Space: The Final Frontier

[SubGod22]

This is kind of cool. Reusable. Cheap. Environmentally friendly. We'll find out today if it works.

Company to Make History With World's First 3D-Printed Rocket Launch

A private space tech firm will become the first entity to launch a 3D-printed rocket, which is technically the largest 3D-printed object as well.

Totally reusable, the Terran 1 will launch today from the spaceport at Cape Canaveral at 1:00 PM US Eastern Time, and will be streamed live on this YouTube channel.

Built by Relativity Space, the company has huge ambitions for lowering the cost and emissions of spacefaring. This real-world test of Terran 1 features a rocket made with only 85% printed material, but future rockets will reach 95% and will include additive-manufactured boosters as well.

It’s a small payload rocket meant to economize small deliveries into space with all the wonderful cost reductions that come from reusability and 3D-printing.

A liquid oxygen propellant will act as the fuel, which would make it the first rocket ever to leave the atmosphere on natural gas fuels, and prove a key part of the company’s future missions to Mars which it hopes to power with methane.

Launch is scheduled for 11am CST and the video/link above should be their feed.

[WstateU]

This is kind of cool. Reusable. Cheap. Environmentally friendly. We'll find out today if it works.

Company to Make History With World's First 3D-Printed Rocket Launch

Launch is scheduled for 11am CST and the video/link above should be their feed.

I’m sorry, but I’m immediately reminded of this classic…

and this…

[SubGod22]

They haven't launched yet but the feed is live. It looks to be pretty windy which may be delaying things. I can't get audio at work. Countdown though is at 50 minutes which would have launch be at 1220.

Disregard. I'm guessing it's a weather issue as the T - clock has reset and now we're looking at 1pm or so. Watching the video, it looks like the wind may have actually picked up since the stream started. If that's the issue, it may not go up today.

Found some comments on Twitter that seem to indicate it's not a wind thing, but something to do with getting the propellant perfect before launching. I don't know details but apparently something isn't going as smoothly as they'd hoped in regards to the fuel source.

Looks like it's really going to happen around 140pm

I really need audio. With 69 seconds to go before launch it was placed on HOLD. Not sure why.

They may not proceed. I guess the launch window is still open until 3pm CST. But something apparently isn't working as they want.

Message at the bottom of the screen reads: WE HAVE ABORTED AND ARE ASSESSING RECYCLE OPTIONS

Countdown clock has begun again and is currently at about 45 minutes. Which has launch at about 245 which is just inside the launch window. It either happens here or it doesn't happen today.

According to Twitter, the problem with the last attempt was the stage 2 oxygen temps. I'm starting to lose faith in this launch happening.

[RoyalShock]

It sounds like they've scrubbed the launch.

[SubGod22]

That they have. I'll try to keep tabs on this for the next attempt.

[SubGod22]

New company, and country, has entered space and is progressing towards being a future factor in European launches.

Europe's First-Ever Private Rocket Blasts Off to Space Thanks to Spanish Company PLD

When was the last time American headlines read positive about the Spanish economy? Well now, thanks to the successful test flight of a Spanish reusable space rocket, let the presses ring out that Spanish innovation is alive and well.

Private astronautics company PLD has successfully proved the Miura-1 reusable rocket is capable of space flight, and that Spain is now the 10th country on Earth with direct access to space.

The rocket, named after a type of fighting bull from which an old Lamborghini model also took its name, flew 28.6 miles (46 kilometers) into suborbital space on a flight lasting 306 seconds.

Designed as a lighter, cheaper way for governments and companies to put satellites into orbit, the Miura has a payload of 220 pounds (100 kg).

“This launch is the result of more than 12 years of hard work, but it is only the beginning of what is to come,” PLD founder and Launch Director Raul Torres said in a statement.

“Thanks to this experimental flight, we will be able to extract a large volume of information that will allow us to validate a large part of the design and technology that will serve as the basis for developing our orbital launcher, MIURA 5.”

The mission ended with a splash in the Atlantic Ocean, with the company saying they were ready to retrieve it hours after the test launch concluded.

[SubGod22]

Spacefaring Japan Looks to Become the 5th Country to Land on the Moon This Month

Mere months after India established itself as the fourth Lunar power, Japan is set to land on our nearest celestial body this month.

