Space News and Discussions

[weatheriscool]

Blue Origin successfully launches New Shepard rocket - Reuters


Blue Origin's suborbital New Shepard rocket lifted off from Texas in its first mission since a failure last year led to a 15-month grounding.
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WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Blue Origin's suborbital New Shepard rocket lifted off from Texas on Tuesday carrying research payloads, a company live stream showed, in its first mission since a failure last year led to a 15-month grounding.

New Shepard, the company's only active rocket that can carry humans and cargo on short trips to and from the brim of space, lifted off from Blue Origin's remote Van Horn, Texas launch site at 10:42 a.m. CT (1642 GMT).

It soared to space for a few minutes 66 miles (106 km) above ground before its reusable rocket booster returned back to land in tact, completing its ninth trip to space.

At peak altitude, the booster deployed 33 research experiments encapsulated in a gumdrop-shaped pod, which also softly returned to land under parachutes minutes later.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/technology/spac ... 023-12-19/

[wjfox]

Blue Origin successfully launches New Shepard rocket - Reuters

Good stuff. When are we going to see the New Glenn, I wonder.

[weatheriscool]

NASA's Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine Aces New Test
Explosions might be a more efficient way to get around.
By Ryan Whitwam December 23, 2023
https://www.extremetech.com/science/nas ... s-new-test

NASA has its eyes set on Mars, but the agency is still developing myriad technologies that we'll need for future space exploration. Among NASA's next-gen ideas is the Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE), a project under the Game Changing Development Program. After first testing this new form of propulsion a year ago, NASA has now conducted an even longer RDRE test fire, moving this technology one step closer to reality.

A Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine is an alternative to traditional combustion-based engines. These engines use small explosions inside the circular annular channel using the same fuel and oxidizer mixture seen in standard rocket engines. The detonations are self-sustaining after ignition and travel around the channel continuously. Simulations have shown that rotating detonation engines could increase fuel efficiency by 25%.

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

NASA completes record sustained burn of revolutionary rocket engine
By David Szondy
December 28, 2023

NASA has pushed forward a revolutionary new rocket technology at its Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Engineers at the facility fired the 3D-printed Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE) for a record 251 seconds with 5,800 lb (2,631 kg) of thrust.

For over six decades, NASA has relied on chemical rockets to launch its vehicles into space. It works, but chemical rockets suffer from the fact that they've been operating in the neighborhood of their theoretical limit since 1942. This isn't helped by the fact that most liquid rockets are essentially unchanged in their basic design since the days of the German V2s.

To squeeze a bit more performance out of rocket engines, NASA is looking at a fundamentally different design with the RDRE.

Instead of a combustion chamber where fuel and oxygen are fed in to burn at subsonic speed, in an RDRE these are introduced into a gap between two coaxial cylinders. When this mixture is ignited, they form a closely coupled reaction and shock wave. That wave travels inside the gap at supersonic speed, generating more heat and pressure.

If this burn can be sustained, it can produce a rocket thrust that is much more efficient. In fact, NASA says that the latest test firing was powerful enough and long enough that it could meet the requirements for a lander touchdown or deep space burn required for a mission to the Moon or Mars.

However, NASA stresses that the technology is far from mature and that test firings like this one are needed to scale up the combustor for different thrust classes. If this is successful, RDREs could find work in landers, upper stage boosters, and retropropulsion to land large payloads on the surface of Mars.

https://newatlas.com/space/nasa-sustain ... et-engine/

[weatheriscool]

SpaceX launches secretive US military spacecraft on research mission
https://phys.org/news/2023-12-spacex-se ... ssion.html

In operation since 2010, the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle was designed for the Air Force by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket blasted back into space on Thursday night to ferry the US military's secretive X-37B drone to a research mission.

After weeks of delays, the rocket launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8:07 pm Eastern Time (0107 GMT Friday) in a liftoff livestreamed on SpaceX's website.

It is unclear where exactly the uncrewed and autonomously operating spacecraft is headed on its seventh mission.

The Pentagon has released little information about the space drone and its mission, which was initially scheduled for December 7, and SpaceX only cited the Pentagon's mission code name—USSF-52—in its statement on the launch.

[caltrek]

NASA Is On a Mission to 'Touch the Sun' In Milestone Moment for Space Exploration
by Nathann Rennolds
December 31 , 2023

Introduction:

(Business Insider) NASA's Parker Solar Probe is set to pass the Sun next year in a milestone moment for space exploration.

The probe, launched on Aug 12, 2018, is due to fly past the sun at 195 km/s, or 435,000 mph on 24 December 2024, the BBC reported.

NASA describes it as a mission to ""touch the Sun" on its website, aiming to get our "first-ever sampling of a star's atmosphere."

"We are basically almost landing on a star," Nour Raouafi, a scientist on the project, told the BBC.

"This will be a monumental achievement for all humanity. This is equivalent to the Moon landing of 1969," he said.

Read more here: https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-o ... -2023-12

[weatheriscool]

First US lunar lander in over 50 years rockets toward moon with commercial deliveries

Source: ABC News/AP

January 8, 2024, 2:21 AM

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The first U.S. lunar lander in more than 50 years rocketed toward the moon Monday, launching private companies on a space race to make deliveries for NASA and other customers. Astrobotic Technology'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 that should culminate with an attempted landing on Feb. 23.

“So, so, so excited. We are on our way to the moon!” Astrobotic chief executive John Thornton said. The Pittsburgh 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. “First to launch. First to land is TBD," to be determined, Thornton noted.

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 NASA tech and science experiments 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.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireS ... -106186244

[raklian]