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Showing posts with the label rocket

Space agency confirms rocket remains in SpaceX's sheep paddock

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The Australian Space Agency has confirmed debris found in SpaceX’s NSW Snow Mountains. Key points: Three pieces of debris have so far been found The residents of the Snowy Mountains have been notified that more pieces can be found People were told to call the hotline if they found more Three pieces of space junk have so far been found in the region, which is thought to be the largest piece found in Australia since 1979. Two sections were examined by technical experts from the Australian Space Agency and NSW Police on Saturday. Police have since confirmed that they are also aware of a third piece found in the area. This space debris is estimated to be three meters long. ( ABC South East NSW: Adriane Reardon ) Authorities believe the space debris belongs to SpaceX but have been waiting for confirmation. “The agency has confirmed the debris is from the SpaceX mission and continues to engage with our US counterparts, as well as other parts of the Commonwealth and local authorities as appr

The Long March 5B, a 22-ton Chinese rocket, crashed back to Earth this weekend. Where will it land?

When you are asked, “What is it?” this weekend, here’s your answer: Long March 5B, a 44,000-pound rocket body spinning toward Earth. But scientists aren’t sure when and where this debris is — from the Chinese launch last Sunday Wentian space station module — about to land. The Aerospace Corporation did release the latest prediction path for the debris – with the disclaimer that it’s too early to be sure. Experts believe that 20 percent to 40 percent of the massive rocket’s body mass will survive its fiery journey through Earth’s atmosphere to the planet’s surface, but not intact. Seventy percent of the planet is covered in oceans, so the odds are that whatever remains of the rocket will land in water, but that’s not guaranteed. Shrugging in response to the potential danger of the Long March 5B debris is nothing new. Aaron Boley, co-director of the Outer Space Institute and planetary astronomer at the University of British Columbia, said about 70 percent of rockets that orbit and r

Glowing Night Clouds May Be An Unexpected Side Effect Of Rocket Launch

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Space launches, particularly early morning space launches, cause spectacular glowing clouds to appear in new places, according to new research published in the journal Advancing Earth and Space Science. About 50 miles (80 kilometers) above the ground floats the tallest clouds in Earth’s atmosphere. Called noctilucent, mesosphere, or polar mesosphere clouds, these crystallized pools of water vapor are high enough to reflect sunlight, even after sunset or even before sunrise. Because of their position in the upper atmosphere, when they are present at the right time, noctilucent clouds (i.e. “night rays”) sparkle with otherworldly light. They can make the sky at dusk or dawn look like the surface of the sea on a clear day — silvery ripples of light between patches of darkness. “You see it for about 30 minutes to an hour and a half after sunset, or before sunrise,” Cora Randall, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and one of the researchers on the new study,

China tracks debris from 22-ton rocket that hit Earth

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China said it was tracking the wreckage of a large, newly launched rocket at the time reenter the earth’s atmosphere this weekend in what Beijing says will pose little risk to anyone on the ground. The Long March 5B rocket launched Sunday to deliver a laboratory module to the Chinese space station under construction, marking the third flight of China’s most powerful rocket since its maiden launch in 2020. As happened during its first two flights, the entire main core stage of the rocket – which is 100 feet (30 meters) long and weighs 22 tons (about 48,500 lb) – has reached low orbit and is expected to fall back to Earth after the atmosphere. friction drags it down, according to American experts. Ultimately, the rocket body will disintegrate as it falls through the atmosphere but is large enough that many chunks will likely survive re-entry into the debris rain over an area about 2,000 km (1,240 mi) long by about 70 km wide. based analysts said on Wednesday. The likely location of th

Another 21-ton Chinese rocket crashes to Earth

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Yet another out-of-control Chinese rocket sparked concern – a year after one of Beijing’s spacecraft rained debris over the Indian Ocean. Experts fear that part of the 21-ton Long March 5B rocket, which was launched into space on Sunday, may fail to burn completely as it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere. Then it will fall to the surface in an uncertain location and at high speed. Although the chances of debris hitting an inhabited area are very low, many experts think that China is taking an unnecessary risk. The country’s newest rocket was launched from the Wenchang launch site in the southern island province of Hainan over the weekend. The craft carries a new solar-powered laboratory, the Wentian experimental module, which will be added to China’s growing Tiangong Space Station. However, experts worry that part of the rocket’s core stage could fall to Earth – in a repeat of China’s launch last May that saw debris strewn across the Indian Ocean. At the time, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson

Damaged SpaceX Rocket Delays NASA's Next Astronaut Mission

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Launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station has been delayed by nearly a month because the Falcon 9 booster was damaged during transport. The Crew-5 mission — the fifth of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program — will now launch no earlier than September 29. The launch was supposed to start in early September, meaning the mission has been delayed by nearly a month. The revised schedule will allow SpaceX to “complete hardware processing,” according to a NASA statement. SpaceX is preparing a Falcon 9 booster for its maiden voyage, but obstacles along the way have resulted in some extra work and scheduling changes, as NASA explains: SpaceX removed and replaced the rocket interstage and some onboard instrumentation after hardware was damaged during transportation from SpaceX’s production plant in Hawthorne, California, to the company’s McGregor test facility in Texas for stage testing. The SpaceX team completed – and the NASA team reviewed – load, shock, and struct

Rocket Report: Crypto-funded Heavy Rocket; Falcon 9 was damaged during transportation

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Zoom in / An electronic missile launched the NROL-162 mission on July 13. rocket lab Welcome to Rocket Report 5.04! Be sure and read to the end, because most of this week’s news is about heavy missiles, or at least Suggestion Heavy missiles. Also, there will be no newsletter next week because I will be spending time with my family. But then I’ll be back in the saddle for the rest of the summer and fall, which promises to be full of expensive rocket launches. As always, we welcome Readers’ offers. And if you don’t want to miss any issues, please register using the box below (the form won’t appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small, medium and heavy missiles as well as a glimpse of the next three launches on the calendar. Isar Aerospace departs from French Guiana . The Germany-based startup announced on Thursday. It will conduct commercial and institutional launches from the European Spaceport in French Guiana starting in 2024. In

SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket to launch NASA's Roman Space Telescope

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NASA has selected SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket to launch its next major space telescope, a wide-field observatory that directly complements the new James Webb Space Telescope. Originally known as the Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope (WFIRST), NASA recently renamed the mission in honor of Nancy Grace Roman, the basic force behind the Hubble Space Telescope. Fittingly, the basic design of the Roman Space Telescope is reminiscent of Hubble in many ways, due to the fact that the mission existed solely because the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) chose to donate an unused billion-dollar spy satellite – a satellite which is effectively a secret version of Hubble facing Earth. However, thanks to decades of improvements in electronics, electromechanics, and the instrumentation side of spacecraft and space telescopes, the RST will be dramatically more capable than any similar Hubble telescope. And now, after years of battling for survival, the Roman Space Telescope of