Scotius

Same here. I used to think a laser cannon would be weapon of choice in space battles. I mean - virtually instant hit, perfect tracking etc. And then i realised that hitting something is not the same as destroying\disabling your target. And heating problems on your own ship. And brutal energy losses with distance. Ugh. Kinetic weapons (railguns, coilguns etc.) looks more favourable now. Or directed nuclear weapons like Casaba Howitzers.

There is always Q-Thruster yet

Hmmmmm, indeed. So, for now those laser films are potentially useful as security measurements on banknotes and biometric tags. It's... kind of limited? But hey - this technology apparently is taking first, baby steps.

Of course it's not Currently, ISS doesn't even produce enough charge to power up continuously VASIMR test article that's in the works at Ad Astra company. Add to that huge mass of the station, small thrust of the engine and you have combination barely enough to aid in stationkeeping. But... it still would be enough to save millions of dollars in station's budget

ISS + (200 kW) nuclear reactor + (200 kW) VASIMR engine module = prototype interplanetary spaceship! I so hope we will see such combination before ISS gets scrapped.

Two hundred thousands of stars. In that one frame. How many planets? How many habitable ones? How many alien civilisations?

Per Delays Ad Astra. So, weather is uncooperative eh?

So, the bird is deaf, but not mute? Hopefully something is still salvageable. And even in worst case scenario, it's still should bring valuable data about space communications.

He was. Luckily he left in 2014. Good thing guys dodged that bullet...

Perfect man for the job Most charismatic astronaut today - if he can't get students interested in space exploration, nobody can.

Remember, Mars does have lower gravity than Earth. Lightweight copter-drone will be even lighter on Red Planet

Hah! I missed the launch, but i'm in time to see landing! Wohhhooo!

And scrub. Better luck tomorrow, SpaceX And i guess i will have to watch the replay on YT. Fair enough.

Honestly, i'm not terribly surprised. With all the changes done to the rocket, troubles during the first flight were to be expected. Oh well - better abort than a fireball and a rain of debris

Goshdangdarnit! And i was so happy i made it home in time to catch the launch Why are you doing this to us, Falcon?

That's a bit odd. Of the seven planets only one managed to gather enough iron\nickel to create sizeable core? Does that indicate that protoplanetary disc of TRAPPIST-1 wasn't chemically homogenous?

Great balls of fire Still... are hot gas giants the norm, or their sheer number is just the effect of observation bias? I hope they are fairly rare - because migration of a gas giant into low solar(?) orbit is bound to cause mayhem and destruction among smaller, rocky planets of the inner system.

Back from the brink, eh? Well, for me it mostly shows that there are companies out there, still willing to invest serious funds into space flight. It makes me happy

Deep space exploration vessel - a BFR equipped with KRUSTY-derived lightweight nuclear reactor Then it could become reality. Another idea i have is a sort-of transfer stage for BFR. A tanker BFR modified to mate with another BFR in LEO. Then it would use its fuel to push the outgoing vessel almost to escape velocity, decouple and return to Earth for refuelling - while second BFR would complete rest of the burn still saving a lot of the fuel. Heck, even booster stage would do the same, provided it could be refuelled in orbit with tanker BFR's.

No, not really. Life can take advantage of the area only if it contain enough resources. Consider Antarctica. It was frozen solid for tens of millions of years. A lot of time for animals to evolve traits helping them to adapt, right? And yet Antarctica has very little of life inland. Seals and penguins and seabirds inhabit only shores. There are some algae and lichens on the rocks - and that's pretty much all there is. Same for the extreme desert areas, with very little water and nutrients available. Sure, there will be some life - but not much of it, because higher animals and plants need food and water and certain environmental conditions to survive. Outside of that "goldilocks zone" you will find only extremophiles. Which are absolutely fascinating in their own right, but... well, do not expect them to create an equivalent of Amazonian rainforest in terms of biodiversity.

Still comparable (roughly) to Falcon 9. If flight costs turned out to be comparable too, i wouldn't be surprised if SpaceX decided to quietly phase out F9. Logistically it would be much simpler to deal with one type of ship and not two.

Couple of tense seconds before chutes popped out And that landing did not look particularly soft to me - didn't she say something about retropropulsive boosters firing just seconds before touchdown to slow capsule down?

Very nice aerial shots of new Cape facility and launch complex 36 being rebuilt. Impressive

"Mission 8"? A bit bombastic name for a test flight of sub-orbital rocket

Simple, barebone explanation, hmm? Let me try. You have two rockets. 1 ton of payload, 1 ton of fuel on each. One is equipped with a 300 Isp engine. The other with 400 Isp engine. Both are capable of accelerating at 1 meter per second. Rocket 300 burns for 300 seconds, and achieves the speed of 300 meters per second when it runs dry. Rocket 400 burns for 400 seconds, and makes 400 meters per second when its fuel runs out. Do you see the difference higher Isp makes for a rocket now? Thanks to higher efficiency of 400 Isp engine, Rocket 400 managed to reach higher velocity using the same amount of fuel as Rocket 300.