SpaceX’s latest Starship vehicle has begun flexing its considerable muscle. SpaceX conducted a “static fire” test today (Dec. 20) with the Starship upper-stage prototype known as Ship 28, briefly igniting the vehicle’s Raptor engines while it remained anchored to the pad at the company’s Starbase site in South Texas. Ship 28 is being prepped to conduct Starship’s third test flight, which SpaceX aims to launch in the coming weeks. And that timeline apparently remains in target, for today’s trial went well. “Flight 3 Starship completed a full-duration static fire with…
Read MoreMonth: December 2023
NASA Leadership Participates in Vice President-Chaired National Space Council Meeting
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, second from left, speaks during the third meeting of the National Space Council alongside Deputy Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy Steve Welby, left, Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget Nani Coloretti, center, Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk, second from right, and Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves, right, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2023, at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington. Chaired by Vice President Kamala Harris, the council’s role is to advise the President regarding national space…
Read MoreThe Marshall Star for December 20, 2023
32 Min Read The Marshall Star for December 20, 2023 Crew-6 Connects with Marshall Team Members During Visit By Celine Smith One week after the 25th anniversary of the International Space Station, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 visited the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center to share their experience during Expedition 69. The event was held Dec. 14 in Building 4316. Expedition 69 began March 2 with Crew-6 flying on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. While aboard the space station, the crew studied the behavior of flames in microgravity,…
Read MoreFinding life on Saturn’s moon Enceladus might be easier than we thought
New research suggests there are locations on the surface of Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, where spacecraft could land to scoop up pristine traces of the key ingredients for life. It’s believed that these biosignatures come from subsurface oceans within the world’s icy shell. Enceladus has long been known to harbor organic molecules — compounds comprised of carbon, oxygen and nitrogen — in its subsurface oceans. Before it plunged to the surface of Saturn in 2017, the Cassini spacecraft flew through plumes of material erupting through fissures in the surface of Enceladus,…
Read MoreNASA Glenn, Langley Award Administrative Support Contract
NASA has awarded the Glenn-Langley Administrative Support Services (GLASS) contract to PBG FedSync JV LLC of McLean, Virginia, to provide administrative support services to various organizations, programs, and projects at the agency’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. GLASS is a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract that includes a 60-day phase-in period beginning Jan. 1, 2024, followed by a two-year base period and three one-year option periods. The total award value is $41.4 million over a five-year potential performance period. The services include, but are not…
Read MoreMaking Fire Sense on Monroe Mountain
At the start of October 2023, green conifers and golden aspen covered the slopes of Monroe Mountain in Utah’s Fishlake National Forest. Then, starting on October 9, these forests turned black as fire worked its way across the mountain. Flames and smoke were visible for miles.
Read More3D Bioprinting
Science in Space: December 2023 Imagine someone needs a heart transplant and scientists take cells from that person to create an entire new heart for them. Research on the International Space Station is helping to bring that dream closer to reality. The process of 3D printing (also known as additive manufacturing) enables the design and production of one-of-a-kind items made of plastic, metal, and other materials, including tools, equipment, and even buildings. Biological printing or bioprinting uses living cells, proteins, and nutrients as raw materials and has the potential to…
Read MoreStrange ‘slide whistle’ fast radio burst picked up by alien-hunting telescope defies explanation
Astronomers watched 35 explosive outbursts from a rare repeating “fast radio burst” (FRB) as it shifted in frequency like a “cosmic slide whistle,” blinking in a puzzling pattern never seen before. FRBs are millisecond-long flashes of light from beyond the Milky Way that are capable of producing as much energy in a few seconds as the sun does in a year. FRBs are believed to come from powerful objects like neutron stars with intense magnetic fields — also called magnetars — or from cataclysmic events like stellar collisions or the…
Read MoreNASA, Partners Continue to Advance Space Tech on Suborbital Flights
5 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) New Shepard, Blue Origin’s reusable suborbital rocket, rising from the company’s Launch Site One in West Texas, on a previous flight in 2021. The vehicle returned to flight on Dec. 19, 2023, carrying payloads supported by NASA’s Flight Opportunities, enabling researchers to test disruptive solutions for space applications. Blue Origin Living and working in space requires getting ready a bit closer to Earth. Through a suborbital flight test on Dec. 19, 2023 with industry provider Blue Origin, NASA’s Flight…
Read MoreWatch Chinese astronauts get haircuts aboard Tiangong space station (video)
China’s Shenzhou 17 astronauts have been taking care of grooming alongside their on-orbit obligations. Mission commander Tang Hongbo and rookie crewmates Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin recently helped each other get haircuts aboard the Tiangong space station. Video released by CMSA, China’s human spaceflight agency, shows Tang Shengjie cutting the hair of his colleague Jiang Xinlin using a smart device that also acts as a vacuum cleaner. The device sucks up hair to minimize potential risk of it clogging up the space station’s hardware. Related: How to see and track…
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