r/spaceflight 18h ago

What really limits Antares from launching only Cygnuses? Is it because there are better options?

7 Upvotes

r/spaceflight 1d ago

NASA's New Plans For Returning Samples from Mars

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8 Upvotes

r/spaceflight 1d ago

Top three images from BepiColombo's sixth Mercury flyby

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9 Upvotes

r/spaceflight 1d ago

Avi Loeb: Interstellar Trash Could Lead to Finding Alien Life

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0 Upvotes

r/spaceflight 1d ago

Question

4 Upvotes

Considering Firelfy MLV and Antares 330 share the same first stage, and the MLV's first stage is reusable, does that make the Antares reusable too?


r/spaceflight 3d ago

NASA has bristled at suggestions that astronauts are “stranded” on the ISS even as their stay is extended from a few weeks to more than 8 months. Jeff Foust reports that the situation nonetheless highlights the importance in developing technologies and approaches when a real space rescue is needed

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34 Upvotes

r/spaceflight 3d ago

Summarizing the history of American spaceflight in one book requires hard choices on what to emphasize. Jeff Foust reviews a book that tackles that effort at an introductory level, going from Goddard to the present day

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5 Upvotes

r/spaceflight 3d ago

Need some help with a project

1 Upvotes

I am at high school and doing a 3d rocket project. I would like to see if anyone can help me explaing and showing the physics behind what I did. It was for distance so we shot on a 55 degree angle from the ground. We used a bike pump on 5psi. And the wind speed was 3m/s and was blowing from north west. Any help will be greatly appriciated thank you


r/spaceflight 4d ago

Space Missions to Watch in 2025

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5 Upvotes

r/spaceflight 4d ago

BepiColombo to swing by Mercury for the sixth time

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3 Upvotes

r/spaceflight 4d ago

Is there an uncanny valley for artificial gravity?

21 Upvotes

Kinda a random question but I was wondering if humans can tell the difference between artificial gravity (from centrifugal force) in a space station and natural gravity on Earth. Is there an uncanny valley that is noticeable despite the gravity being 9.8m/s/s?


r/spaceflight 5d ago

ESA to use launch competition to test georeturn reforms

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7 Upvotes

r/spaceflight 5d ago

What space debris fell on Kenya?

2 Upvotes

A strange metal ring believed to be from a rocket has fallen on Kenya. But what launch trajectory passes over East Africa? And it looks a bit small to be from a stage separation. https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cx2vzql8zndo


r/spaceflight 6d ago

NASA sees strong support for strategy to maintain continuous human presence in LEO

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18 Upvotes

r/spaceflight 6d ago

"How I Survived Mir" - Michael Foale talks to Time Magazine in 1997

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47 Upvotes

r/spaceflight 7d ago

In 2024, there were a total of 263 orbital launches. The US led with 158 launches, followed by China (68), and Russia (17)

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66 Upvotes

r/spaceflight 8d ago

What orbital rockets with little to no legacy hardware have succeeded on the first attempt?

12 Upvotes

Shuttle/STS, Buran, Vulcan... Are there any others?

This question came to mind when considering New Glenn's potential maiden flight on Monday.

NG is using BE 4's, which have powered Vulcan, but which haven't relit in orbit, and BE 3's, which haven't operated in true vacuum. I don't know if that counts or not.


r/spaceflight 8d ago

Did some low hypersonic, low density, small scale bow shock simulations to get a visible boundary layer thickness and usable explanatory images for how bow shock to stagnant zone to boundary layer heating works, this is why space shuttles only needed to survive 1500°C not 25000°C

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13 Upvotes

r/spaceflight 8d ago

If all goes well, 2025 will feature the maiden flight of 7 new Chinese rockets.

34 Upvotes

Tianlong-3- reusable, expected first flight in May

Zhuque-3- reusable, expected first flight in 3rd quarter 2025

Nebula-1- reusable, expected first flight in 1st quarter 2025

Pallas-1- reusable, expected first flight in 2nd quarter 2025

Kinetica-2- reusable, expected first flight 3rd quarter 2025

Hyperbola-3- reusable, expected first flight 4th quarter of 2025

Ceres-2- non-reusable, expected first flight first half of 2025

There's also the gravity 2, but that's quite unlikely to make it's launch in 2025 at this point. I would also say that the Hyperbola-3 and Zhuque-3 have a decent chance of slipping into 2026. This is a make or break year for most of this companies, a large portion of them will not survive and is a crucial year for most of them.


r/spaceflight 9d ago

The Dream: The First Probe to the Moon - Launched January 2, 1959

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11 Upvotes

r/spaceflight 9d ago

India launches space docking experiment with PSLV rocket, advancing major ambitions

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8 Upvotes

r/spaceflight 10d ago

Starlab crew level fly through

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9 Upvotes

Shown is the fly through is the crew quarters (8 of them which is surprising for such a small space station) 4 on opposite sides of the open plan level they each have a restraining bed, a small fold away table similar to ones you get on airplanes, a set of 4 drawers, a shelf, a mirror and a floor to ceiling TV. Also shown is a small common area that has a set of 4 hand holds to allow 4 astronauts to see a large TV in the centre, there also seems to be food storage here based on the symbols on the cabinets next to the TV. Opposite the common area is a set of large windows that can see the side of the station with the birthing port that the payload airlock connects on to.

Below is my personal opinion on what has been shown.

The crew quarters are not as nice as the Axiom crew quarters visually that have actual windows in them, the floor to ceiling TV makes no sense to me. The mirror, drawers and shelf with sliding door are very nice but that is to be expected from Hilton. The fold away table is the worst part as it reminds me of an economy fold away table that you get on airplanes which drops the quality of the room slightly. The door to the room is very nice I like that it slides down rather than folds away like the ones on the ISS as that reminds me of airplane toilet doors.

The common area is in my opinion massively inferior to what Vast Space designed for the Haven-1 space station. I think Vast made much better use of the space as it is a multi purpose room and they use the room as a fully 3D space. The Starlab common area just feels like you are supposed to gather around and watch TV together while eating.

Lastly the large windows are good but inferior to the offerings from Orbital Reef and Axiom but it was smart to put them on the side with the payload airlock as it will be interesting to watch payloads get moved out to external mounting points or small satellites launch from the space station.

When compared with Orbital Reef, Axiom Space Station and Haven-2 I just don’t see how Starlab gets a contract from NASA so I hope ESA plans to take this space station on.


r/spaceflight 11d ago

Could ISRO’s autonomous docking technology from SpaDeX revolutionize orbital logistics for future space stations?

4 Upvotes

With ISRO's SpaDeX mission showcasing advanced autonomous docking capabilities, what are the potential impacts on the logistics and operations of future space stations? Could this technology pave the way for more efficient and safer orbital construction and maintenance?


r/spaceflight 11d ago

Exploring Titan with NASA’s Dragonfly

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45 Upvotes

r/spaceflight 11d ago

China’s space agency faces leadership change amid shake-up

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13 Upvotes