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Category: space travel – Page 235

Major elements of Starship Orbital Launch Pad in place as launch readiness draws nearer

With the maiden orbital flight of Starship approaching, Orbital Launch Pad A in Starbase, Texas, is being built up to launch readiness. Over a year of construction has brought the complex’s various elements to the verge of launching the most powerful rocket in history.

Assembly Timeline

SpaceX started construction of the orbital launch pad on June 22 2020, when teams began to install the concrete rebar for the six pillars of the orbital launch mount. After building up steel rebar for reinforcement, a steel cylinder was sleeved over the rebar and each pillar was filled with concrete, covered, then left to cure.

Custom SpaceX Crane Arrives to Starbase | SpaceX Boca Chica

A Liebherr LR 11,000 painted in a black and white SpaceX livery, was delivered to the launch site and assembled. Meanwhile, crews continue to work on the Chopsticks and more beams for the Wide Bay were lifted.

Video and Pictures from Mary (@BocaChicaGal) and the NSF Robots. Edited by Patrick Colquhoun (@Patrick_Colqu).

All content copyright to NSF. Not to be used elsewhere without explicit permission from NSF.

Click “Join” for access to early fast turnaround clips, exclusive discord access with the NSF team, etc — to support the channel.

Rolling Updates and Discussion: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?board=72.

Articles: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/?s=Starship.

Continue reading “Custom SpaceX Crane Arrives to Starbase | SpaceX Boca Chica” | >

Low-gravity simulator design offers new avenues for space research and mission training

As humanity continues its exploration of the universe, the low-gravity environment of space presents unusual challenges for scientists and engineers.

Researchers at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and the Florida State University-headquartered National High Magnetic Field Laboratory have developed a new tool to help meet that challenge—a for a low-gravity that promises to break new ground for future space research and habitation.

Their new design for a magnetic levitation-based low-gravity simulator can create an area of low gravity with a volume about 1,000 times larger than existing simulators of the same type. The work was published in the journal npj Microgravity.

L+600 and counting: ESA astronaut to be 600th person in space on SpaceX Crew-3 launch

I was the lucky one to get the round number.

A German astronaut is set to become the 600th person to enter space and he will do so flying with a U.S. astronaut who once came close to being number 500.

Matthias Maurer with the European Space Agency (ESA) will gain the distinction of being the sexcentenarian space traveler when he launches to the International Space Station as a member of SpaceX’s Crew-3 mission, currently scheduled for early Sunday morning (Oct. 31). Maurer is one of three first-time fliers on the four-person crew, including NASA astronauts Raja Chari and Kayla Barron, but he was identified by NASA as the designated milestone maker.

The Next Rover To Mars Is Ready And Here’s What’s So Special About It

Missions on Mars are something you got kind of used to by now. From time to time, some rocket headed to Mars is launched, and this gets in the news for a brief time. At least that’s how most of the people see this. The ones who are more into the field and more curious about the topic know that this is not something we humans casually do. And we don’t do it just for the sake of it. A mission to Mars with the whole package, a rover, and everything, costs about 3 billion dollars. So when we send something to Mars, it’d better bring back something significant.

The mission in preparation right now is called ExoMars, and its rover is planned for launch in 2022.

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Will Launch an Orbital ‘Space Business Park’

We might be witnessing the start of the private space station race.

Dare we say that a new type of space race is heating up? Blue Origin, the space tourism firm founded by billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced a partnership with Sierra Space and Boeing to build and launch a commercial space station called Orbital Reef by the end of the decade, a press statement reveals.

If Lockheed Martin and Nanoracks have their way, Orbital Reef won’t be the first commercial orbital outpost in low Earth orbit, as the two firms are collaborating to launch their own station by 2027.

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