SpaceX fires up Starship SN15 prototype to prep for test flight

STATIC FIRE! Starship SN15 fires up for the first time. There will be a data review to check performance.Status Article:https://t.co/t2uFhIa1FQLIVE: https://t.co/GZgQHwfZp9 pic.twitter.com/26OWa3i9RiApril 26, 2021 See more SpaceX’s latest Starship prototype has roared to life.  The company performed the first “static fire” test on Starship SN15 Monday (April 26) at 5:57 p.m. EDT (2157 GMT). The stainless-steel vehicle’s three Raptor engines ignited briefly while the craft remained anchored to the ground at SpaceX’s South Texas site, near the Gulf Coast hamlet of Boca Chica Village. But SN15 (short for “Serial No.…

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Proof of new physics from the muon’s magnetic moment? Maybe not, according to new theoretical calculation

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Zoltan Fodor, Professor of Physics, Penn State When the results of an experiment don’t match predictions made by the best theory of the day, something is off. Fifteen years ago, physicists at Brookhaven National Laboratory discovered something perplexing. Muons – a type of subatomic particle – were moving in unexpected ways that didn’t match theoretical predictions. Was the theory wrong? Was the experiment off? Or, tantalizingly, was this evidence of new physics? Physicists have been…

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NASA chief nominee Bill Nelson talks Artemis program and more at Senate hearing

Long-time Democratic space politician Bill Nelson expressed support for the Artemis program during a televised three-hour hearing considering his nomination as NASA administrator Wednesday (April 21). The 78-year-old Nelson — who made space issues a cornerstone issue in his decades representing Florida in the House and Senate — said NASA is still technically committed to a 2024 deadline for landing people on the moon under the Artemis program, albeit “with the sobering reality that space is hard.” He also noted that he was not yet allowed to talk to the…

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