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Looks like there was an explosion during a test fire at Jiuquan https://spacenews.com/satellite-imagery-reveals-explosion-at-chinas-jiuquan-spaceport/

SpaceX got another X-37b launch, this time on falcon heavy, wonder why they are using it instead of regular falcon https://spacenews.com/u-s-air-force-x-37b-spaceplane-to-launch-on-a-spacex-falcon-heavy-rocket/

Lucy has flown by Dinkinesh, NASA has received communications from the spacecraft, but I cant find any pictures yet, probably gonna take a while for them to download with the light lag https://blogs.nasa.gov/lucy/2023/11/01/nasas-lucy-spacecraft-completes-asteroid-flyby/

Yeah the only way I actually see this being a practical idea is if the new reentry vehicle they cobble together on top of a platform wholly unsuitable for ICBM work is somehow more reliable than whatever ballistic missiles they have lying around, maybe if the private in charge of maintenance decides to get into the scrap copper business, though I don't think a Soyuz would fare much better against that

Sounds like the Soyuz may be returning to it's ICBM roots soon, not sure that this is going to work too well without a new reentry vehicle, and even then this won't be that accurate https://www.newsweek.com/putin-roscosmos-bild-rogozin-rocket-soyuz-1837809

yeah maybe, but I don't think there are many missions worth using an RTG on where you would use a cheap ESPA ring bus instead of a custom design, not to mention the thermal control, micrometeoroids, radiation hardening, and the rather scarce nature of ground stations that can reach that far

They said that this thing can go interplanetary, and even interstellar in the aviation week article. Think that might be overpromising a bit much?

the visibility is so bad that they had to put an an overlay on the pad, wonder how much we are going to get to see

chat was providing some free windows activation codes to help fix that

abort immediately after engine start

Apparently parachutes are still an issue for certification, per NASA safety panel, they are skeptical about July launch date and overall readiness for flight https://spacenews.com/nasa-safety-panel-skeptical-of-starliner-readiness-for-crewed-flight/

depends on whether it would cold weld shut or not

I cant take that article seriously, I have yet to see enough capital, skilled workers, or political will to get a functioning space program, at best we will see some scientific payloads and small satelites, but there just isnt the kind of manufacturing base for large spacecraft or mass produced spacecraft.

Long March 9 has been redesigned again to be the chinese response to starship (fully reusable with full flow methalox engines). First launch planned for 2033 https://spacenews.com/china-plans-full-reusability-for-its-super-heavy-long-march-9-rocket/

https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/1650911370471260177?s=20

looks like they finally confirmed Zhurong had shut down permanently last year https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/china-breaks-silence-over-status-stationary-martian-rover-2023-04-25/

There is a startup that plans to air launch a small-sat launcher from the back of a C-17 based out of Glasgow. Details are sparse but they say they plan to use a Northrup Grumman Orion (family of motors that fly on the Pegasus rocket) first and second stage and an in house third stage. The wording suggests it is solid fueled. https://www.astraius.com/2022/07/farnborough-announcement/ https://simpleflying.com/astraius-preswtick-airport-c-17-rocket-launch-update/ curious to see how they plan to get around the cost issue Pegasus has, wonder how much is related to running a unique aircraft and will they be able to rent any C-17 or have to specially modify it?

looks like they had a special guest at the launch https://imgur.com/hRh76aw https://futurism.com/the-byte/strange-creature-juice

Yeah I suppose there is some precedent for that with what happened to one web during its bankruptcy

oof not looking good, is there any way they can recover from this?

Volcanic activity has been found on Venus in archival Magellan data https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-magellan-data-reveals-volcanic-activity-on-venus

Considering Pluto already has a twin and several moons I doubt that it has lost a member of its system to Neptune

Launching a rocket from underwater is pretty much a solved problem at this point nearly every navy with submarines can do it and the russians have even put a couple payloads into orbit from a submarine a few times https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shtil'

keep in mind we dont know how far away the microphone is from the event, and how in sync the audio is, we could be seeing a bit before we hear, best not to jump to any conclusions yet

what is this magnetic gas you speak of, and why would it perform better than hot non-magnetic gas or ion engines?