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      Rocket Report: Multi-day delay for the final Delta launch; Orbex patents landing tech

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · 11:00 · 1 minute

    The final Delta IV Heavy rocket is seen on the launch pad in Florida.

    Enlarge / The final Delta IV Heavy rocket is seen on the launch pad in Florida. (credit: United Launch Alliance)

    Welcome to Edition 6.37 of the Rocket Report! The big story this week is the final launch of the Delta IV Heavy rocket, which is one of the biggest spectacles to enjoy lifting away from the planet. Because of a scrub on Thursday, there is still time to clear your calendar for a second attempt on Friday at 1:37 pm ET in Florida.

    As always, we welcome reader submissions , and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

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    Orbex patents reusable rocket tech . The British launch company said this week it has patented a "REFLIGHT" technology that enables the recovery of the first stage of its small Prime rocket. Essentially, Orbex designed an interstage that will function somewhat like grid fins on the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage. "After Stage 1 detaches from Stage 2, the interstage on top of Stage 1 reconfigures into four ‘petals’ which fold out and create drag forces that passively reorients and slows the spent rocket stage’s descent to Earth," the company stated.

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      Daily Telescope: Peering into the remnants of an 800-year-old supernova

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Yesterday - 12:00

    A composite image of SNR 1181.

    Enlarge / A composite image of SNR 1181. (credit: NASA, ESA, JPL et. al.)

    Welcome to the Daily Telescope . There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough light, a little too much pseudoscience and not enough science. We'll let other publications offer you a daily horoscope. At Ars Technica, we're going to take a different route, finding inspiration from very real images of a universe that is filled with stars and wonder.

    Good morning. It's March 28, and today's photo comes from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory as well as a host of other observatories.

    It is a composite image of supernova remnant SNR 1181. The name of the object gives us a clue to when this object went supernova: the year 1181. For about half a year, the 'new' star appeared in the constellation Cassiopeia. It took a long time before astronomers using modern telescopes were able to find the remnant of this supernova, but they finally did so in the last decade.

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      The Delta IV Heavy, a rocket whose time has come and gone, will fly once more

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · 2 days ago - 23:15

    United Launch Alliance's final Delta IV Heavy rocket, seen here in December when ground crews rolled it to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

    Enlarge / United Launch Alliance's final Delta IV Heavy rocket, seen here in December when ground crews rolled it to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. (credit: United Launch Alliance )

    This is the rocket that literally lights itself on fire before it heads to space. It's the world's largest rocket entirely fueled by liquid hydrogen, a propellant that is vexing to handle but rewarding in its efficiency.

    The Delta IV Heavy was America's most powerful launch vehicle for nearly a decade and has been a cornerstone for the US military's space program for more than 20 years. It is also the world's most expensive commercially produced rocket, a fact driven not just by its outsized capability but also its complexity.

    Now, United Launch Alliance's last Delta IV Heavy rocket is set to lift off Thursday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, with a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, the US government's spy satellite agency.

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      The company building a rotating detonation engine is pushing the tech forward

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · 2 days ago - 18:23

    A Venus Aerospace drone makes a powered flight.

    Enlarge / A Venus Aerospace drone makes a powered flight. (credit: Venus Aerospace)

    Venus Aerospace conducted its first powered flight last month, reaching Mach 0.9 with a drone.

    The 8-foot-long vehicle was dropped from an Aero L-29 Delfín aircraft at 12,000 feet and flew under the power of a hydrogen peroxide monopropellant engine. This engine was not fired at full thrust because the location of the test flight, an unspecified range in the United States, did not permit flight faster than the speed of sound, said Andrew Duggleby, co-founder and chief technology officer of the Houston-based company.

    This first powered flight came as the company announced a long-duration test firing of its rotating detonation rocket engine, an experimental approach to propulsion that could be about 15 percent more efficient than a conventional chemical rocket engine. The company's long-term ambition is to develop a commercial aircraft that can travel at Mach 9—far faster than any previous airplane. That's clearly a ways off, but these are important, if early, steps on that path.

