All posts tagged: moon landing

We’re One Step Closer to Gas Stations in Space

We’re One Step Closer to Gas Stations in Space

SpaceX’s latest Starship mission flew further than before—and tested technology that could elevate humankind’s spacefaring status. Brandon Bell / Getty March 14, 2024, 11:50 AM ET SpaceX has once again launched the most powerful rocket in history into the sky, and this time, the mission seems to have passed most of its key milestones. Starship took off without a hitch this morning, separated from its booster, and cruised through space for a while before SpaceX lost contact with it. Instead of splashing down in the ocean as planned, Starship seems to have been destroyed during reentry in Earth’s atmosphere. The flight was the third try in an ambitious testing campaign that began less than a year ago. The other attempts started with beautiful liftoffs, but stopped short of completing test objectives and ended in explosions. For today’s test, SpaceX changed up its designs and applied them to freshly made Starship prototypes, which are manufactured at a pace that, compared with the rest of rocket history, evokes chocolates coming down the conveyor belt toward Lucille Ball. …

Odysseus Marks the First US Moon Landing in More Than 50 Years

Odysseus Marks the First US Moon Landing in More Than 50 Years

For the first time in more than half a century, a US-built spacecraft has made a soft landing on the moon. There was high drama and plenty of intrigue on Thursday evening as Intuitive Machines attempted to land its Odysseus spacecraft in a small crater not all that far from the south pole of the moon. About 20 minutes after touchdown, NASA declared success, but some questions remained about the health of the lander and its orientation. Why? Because while Odysseus was phoning home, its signal was weak. But after what the spacecraft and its developer, Houston-based Intuitive Machines, went through earlier on Thursday, it was a miracle that Odysseus made it at all. Losing Your Way The landing attempt was delayed by about two hours after mission controllers had to send a hastily cobbled together, last-minute software patch up to the lander while it was still in orbit around the moon. Patching your spacecraft’s software shortly before it makes its most critical move is just about the last thing a vehicle operator wants to …

The first US Moon mission since Apollo blasts off into space | Science | News

The first US Moon mission since Apollo blasts off into space | Science | News

The first US Moon mission since Apollo, carrying a piece of technology developed by UK scientists, has blasted off into space. The Peregrine Mission One (PM1) – built by US space company Astrobotic – is set to become the first private probe to land on the lunar surface. The spacecraft is now flying solo on its way to the Moon, where it will attempt to land on February 23. If successful, Peregrine could become the first commercial lander, and first American lander in more than 50 years, to land on the Moon. The Vulcan rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 7.18am GMT. Onboard is an instrument known as the Peregrine Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer (PITMS), which was developed in the UK by scientists from The Open University (OU) and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) RAL Space – the UK’s national space lab – in collaboration with Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Washington DC. Astrobotic chief executive John Thornton said: “Today Peregrine Mission One achieved a number of big milestones. …

Peregrine faces malfunction and will likely not soft land on the moon | Science | News

Peregrine faces malfunction and will likely not soft land on the moon | Science | News

The Peregrine Lander (Image: Getty) The first US mission in 50 years aimed at a “soft landing” on the Moon was hanging by a thread last night after a critical propulsion system malfunction left the Peregrine lunar lander unable to point its “solar array” at the Sun to generate the power needed to complete its touchdown. While 2024 has already been dubbed the Year of the Moon by many in the space business, with more than 10 missions, one crewed, headed to Earth’s nearest satellite, it appeared increasingly unlikely the ill-fated 1.2-tonne lander would not be among them. Earlier, a successful launch of the new Vulcan rocket system from Cape Canaveral in Florida had boded well for the most exciting year for lunar exploration since the first human landing in 1969. America was finally returning to the Moon more than 50 years after it last achieved the task with Apollo 17 in 1972. Back then, as Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the Moon, stepped off the lunar soil he laid down a …

SpaceX Is Holding Up America’s Lunar Ambitions

SpaceX Is Holding Up America’s Lunar Ambitions

The second liftoff of Starship, SpaceX’s giant new rocket-and-spaceship system, went beautifully this morning, the fire of the engines matching the orange glow of the sunrise in South Texas. The spaceship soared over the Gulf Coast, with all 33 engines in the rocket booster pulsing. High in the sky, the vehicles separated seamlessly—through a technique that SpaceX debuted during this flight—and employees let out wild cheers. The booster soon exploded, but the flight could survive that. What mattered was that Starship was still flying. It could still coast along the edge of space, and then plunge back to Earth, crashing into the Pacific Ocean off of the coast of Hawaii, as SpaceX planned. But then, as SpaceX mission control waited to hear a signal from Starship, there was only silence. Something had gone wrong after the ship shut off its engines in preparation to coast. The self-destruct system kicked in, and Starship blew itself up, according to SpaceX’s commentators, who were narrating the livestream. A “rapid unscheduled disassembly,” as SpaceXers call it. SpaceX can certainly …