THE WOODLANDS, Texas — SpaceX could begin initial tests of a prototype of the company’s next-generation Starship vehicle as soon as this week, Elon Musk said March 17. In a series of tweets, Musk said flights of a “hopper” test vehicle, powered by a single Raptor engine, would “hopefully” begin this week pending work to
A sunken ship found in the Nile river may have lain undisturbed for over 2,500 years, but now it is finally ponying up its secrets. Scientists think that this ship has revealed a structure whose existence has been debated for centuries. In fragment 2.96 of Herodotus’ Histories, published around 450 BCE, the Ancient Greek historian –
Tests show that dormant herpes viruses reactivate in more than half the astronauts who travel on the Space Shuttle and International Space station, according to new NASA research – a phenomenon the space agency says could pose problems for deep space missions. “During spaceflight there is a rise in secretion of stress hormones like cortisol
The collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies. Not graphs, but close.NASA For most of us, the word graph brings back memories (not always pleasant) of pencils and rulers and quadrille ruled paper, though a more recent generation may think instead of pie and bar charts produced in Excel from spreadsheets. However, in the last
WASHINGTON — A day after announcing that NASA was studying the possibility of shifting an Orion mission from the Space Launch System rocket to commercial vehicles, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said he and the agency still support development of the SLS. Speaking at a Space Transportation Association luncheon here March 14, Bridenstine said the ongoing
When a child first does something without being asked, their parents want to celebrate. Researchers at the University of Southern Carolina (USC) are having that moment right now. The team claims to have created the first AI-controlled robotic limb that can learn how to walk without being explicitly programmed to do so. The algorithm they
An artist’s impression of the Space Launch System (SLS)Getty Last week, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine made an announcement that shocked the space world. He said the first mission for NASA’s new flagship mega-rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), might be given to private companies instead. And if this comes to pass, it could signal a
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Nearly two months after Maxar dropped out of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program to demonstrate satellite servicing, the agency is continuing to develop the servicing technology as it examines options to get it into space. Maxar’s Space Systems Loral business unit had been working with DARPA on the Robotic Servicing
Birth order, according to conventional wisdom, molds personality: Firstborn children, secure with their place in the family and expected to be the mature ones, grow up to be intellectual, responsible and conformist. Younger siblings work harder to get their parents’ attention, take more risks and become creative rebels. That’s the central idea in psychologist Frank
By combining math with 3D printing, researchers from Boston University have created a new material that seemingly defies logic: light and air have no trouble passing through it — but sound cannot. “The idea is that we can now mathematically design an object that can block the sounds of anything,” researcher Xin Zhang said in
cheerful elderly coupleGetty How lifelong inequalities add up is one of the hottest issues in academic gerontology. A new book from Boston University professor Deborah Carr, the editor-in-chief of Journal of Gerontology, provides a much-needed reality check on the nation’s plans for dealing with retirement. Titled Golden Years? Social Inequalities In Later Life, Carr’s book brings home a
An Air Force analysis of Space Force costs says investments will be needed in people, training and infrastructure to prevail in a strategic competition against China and Russia. WASHINGTON — How much it will cost to create a new military branch for space remains a central question that lawmakers are pressing the Pentagon to answer
Patrick Pichette, chief financial officer of Google Inc., speaks during an Economic Club of Canada event in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010. Google Inc., owner of the world’s most popular Internet search engine, said increased queries for cars and travel and fewer coupon searches suggest the U.S. economy is improving. Photographer: Norm
This article originally appeared in the March 11, 2019 issue of SpaceNews magazine. The U.S. Global Positioning System — the constellation of military satellites that provides positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services — is the proverbial glass house that was built before the invention of stones, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson observed last summer when
Jupiter: a massive, lifeless gas giant out there on the other side of the asteroid belt. It’s a behemoth, containing 2.5 times as much mass as all the other planets combined. To top it off, it’s named after the Roman king of gods. Earth: a tiny rocky world, almost too close to the Sun, where
Share to facebook Share to twitter Share to linkedin Humans developed tool use some 2.5 million years ago in Africa. The first tools were made from chipped cobbles or larger flakes that had been carefully selected for size and weight. Simple stone tools persisted almost unchanged until about 250,000 years ago, only then more elaborate
Auditors found that DoD does not collect and maintain comprehensive data on its space acquisition workforce. WASHINGTON — The Defense Department does not have a complete list of its space acquisition programs and cannot identify exactly how many people work on space acquisitions, says a new report by the Government Accountability Office. These finding are
Love them or hate them, traffic laws exist to keep people safe and to help vehicles flow smoothly. And while they aren’t legally enforceable, pedestrian traffic also tends to follow its own set of unwritten rules. Most pedestrians use walking etiquette as a way to minimize discomfort – “Oops! Sorry to bump you!” – and
Returning to Earth from the International Space Station, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield remarked how making the right decision is vital in high pressure environments, saying: Most of the time, you only really get one try to do most of the critical stuff and the consequences are life or death. Mankind is preparing for a new
This remarkable ‘Dust devil frenzy’ image was taken in the Terra Sabaea region of Mars, west of Augakuh Vallis. This mysterious pattern sits on the crest of a ridge and is thought to be the result of dust devil activity – essentially the convergence of hundreds or maybe even thousands of smaller Martian tornadoes.ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS, CC