The Space Thread

[Zeedox]

Virgin Galactic Completes Final Glide Flight and Readies for Rocket-Powered Spaceflight

Virgin Orbit may be dead, but Richard Branson's other space venture is getting closer to resuming its commercial space tourism services.

gizmodo.com

Virgin Galactic is not to be confused with sibling company Virgin Orbit, which is also owned by British billionaire Richard Branson. Virgin Orbit, which declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month, was in the business of providing satellite launch services; the company’s financial troubles are in part due to a single, pesky, $100 filter that caused a rocket crash, destroying seven payloads in the process.

 

[Gomez Adams]

Wow. 7 payloads in one go. I wonder what the total value was?

 

[Zeedox]

When you thought you had an idea of the size of some blackholes...

 

[Gomez Adams]

To be fair, I still can't really wrap my head around how big Jupiter is.

 

[Zeedox]

Experimental ‘Space Tug’ Raises Orbit With Water-Based Engine

Momentus Space says the recent demonstration sets it on the path to fully operational missions.

gizmodo.com

The orbital raise was made possible by the company’s Microwave Electrothermal Thruster (MET), which uses distilled water as propellant. Momentus said in a May 8 press release that the MET system lifted the company’s Vigoride-5 orbital transfer vehicle more than 1.86 miles (3 kilometers) during the recent demonstration.

Rockets don’t always deliver satellites to their target orbits, requiring the use of space tugs to finish the job. Founded by Russian entrepreneur Mikhail Kokorich, Momentus is seeking to provide this exact orbital transportation service, among other in-space infrastructure services, to paying customers.

 

[Gomez Adams]

That's a game changer. It can save a lot of satellites and double their life.

 

[Gomez Adams]

A preview on what will eventually happen to earth:

In a first, astronomers spot a star swallowing a planet

Scientists have observed a star swallowing a planet for the first time. Earth will meet a similar fate in 5 billion years.

news.mit.edu

 

[Zeedox]

In the intervening time, Canada gets a tropical climate!

 

[Gomez Adams]

In the intervening time, Canada gets a tropical climate!

And Russia backs in to more farm land with on site water sources than you can shake a stick at.

 

[Zeedox]

Wait! ...think of the tourist magnet a tropical Gulag will be!

 

[Zeedox]

A mysterious object has been found that is 10 million times brighter than the sun. Scientists can't work out why it hasn't exploded

Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULX) are objects that shine ten million times brighter than the sun. Scientists have said they are too bright to exist,

www.businessinsider.nl

NASA has been tracking so-called ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULX), impossible objects that can be 10 million times brighter than the sun, to understand how they work.

These objects are impossible in theory because they break the Eddington limit, a rule of astrophysics that dictates that an object can only be so bright before it breaks apart.

A new study categorically confirms that M82 X-2, a ULX 12 million light-years away, is as bright as previous observation suggested it to be.

I wonder if we've found our first white hole?

 

[Gomez Adams]

I think it's just a much bigger black hoke with a much more powerful gamma burst.