Recent content by mfb

No website that accepts this is worth a recommendation. You are not the first who thinks they can revolutionize physics based on some popular science descriptions and (more recently) AI tools praising everything you feed them. If you had the required knowledge to contribute anything useful, you...

Successful maiden flight for Zhuque-3. The attempted booster landing failed. Looks like an issue during the landing burn, so there is a good chance the next attempt will succeed. Booster reuse will become standard, and companies that don't work on it fall behind.

8 spacecraft are docked to the ISS for the first time Soyuz MS-27 (outgoing crew) Soyuz MS-28 (new crew) Dragon (Crew-11) and 5 resupply missions (Dragon, HTV-X, Cygnus, 2*Progress), occupying all docking ports of the ISS. This also gives the current ISS the largest pressurized volume of any...

A structure that is used under the Soyuz rockets fell down into the flame trench. Here is a before/after picture, other source. The launch that caused the damage was successful in the sense that it delivered a new crew to the ISS, so for the next 6 months nothing needs to change in the crew...

NASA, Boeing Modify Commercial Crew Contract What was widely expected already is now official: Starliner-1 will fly without crew, with a planned launch in April 2026. If successful, Starliner-2 can become the first crew rotation mission. NASA only wants to do three of these now. If (!)...

Only if they use the code editor, or switch to it. It's the [ ] icon.

A full success for New Glenn. Here is a replay. Launch at 1:43:00, booster landing at 1:52:00, payload separation around 2:16:40. They had amazing tracking shots of the booster throughout reentry. The live video broke up during the final seconds, that's something we saw with early SpaceX...

Space (100 km) is an extremely ambitious goal. There are only a few amateur teams worldwide that have achieved it. You'll need years to learn with smaller rockets and probably a 6-digit budget. BPSspace is working towards a space shot. He is funding it with his 6000 Patreon subscribers and...

The second New Glenn sits on the launch pad carrying ESCAPADE, two small spacecraft that want to go to Mars. Originally this was supposed to be the maiden flight in an October 2024 launch window but the rocket wasn't ready. Now the plan is to launch it, keep it near Earth for a year, and then...

Some updates on HLS (archived version) It has a first (?) official rendering of the crew cabin. There is a lot of space for 4 astronauts!

A full success. They tested a banking maneuver late into the reentry. During the flight I assumed that was just to improve the landing accuracy, but TheSpaceEngineer studied the cloud patterns to estimate the trajectory. It's a pretty big deviation - almost a 90 degree turn. The same maneuver...

8.5 hours until the next flight of Starship (launch window opens 23:15 UTC, it is now 14:45 UTC). Live coverage will be here: https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-11 The first booster catch, with flight 5, was exactly 1 year and 2 hours ago. Since then we had two more booster...

A Venus mission doesn't have anything you don't see in LEO. The radiation is just more intense: * You accumulate an integrated dose quicker - but longer missions in Earth orbit can end up with the same. * You get a higher rate of single event upsets. Plan the electronics accordingly.

Up to 44 at the moment

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...