Orion spacecraft

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is currently traveling through the solar system on its way to study the Trojan asteroids in the orbit of Jupiter. The original plan was for the mission to make its first close approach to an asteroid in 2025, but a new plan will see the spacecraft make a flyby of a bonus asteroid later this year. The asteroid Lucy will pass by is tiny, at just 0.4 miles across, and is currently unnamed — it is referred to by its technical name, 1999 VD57. But it happens to be located close to the path Lucy is taking, and by making small adjustments to the its course Lucy will be able to come even closer. “There are millions of asteroids in the main asteroid belt,” said a member of the Lucy team, Raphael Marschall of the Nice Observatory in France, who picked out the asteroid to be visited. “I selected 500,000 asteroids with well-defined orbits to see if Lucy might be traveling close enough to get a good look at any of them, even from a distance. This asteroid really stood … [Read more...] about Lucy spacecraft to visit a bonus asteroid later this year | Digital Trends

It’s been a long time coming, but the first orbital test of SpaceX’s mighty Super Heavy rocket and Starship spacecraft looks to be just weeks away. Following SpaceX’s recent sharing of a video showing the Starship being stacked atop the company’s next-generation rocket, and comments by SpaceX chief Elon Musk that said the test flight could take place as soon as next month, Musk has said again that the mission is expected to take place “soon.” Additionally, in a tweet on Thursday, SpaceX said it’s about to conduct a series of all-important “wet dress rehearsals” that will put the rocket through all of the preflight procedures short of actually launching it. “Team are stepping into a series of tests prior to Starship’s first flight test in the weeks ahead, including full stack wet dress rehearsals and hold down firing of Booster 7’s 33 Raptor engines,” SpaceX said in the tweet (below). The company also released new images of the 394-foot-tall (120 meters) rocket on the … [Read more...] about SpaceX in final preps for first flight of brand new rocket | Digital Trends

SpaceX successfully launched its triple-booster Falcon Heavy rocket to orbit on Sunday evening. The Falcon Heavy lifted off from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:56 p.m. ET on Sunday, January 15. The USSF-67 mission deployed payloads to orbit for the U.S. Space Force. Minutes after leaving the launchpad, the two side boosters returned to Earth, touching down at Landing Zones 1 and 2 at Cape Canaveral, just a short distance from the launch site. The third booster continued on with the second stage and will not be recovered, as planned. SpaceX livestreamed the early stages of the mission. Here’s the rocket lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center. SpaceX chief Elon Musk also tweeted a dramatic image of the rocket’s ascent. Falcon Heavy Ascends pic.twitter.com/tXZBbuoyRr — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2023 Just over two minutes into the flight, the side boosters come away from the core booster to begin … [Read more...] about Watch key moments of SpaceX triple-booster Falcon Heavy trip | Digital Trends