Recent content by mfb

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...

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.