Tag: Space Exploration

‘Lunik Heist:’ A real-life CIA rocket kidnapping goes to Hollywood

NeRD

Now in the works is a retro look back in time at a bizarre Cold War caper by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) thanks to a forthcoming, star-studded comedy/drama movie called “Lunik Heist.” Earlier this month, Searchlight Pictures, a Disney-owned division, announced that actors Jared Leto, Lupita Nyong’o, and John Mulaney have signed on to star in “Lunik Heist,” described as a “a wild, roller-coaster ride, filled with subterfuge and unlikely heroes.” The film is based on a real-life incident that saw CIA operatives plot to disassemble and inspect one…

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USC students set world record with high-flying rocket launch (video)

NeRD

The University of Southern California’s student rocketeers have done it again. The USC Rocket Propulsion Lab (USCRPL) — which in 2019 became the first student organization ever to launch a rocket to space — sent its Aftershock II vehicle 470,400 feet (89.09 miles, or 143.38 kilometers) above Earth last month. That smashed the amateur altitude record of 380,000 feet (71.97 miles, or 115.82 km), which was set in 2004 by the Civilian Space Exploration Team. “This achievement represents several engineering firsts,” Ryan Kraemer, the executive engineer of USCRPL and an…

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SpaceX stacks Flight 6 Starship megarocket ahead of Nov. 19 launch (photos)

NeRD

SpaceX’s Starship megarocket has come together ahead of its sixth-ever test flight next week. SpaceX has stacked Starship‘s two elements — the Super Heavy booster and Ship upper-stage spacecraft — on the orbital launch mount at its Starbase site in South Texas. The company confirmed the milestone in a Friday night X post, which featured four photos of the stacking process and its aftermath. A fully stacked Starship stands nearly 400 feet (122 meters) tall. (Image credit: SpaceX via X) That post also announced a date change for the flight:…

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What time is SpaceX’s Starship Flight 6 launch test on Nov. 19?

NeRD

SpaceX is gearing up to launch its next Starship test flight, a mission that will attempt a second catch of the world’s largest rocket on Tuesday (Nov. 19). But if you’re hoping to watch the launch live online, you’ll need to know when to tune in. Currently, SpaceX’s Starship Flight 6 test flight is scheduled to launch no earlier than Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 5 p.m. EST (2100 GMT) from the company’s Starbase site in South Texas, near Boca Chica Beach. This will be SpaceX’s sixth test flight of a…

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Did NASA’s Viking landers accidentally kill life on Mars? Why one scientist thinks so

NeRD

In 1975, NASA’s Viking 1 spacecraft entered orbit around Mars, carrying a mission to unlock the secrets of the Red Planet. Soon, it released twin landers that drifted toward the Martian surface and eventually made history as the first American spacecraft to touch down on the world. For over six years, Viking 1 continued to orbit Mars’ Chryse Planitia region while its landers collected soil samples using robotic arms and onboard laboratories, marking a groundbreaking chapter in humanity’s exploration of the Martian environment. At the time, however, little was known…

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Blue Origin stacks huge New Glenn rocket ahead of 1st launch (photo)

NeRD

Blue Origin’s massive new rocket is getting closer to being ready to fly. The company shared a new photo of the two stages of its New Glenn rocket being joined together for the first time in the company’s facility near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. “GS-1 meets GS-2,” the company wrote on X (formerly Twitter) in a post accompanying the photo, in reference to the first (GS-1) and second (GS-2) stages of the new rocket. New Glenn is expected to make its maiden flight sometime in November, taking…

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SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites on 2nd leg of spaceflight doubleheader

NeRD

SpaceX launched 24 of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida early this morning (Nov. 14) in the second half of a spaceflight doubleheader. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the 24 Starlink spacecraft lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 8:21 a.m. EST (1321 GMT.) The four-hour launch window opened at 5:33 a.m. EST (0933 GMT) just five hours after another Falcon 9 launched 20 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth about eight minutes after liftoff…

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NASA dealing with aging ISS and spacewalk hardware: ‘None of our spacesuits are spring chickens’

NeRD

The commander of SpaceX’s Crew-8 astronaut mission says that NASA continues to prioritize safety while co-managing an aging space station. The International Space Station (ISS) and the spacesuit that spacewalking NASA astronauts wear, known as the extravehicular mobility unit (EMU), are both decades old. And it’s the age of this hardware that has led to issues with both recently, NASA astronaut and Crew-8 commander Matthew Dominick told reporters on Friday (Nov. 8). “None of our spacesuits are spring chickens, as we would say, and so we will expect to see…

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Trump appoints SpaceX’s Elon Musk to help head regulation-slashing ‘Department of Government Efficiency’

NeRD

Elon Musk will have a place in the second Trump administration. The SpaceX founder and CEO will lead the new “Department of Government Efficiency” along with entrepreneur and politician Vivek Ramaswamy, President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday evening (Nov. 12). “Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure Federal Agencies — Essential to the Save America Movement,” Trump wrote in a statement on Tuesday (capitalization his). “It will become, potentially, ‘The Manhattan Project’ of…

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NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab laying off 5% of its workforce

NeRD

NASA’s chief center for robotic planetary exploration is conducting another round of layoffs. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California — which manages many of NASA’s high-profile robotic missions, such as the Perseverance and Curiosity Mars rovers — announced Tuesday (Nov. 12) that it will lay off about 325 employees, or roughly 5% of its workforce. “The impacts are occurring across technical, business and support areas of the Laboratory,” JPL officials wrote in an update on Tuesday. “These are painful but necessary adjustments that will enable us to adhere…

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