JAXA, or the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, has accomplished a number of hugely impressive spacefaring feats over the last three decades, including a sample-return mission from the Ryugu Asteroid, which has never been done before, even by the US.

Now, with their Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) entering Lunar orbit on Christmas Day, JAXA is poised for a January 19th descent onto the Lunar surface.

SLIM is “a mission for researching the pinpoint landing technology necessary for future lunar probes and verifying this on the surface of the moon with a small-scale probe,” JAXA officials wrote in a mission description.

The hope is that they will be able to land on a select point with an accuracy of 300 feet. The spacecraft left Earth on September 8th along with XRISM, a powerful X-ray telescope that remained in Earth’s orbit.

One would hope that with more countries beginning to be more adventurous in regards to space that we will see more progress with the tech needed to go further and do more.

[Atxshoxfan]

Biden admin is more concerned with transgender development in our Space Force.

[WuDrWu]

He.

[SubGod22]

KSN - First US lunar lander in more than 50 years launched but develops problem on way to moon

The first U.S. lunar lander in more than 50 years rocketed to space Monday, launching a race for private companies to deliver experiments and other items to the moon.

But about seven hours after liftoff, Astrobotic Technology reported the solar panel on the lander wasn’t properly pointed toward the sun to generate and store power and it was investigating the issue.

The Pittsburgh company’s lander caught a ride on a brand new rocket, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan. The Vulcan streaked through the Florida predawn sky, putting the spacecraft on a roundabout route to the moon for a landing attempt on Feb. 23.

The company aims to be the first private business to successfully land on the moon, something only four countries have accomplished. But a Houston company also has a lander ready to fly, and could beat it to the lunar surface, taking a more direct path.

NASA gave the two companies millions to build and fly their own lunar landers. The space agency wants the privately owned landers to scope out the place before astronauts arrive while delivering tech and science experiments for NASA, other countries and universities as well as odds and ends for other customers. Astrobotic’s contract for the Peregrine lander: $108 million.

The last time the U.S. launched a moon-landing mission was in December 1972. Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt became the 11th and 12th men to walk on the moon, closing out an era that has remained NASA’s pinnacle.

I didn't realize how close the Artemis program was to going back to the moon.

They expect to have astronauts do a lunar flyby before the end of this year with a return to landing on the moon in the next couple of years. Sounds like they are indeed hoping to be able to build a facility on the moon and that some of these landers would be ways to deliver much needed items for future missions. I may be projecting a bit, but that's how it sounded to me.

[WuDrWu]

Been a tough day....but it looks critical now, if not dead.

https://news.sky.com/story/peregrine...n%20the%20moon.


Propellant leak probably dooms the mission. They appear to be in a modified salvage mode now.

[ShockerPrez]

Did anyone else see anything about aliens in Miami? Us that a hoax?

[WstateU]

Did anyone else see anything about aliens in Miami? Us that a hoax?

[Atxshoxfan]

Did anyone else see anything about aliens in Miami? Us that a hoax?

I think cold visited Miami.

[SubGod22]

KAKE - NASA announces new 'super-Earth': Exoplanet orbits in 'habitable zone,' is only 137 light-years away

Could a recently discovered "super-Earth" have the potential temperature and conditions to sustain life?

The new exoplanet is situated "fairly close to us" -- only 137 light-years away -- and orbits within a "habitable zone," according to NASA.

Astronomers say the planet, dubbed TOI-715 b, is about one and a half times the width of Earth and orbits a small, reddish star. The same system also might harbor a second, Earth-sized planet, which, if confirmed, "would become the smallest habitable-zone planet discovered by TESS [the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite] so far," NASA said in a Jan. 31 press release.

Due to the super-Earth's distance from its parent star, it could be in a conservative "habitable zone" and harbor the right temperature for liquid water to form on its surface, which is essential to sustain life, according to the agency, which also added that "several other factors would have to line up, of course."

NASA said the measurements of the habitable zone -- "a narrower and potentially more robust definition than the broader 'optimistic' habitable zone" -- put the newly discovered planet, and possibly the smaller Earth-sized planet, in "prime position" from its parent star.

We just need that FTL drive to come around