April 2019
Scanning the skies for exoplanets
... telescopes while we wait, but this can be very difficult for Neptune-sized planets,” added Armstrong. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sends NASA’s TESS into space in April 2016. Best of the rest TESS’s first reported discovery...
September 2019
A new era in planetary defence missions
... flight of the NEXT-C engine. DART is scheduled to launch in the summer of 2021. DART will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The mission is being developed and led for NASA...
October 2019
Space-based cybersecurity challenges for NATO
... system (QUARTZ), opening a new dimension in cryptography. Liftoff of the NATO military alliance’s GovSat-1 satellite aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket on 31 January 2019. Reliance on private sector assets in space has grown greatly in recent years...
February 2020
Investigation of the Coriolis effect in rotating space platforms
... 2, we obtain a rotation velocity of Ωr=0.26 rad/s. To launch this vessel at the approximate launch price (US$1600/kg) of Falcon Heavy (US$1600/kg), we require a budget of US$8.70 billion. Taking the maximum payload capacity of 63.2 tonnes we would...
February 2020
Climate change and spaceports – a difficult balance
... rocket fuels, as on the US Space Shuttle and upcoming Space Launch System (SLS). The engines of the SpaceX Falcon F9 (pictured) use RP-1 and liquid oxygen, whereas the cleanest are those powered by liquid hydrogen fuel, which...
May 2020
Space for Art – The magnificent beauty of spaceflight
... beings could imagine and successfully create something so beautiful and complex. But we did - and we continue to do so! SpaceX Falcon 9 Crew Dragon abort test – January 2020 As we work to bring new US spacecraft into operation, sometimes we have...
