Two NASA astronauts, Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley, will make history by travelling to the International Space Station in a privately funded spacecraft, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule. But the launch, which was due to take place on May 27, has been aborted due to bad weather, and will instead take place on May 30 at 3:22 pm EDT.
Private space company SpaceX is about to do something for the first time. This week the company launches its first human passengers into space, a major test for the Elon Musk-backed outfit and a stepping stone on its route to Mars.
Human spaceflight is incredibly difficult and expensive; the rockets must be reliable and the vehicle must be built with expensive life support systems and a certain level of redundancy. To date, only three countries – Russia, the United States and China – have achieved this feat.
With dreams of Mars on the minds of both NASA and Elon Musk, long-distance crewed missions through space are coming. But you might be surprised to learn that modern rockets don’t go all that much faster than the rockets of the past.
While you’re no doubt familiar with the concept if you’ve played any flight sim in the past decade, it’s worth noting that SpaceX’s offering is actually profoundly difficult. We’ve tried it a few times and have managed to cause an international incident on more than one occasion.
It doesn’t matter how much cash you’re making at the end of the day, nor should your feelings on ultra-powerful…
SpaceX’s new satellites have the potential to revolutionise many aspects of everyday life – from bringing internet access to remote corners of the globe to monitoring the environment and improving global navigation systems. Amid all the fanfare, a critical danger has flown under the radar: the lack of cybersecurity standards and regulations for commercial satellites, in the U.S. and internationally
Facebook CEO and lizard overlord Mark Zuckerburg decided on deploying a web of internet-beaming satellites in space way back in…
The manned SpaceX flight would see the crew of The Dragon docking with the International Space Station which would serve…