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      Daily Telescope: A protostar with a stunning protoplanetary disc

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · 3 days ago - 12:00

    FS Tau is a multi-star system.

    Enlarge / FS Tau is a multi-star system. (credit: NASA, ESA, K. Stapelfeldt (NASA JPL), G. Kober )

    Welcome to the Daily Telescope . There is a little too much darkness in this world and not enough light, a little too much pseudoscience and not enough science. We'll let other publications offer you a daily horoscope. At Ars Technica, we're going to take a different route, finding inspiration from very real images of a universe that is filled with stars and wonder.

    Good morning. It's March 26, and today's photo comes from the Hubble Space Telescope. It showcases a very young multi-star system known as FS Tau.

    This star system is only about 2.8 million years old. In terms of cosmic time, that is but a blink of the eye. It lies about 450-light-years away from Earth.

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      What could a severe solar storm do to Earth, and are we prepared? – podcast

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 3 days ago - 05:00

    The sun is currently ramping up to hit the peak of its 11-year activity cycle. In the past few days, powerful solar eruptions have sent a stream of particles towards Earth which are set to produce spectacular auroras in both hemispheres. But these kinds of geomagnetic storms can also have less appealing consequences. Madeleine Finlay speaks to Dr Lisa Upton, a solar scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, about how the mysterious inner workings of the sun create space weather, how solar events can significantly disrupt Earth’s infrastructure, and whether we are prepared for the worst-case scenario

    Read more about the Northern lights here

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      Starliner’s first commander: Don’t expect perfection on crew test flight

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · 3 days ago - 00:19

    Technicians at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida prepare Boeing's Starliner spacecraft for fueling.

    Enlarge / Technicians at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida prepare Boeing's Starliner spacecraft for fueling. (credit: Boeing )

    HOUSTON—While it doesn't have the same relevance to public consciousness as safety problems with commercial airliners, a successful test flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft in May would be welcome news for the beleaguered aerospace company.

    This will be the first time the Starliner capsule flies into low-Earth orbit with humans aboard. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are in the final stages of training for the so-called Crew Flight Test (CFT), a milestone running seven years behind the schedule Boeing said it could achieve when it won a $4.2 billion commercial crew contract from NASA a decade ago.

    If schedules hold, Wilmore and Williams will take off inside Boeing's Starliner spacecraft aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket after midnight May 1, local time, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. They will fly Starliner to the International Space Station for a stay of at least eight days, then return the capsule to a parachute-assisted, airbag-cushioned landing in the western United States, likely at White Sands, New Mexico.

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      Here’s our comprehensive, in-depth guide to viewing the total solar eclipse

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · 4 days ago - 13:32

    The path of totality for the April 8 eclipse.

    Enlarge / The path of totality for the April 8 eclipse. (credit: National Solar Observatory)

    If you enter "how to see the eclipse" into your favorite search engine, you're bound to see thousands—millions?—of helpful guides. Some of these are extremely detailed and thorough, almost as if the author were getting paid by the word or augmented by AI.

    In reality, seeing a solar eclipse is just about the easiest thing one can do in one's life. Like, it's difficult to think of anything else that has the greatest reward-lowest effort ratio in life. You just need to know a couple of things. For the sake of simplicity, here is Ars' four-step guide to having a four-star eclipse-viewing experience. Steps are listed in order of ascending importance.

    Step 1 : Identify the path of totality. This is where the total solar eclipse will be visible on April 8. The National Solar Observatory has a good map here . Click on the map to get exact timing. It's time and place sorted.

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      Northern lights predicted across US and UK on Monday night in wake of solar storms

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 4 days ago - 07:04

    Spectacular aurora borealis caused by geomagnetic storms on sun’s surface may be visible in North America as far south as the midwest

    Solar eruptions are sending a stream of particles towards Earth, creating spectacular auroras in both hemispheres.

    The aurora borealis – in the northern hemisphere – will be potentially visible on Monday night in the US as far south as the midwest. The northern lights, more commonly associated with northern Europe, could also be visible in northern United Kingdom.

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