Recent content by mfb

SpaceX is targeting October 13 for the next Starship flight It will reuse the booster from flight 8. Most of the engines (24 out of 33) will be reused, too. They'll test more tile configurations and a modified booster landing procedure, but the overall flight profile is the same as for flight...

Dream Chaser's first flight will not go to the ISS For a long time it was planned to. First the launch date kept shifting, now the scope of the mission was reduced while shifting the launch date even more. NASA also cancelled the contracted minimum number of missions. They must have seen some...

442 = 1/9/36 702 = 4/9/00 972 = 9/4/09 1022 = 01/04/04 1082 = 1/16/64 (MM/DD/YY only) 2012 = 04/04/01 2042 = 4/16/16 (MM/DD/YY only) 4012 = 16/8/01 (DD/MM/YY only) Reddit found another square property: 9/27/2025 = 30452 and 27/9/2025 = 52052, both formats are a square.

Today is 25/9/2025 (or 9/25/2025), all three numbers are a square. The next all-square day won't happen until 2116.

NASA announced its 2025 selection of new astronauts. Most of them come from the US military, one is a geologist, one is an engineer. And one is an astronaut with spaceflight experience already. Huh? Anna Menon started at NASA, working as a biomedical flight controller to support astronauts. She...

SpaceX works towards upper stage landings. The reentry trajectory has to go over Mexico, SpaceX chose a path that avoids major population centers to minimize risk. It's close to the US border and might be visible from the southwestern US. That corridor needs a launch to ~32 degrees inclination...

Themis has arrived at its launch pad Themis is Europe's (ESA+Arianespace) main reusable booster development project. This first vehicle (T1H) is built for shorter hops, similar to SpaceX's Grasshopper in 2012/2013. The successor (T1E) is expected make higher altitude flights (~kilometers...

Cygnus arrived at the ISS The next Starship arrived at the launch site for testing

It might still reach the ISS with some delay. If not, upcoming missions will carry more consumables and fewer science experiments to compensate. The ISS has a pretty steady stream of them. The first HTV-X is scheduled to launch in October, it's Japan's new resupply vehicle with 5800 kg of cargo...

Successful static fire of Tianlong-3 Their attempt last year was more dynamic. I don't find a specific launch date but they are likely aiming at a launch this year. It's extremely similar to Falcon 9. Designed with a reusable booster, burning kerosene and oxygen, with 9 engines on the booster...

Where do you get billions from? Lockheed Martin got $200 million for Mars ascent vehicle studies and NASA spent $310 million in FY2024. I don't find other large budget items. The expected cost of the mission exceeded $10 billion, which made people question the approach.

Publication: Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars Article: NASA Says Mars Rover Discovered Potential Biosignature Last Year Press conference The ~100 authors don't find a good way this could have formed without life, but also can't rule it out. Now that they have...

Static fire of Super Heavy for Starship's 11th flight (probably at some point in October)

Better Starship landing videos: The red and white colors are from tests - metallic tiles and insulation material from spaces where tiles were removed released stuff that spread over the rest of the heat shield. The next flight will be the last one of the v2 version. The flight profile will be...

Internal reviews in the big collaborations are far more stringent than the official peer review process. I have never heard of a paper that would have been rejected for having problems in its science content. Some get rejected because the reviewers think it's not notable enough for that journal...