A Seattle-based company has resurrected NASA’s plans for a space plane, abandoned in 2001 due to technical difficulties.
Radian Aerospace wants to replace vertical rocket launches with planes that launch to space from a rocket-powered sled.
Meanwhile, the fate of Boeing’s Starliner under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program — ultimately determining if it will become a spacecraft that could one day ferry astronauts to low-Earth orbit — hangs in the balance.
The spacecraft successfully launched and delivered NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station in June.
But what seemed like an eight-day jaunt turned into months of questions surrounding Starliner’s ability to return the crew safely to Earth.
Now, thruster issues have led NASA and Boeing to send Starliner back home without the two astronauts to conclude the mission before going back to the drawing board.
Defying gravity After nearly three months, the Starliner spacecraft returned to Earth without the two test pilots after undocking from the space station Friday night and parachuting into the New Mexico desert early Saturday.
Starliner is the first US-made capsule to parachute to a ground landing, rather than splashing into the ocean.
We had planned to have the mission land with Butch and Suni on board,” said Steve Stich, manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
It remains to be seen how and when Starliner will be certified to carry astronauts regularly to space.
Space is difficult, as engineers and astronauts like to say. However, brilliant minds have never let that stop them from having big dreams.
A Seattle-based business has revived NASA’s space plane plans, which were shelved in 2001 owing to technical issues. Planes that launch into space from a rocket-powered sled are what Radian Aerospace hopes to replace vertical rocket launches with. That being said, it won’t be simple to reinvent.
Meanwhile, there is still uncertainty surrounding the future of Boeing’s Starliner under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which will ultimately determine whether or not it will develop into a spacecraft capable of carrying humans to low-Earth orbit.
In June, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were successfully launched by the spacecraft to the International Space Station. But what appeared to be an eight-day excursion became months of uncertainty about Starliner’s capacity to bring the crew back to Earth safely.
Due to thruster problems, NASA and Boeing had to return Starliner home without the two astronauts in order to wrap up the mission and return to the drawing board.
Against the gravity.
Following its Friday night undocking from the space station and its early Saturday morning parachute into the New Mexico desert, the Starliner spacecraft, missing its two test pilots, made its way back to Earth after nearly three months.
The first capsule built in the United States, Starliner, is designed to parachute to the ground instead of splashing into the ocean.
Wilmore and Williams, who will stay on the orbiting laboratory until 2025, watched their spacecraft take off.
Everybody has a part of them that wishes things had gone according to plan. Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, stated, “We had planned for the mission to land with Butch and Suni on board.”.
After returning to Earth, Boeing engineers will examine Starliner to see what needs to be done to address the problems that arose during its first space mission. When and how Starliner will receive certification to regularly launch astronauts into space is still up in the air.
Secrets of the ocean.
To follow a pregnant porbeagle shark’s movements and determine her delivery location, researchers tagged the shark off the coast of Massachusetts’ Cape Cod.
But when her tag surfaced at the ocean’s surface five months later, the team realized that the shark had probably been devoured by a large predator.
Two possible suspects emerged in the waters where the porbeagle vanished: great white and shortfin mako sharks. The research turned into a scientific murder mystery.
The finding suggests that shark behavior is more complicated than previously believed and that big sharks hunting each other may be a common occurrence.
The wild kingdom.
Decades of conservation efforts have saved the Iberian lynx from extinction, and new technologies may prolong the life of Spain’s lynx population.
The lynx’s main challenges included habitat loss, a reduction in food sources, and traffic accidents. Then, a sizable project to restore habitats and prey was funded by the European Union and the Spanish government.
Still, there is a threat to the Iberian lynx. Conservationists are installing virtual fences with sensors that use light and sound alarms to keep cats off busy highways where they could become roadkill. Additionally, in the future, scientists might design scent corridors—man-made pathways connecting various lynx populations—through engineering.
other dimensions.
According to new research, 4 billion years ago, Jupiter’s moon Ganymede may have been struck by an asteroid 20 times larger than the one that wiped out the dinosaurs.
The largest moon in the solar system may have shifted on its axis as a result of the enormous impact.
When the European Space Agency’s Juice spacecraft visits Ganymede in 2031 to conduct research, astronomers may be able to learn more about the history of the moon and how the impact affected the world’s ocean beneath its icy surface.
In the meantime, this week over the Philippines, close to Luzon Island, a small asteroid caught fire in Earth’s atmosphere, producing a flash.
Observations.
After temporarily turning a mouse’s skin transparent with a common solution (yellow food coloring diluted with water), researchers were able to observe how the organs of the mouse worked.
Applying the mixture to the skin on the skulls and bellies of living mice was done by the scientists. Subsequently, the researchers witnessed the movement of food through the digestive tracts by muscle contractions and blood vessels directly on the surface of the brain.
The light-absorbing dye suppresses the skin tissue’s light-scattering ability when it combines with water.
The scientific discovery, reminiscent of H. G. . By making veins more visible for blood draws, Wells’ “The Invisible Man” has the potential to transform biomedical research.
revelations.
Take a seat with these new reads and your favorite morning beverage.
In an accomplishment that combines living things and machines, a group of researchers from Cornell University has created robots that are managed by king oyster mushrooms.
A remarkably intact statue of a Roman goddess has been found at the site of the Titanic, according to newly taken photos that document the extent of the shipwreck’s decay in recent years.
The complex, old kite-shaped ring was found by an amateur archaeologist that had been buried for over a millennium at the location of a fort in northeastern Scotland.
