away, KCNA said on Sunday. Kim praised the MRLS as a “very deadly yet attractive weapon”. Photos released by state media showed several rockets blasting off large vehicles into the air. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter Kim Ju Ae observe …

US State Department OKs Potential Sale of Rocket Systems to Sweden

US State Department OKs Potential Sale of Rocket Systems to Sweden

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON, ⁠March ⁠10 (Reuters) – The ⁠U.S. ​State Department ‌said ‌on ⁠Tuesday that ⁠it had approved ​the ​potential sale ⁠of M142 ⁠High ⁠Mobility Artillery ​Rocket Systems ​and ⁠related ⁠equipment to Sweden. The principal contractor ⁠will be Lockheed Martin. (Reporting by Jasper ⁠Ward in Washington; editing ​by Costas ​Pitas) Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters. Photos You Should See – March 2026 Source link

NASA says moon mission could be delayed after discovering rocket fault | Science, Climate & Tech News

NASA says moon mission could be delayed after discovering rocket fault | Science, Climate & Tech News

Published by skeptic

NASA may delay its mission to send astronauts to the moon for the first time in more than half a century after discovering a fault with its rocket. Artemis II has been due to blast off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center from as early as March. On Friday night, however, NASA discovered that the flow of helium – which is required for launch – to the rocket had been interrupted during a key part of the preparation process. A NASA spokesperson said: “This will almost assuredly ​impact the March launch window.” Before the setback, the agency had announced that it was targeting 6 March to launch four astronauts around the moon and back. The crew includes three ⁠US astronauts – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and ​Christina Koch – and Canadian​Jeremy Hansen. They would become the first astronauts to fly to the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972 and make the farthest human flight into space ⁠ever. Read more:Everything to know about Artemis II There are no plans for the mission to land on its surface, …

SpaceX Veteran Says He’s Figured Out How to Make Rocket Fuel From Water

SpaceX Veteran Says He’s Figured Out How to Make Rocket Fuel From Water

Published by José Betancourt

The idea of using in-situ resources, such as water, on the surface of distant worlds to synthesize rocket fuel has been around for many decades. For many years, for instance, scientists have suggested using frozen water on the Moon to ensure future space travelers have a way to make the journey back home. Now, as Wired reports, former SpaceX engineer Halen Mattison and his startup, General Galactic, are looking to put the concept to the test once and for all. The company is planning to launch a 1,100-pound satellite on a Falcon 9 rocket in October as part of an audacious proof of concept. The goal is to test water as the fuel for both electrical and chemical propulsion, processes that involve shooting out a stream of plasma with the use of a magnetic field and burning fuel at high temperature and pressure to generate thrust, respectively. In the case of chemical propulsion, General Galactic is planning to split hydrogen and oxygen in the water via electrolysis, and then burn the hydrogen gas with oxygen …

This Startup Thinks It Can Make Rocket Fuel From Water. Stop Laughing

This Startup Thinks It Can Make Rocket Fuel From Water. Stop Laughing

Published by skeptic

There’s been this hand-wave, this assumption, this yada yada at the core of our long-term space programs. If we can return astronauts to the moon, we’ll find ice there. And if we find that ice in sufficient quantities, we’ll break it down into hydrogen and oxygen, and yada yada, we’ll use that fuel to fly deeper into the solar system, maybe even to Mars. And if we get to Mars, we’ll find even more ice on the Red Planet. We’ll mine that, combine it with the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and yada yada, we’ll use that to fly the astronauts back. It’s an idea that’s been around since the Apollo era and has been touted in recent years by the likes of former NASA administrator Bill Nelson and SpaceX’s Elon Musk. But here’s the thing: No one has ever successfully turned water into rocket fuel, not for a spaceship of any significant size. A startup called General Galactic, led by a pair of twentysomething engineers, is aiming to be the first. This fall, General …

NASA says this movie has the most realistic rocket science

NASA says this movie has the most realistic rocket science

Published by skeptic

When people think of realistic sci-fi media, their minds might go to a TV show like For All Mankind, which meticulously charts out how the world would be different had the United States and the Soviet Union never stopped running the space race, doing its best to take the science seriously. They probably wouldn’t think of a century-old silent movie where a group of characters travel to the Moon only to find that the atmosphere is breathable. And yet, when NASA scientists put together a list of the seven best sci-fi movies ever made back in 2011, a movie that matches that description exactly — director Fritz Lang’s 1929 sci-fi epic Woman in the Moon — came in fifth place. And it deserves to. Woman in the Moon is a visionary sci-fi film… …if not a completely accurate one Woman in the Moon is about an entrepreneur named Wolf Heilus (Willy Fritsch) and Professor Georg Manfeldt (Klaus Pohl), who put together a team to go to the Moon, theorizing that there’s gold for the digging …

Frank Malina – fearless rocket engineer, groundbreaking artist and communist ‘traitor’

Frank Malina – fearless rocket engineer, groundbreaking artist and communist ‘traitor’

Published by skeptic

Frank Malina was a lot of things. The Texas-born aeronautical engineer co-designed the first jet-assisted take-off (Jato) rocket and the US’s first operational high-altitude rocket. He co-founded and became director of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory – and along the way, joined a team of rocket engineers who became known as the “suicide squad” for their risk-taking approach. Malina was also a pacifist and anti-fascist, a card-carrying member of the Communist party, and a painter and pioneer in the field of kinetic art – where motion, be it mechanically or naturally produced, is critical to the artwork. His efforts to bridge science and technology with the creative arts led to him launching Leonardo, MIT press’s world-leading journal on the use of contemporary science and technology in the arts and music. This series is dedicated to little-known but highly influential scientists who have had a powerful influence on the careers and research paths of many others, including the authors of these articles. His exceptional approach leant a credibility to research at the intersection of art and technology, …