Musk made the announcement during a meeting hosted by the National Academy of Sciences . The 394-foot, bullet-shaped rocket had an initial flight test in May, but SpaceX will launch the rocket into orbit from its mega booster, the Super Heavy, for the first time early next year.
Russia's Destruction of an Orbiting Satellite Raises Space Debris Concerns
Russia tested an anti-satellite weapon on November 15, destroying one of its own old and defunct satellites, Kosmos 1408. Launched in 1982, Kosmos 1408 was some 300 miles above Earth.
The danger of damage to the ISS or an orbiting satellite aside, tracking a debris field that could include thousands of pieces, in order to head off collisions, is a concern all its own. Very small debris in space is essentially impossible to track reliably, if at all.
A small rock orbiting the Sun, may be a chunk of the Moon
Astronomers discovered 469219 Kamo'oalewa, a small rock orbiting the Sun, in April 2016. Now they believe that instead of being a meteor, it may have been a broken off piece of the Moon.
According to a study published in the journal Nature on November 11, 2021, the rock, which is about 41 metres in diameter, gives off a spectrum close to the Moon’s: “This spectrum is indicative of a silicate-based composition, but with reddening beyond what is typically seen
Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ship departs space station to conduct experiment in orbit | Space
The latest Cygnus cargo ship departed the International Space Station Saturday (Nov. 20) after sending a haul of cargo to the orbiting crew.
The Northrop Grumman NG-16 resupply vessel was released from the grip of the station's robotic arm at 11:01 a.m. EST (1601 GMT) by a command from NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston as both spacecraft sailed high over the South Pacific Ocean.
Blown-up satellite pieces circling Earth shown in scientist's unsettling simulation
A simulation of the orbital debris, created by Hugh Lewis, a professor of astronautics at the University of Southampton who researches space debris, shows the ring of problematic junk orbiting Earth.
"We're going to see consequences from this particular event for the next few decades," Lewis told Mashable. "It wasn't a good outcome. It was never going to be a good outcome."
Low orbiting satellite spotted along LoC in J&K's Poonch | India News – India TV
A low orbiting satellite was spotted near the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Friday, a defence official said.
Inside Anushka Ranjan & Aditya Seal's pre-wedding festivities: Alia Bhatt, Vaani, Krystle attend
A new telescope may finally find a livable planet around nearby Alpha Centauri
A newly announced mission aims to explore the closest star system, Alpha Centauri, in hopes of finding whether or not the neighboring stars have orbiting planets around them and if those planets may be habitable.
The new mission is a privately funded telescope dubbed TOLIMAN, which is the original Arabic name for Alpha Centauri. TOLIMAN also stands for T elescope for O rbit L ocus I nterferometric M onitoring of our A stronomical N eighbourhood. It is set to launch in the mid-2020s.
Bad Astronomy | Black hole found in nearby galaxy may not be real | SYFY WIRE
Just a week ago, I wrote about research claiming to have found a black hole in a nearby galaxy based on observations of a star orbiting it .
Yeah, that may not be the case. Just days after the first paper came out a different team of astronomers shows that the second object may be a relatively normal star , and not a black hole.
Iodine propulsion systems take flight in space | Astronomy.com
(Inside Science) — Right now, there is a unique spacecraft orbiting our planet. Its secret is the iodine propellant it uses to maneuver in space.
The spacecraft, launched in 2020, is a type of miniaturized satellite called a CubeSat, weighing about 45 pounds (20 kilograms), and it's the first satellite to use iodine to convert electrical energy to ion propulsion.
